Wings' Helm has head injury, prospect Verrier broken leg

Traverse City — Red Wings training camp began with a scary incident Friday morning.

A violent collision between Darren Helm and prospect Jerome Verrier during a drill forced Verrier to be taken off the ice on a stretcher.

The move was precautionary, as was the fact both were taken to a nearby hospital for observation.

Helm, as it turns out, will go through concussion protocol and is listed as day-to-day, but "probably a little longer than that" coach Jeff Blashill said.

Verrier has a broken leg, Blashill said.

"You never want to see that, especially in practice," Blashill said. "Unfortunately we weren't able to give the heads up to the guys soon enough. Obviously the drill got messed up a little bit.

"It was unfortunate."

Helm was lying on the ice, but gradually got on all his hands and knees, then stood and eventually skated off the ice under his own power.

The incident occurred almost 15 minutes into the start of the first practice of training camp.

"I didn't see it, I just turned by the sound of it, it sounded pretty bad," Tomas Tatar said. "Next thing you know, there are two guys on the ice.

"Those collisions are the worst because you're not looking and you hit each other. That's why it sounded really bad."

Said Brad Richards: "It's not something you want to see. It was pretty loud, and not a good scene on the ice. Hopefully they get better quick."

Verrier, 21, is an undrafted free agent in this training camp. He completed his junior career with Quebec in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.

"I turned around and saw them go down, it was a little scary," Johan Franzen said. "The kid (Verrier), he was in so much pain. It made me feel a little sick."

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