St. Louis Blues winger Nathan Walker is expected to miss at least eight weeks because of an undisclosed upper-body injury, putting the struggling team short another forward for an extended period of time.

Rookie Jimmy Snuggerud is out six weeks to recover from surgery on his left wrist, which coach Jim Montgomery said Monday was scheduled to take place Tuesday. Alexey Toropchenko is considered week to week after sustaining burns to his legs in a home accident.

St. Louis on Tuesday also made a trade of 25-year-old minor-league forwards, sending Nikita Alexandrov to Los Angeles for Akil Thomas. The Blues said Thomas would report to Springfield of the American Hockey League.

Walker, 31, was the first player from Australia to make the NHL when he debuted with Washington in 2017. He won the Stanley Cup with the Capitals later that season.

In 25 games this season, Walker has three goals and six assists.

Longtime NHL player-turned-coach Kevin Dineen said he has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

Dineen, who is 62, posted a message on social media over the weekend revealing the diagnosis.

“This Thanksgiving feels a bit different,” Dineen wrote on social media. “It has put a lot into perspective, most of all how lucky I am to be surrounded by so many supportive family and friends.”

A feisty winger during his playing days, Dineen skated in more than 1,200 regular-season and playoff games with the Hartford Whalers/Carolina Hurricanes, Philadelphia Flyers, Ottawa Senators and Columbus Blue Jackets during an eras-spanning career from 1984 to 2002.

After a short stint scouting and working in management, he spent the next two decades behind hockey benches, including two-plus seasons as head coach of the Florida Panthers from 2011 to ’13. He coached Canada’s women’s team to an Olympic gold medal in Sochi in 2014 after being a late replacement pick for the job.

Dineen has his name on the Stanley Cup as an assistant with the Chicago Blackhawks in 2015. He had most recently coached the San Diego Gulls and the Utica Comets of the American Hockey League.

“I wanted to share my news because hockey has taught me that no fight is faced alone,” Dineen wrote. “For anyone out there battling something heavy — whether it’s cancer or another fight entirely — I want you to know you are not alone.”

Deputy commissioner Bill Daly said the NHL is warning teams against taking warmups without helmets, a growing trend this season that violates NHL rules.

Daly told ESPN that the league is sending out a memo to remind teams that helmets are mandatory in warmups for “all players who entered the NHL beginning with the 2019-2020 season or later,” per Rule 9.6.

The Ottawa Senators skated out for warmups without helmets in a game at the Vegas Golden Knights last Wednesday, having lost in their past six trips to T-Mobile Arena. Forward Shane Pinto told TSN that the players decided at a team dinner to change their Vegas luck by doffing their helmets. “It was pretty cool to do,” he said.

The Senators won the game 4-3 in a shootout.

The San Jose Sharks also went without helmets in warmups in Vegas, having lost five straight road games to the Knights. Alas, their luck didn’t change, losing 4-3 to their division rival. Forward Will Smith said there was no particular motivation for it.

“It was a team decision. It was Saturday night in Vegas, so I think all the guys were pretty easy to [do] it,” he said.

On Tuesday night, the New Jersey Devils skated out wearing hats instead of helmets, in honor of defenseman Brenden Dillon‘s 1,000th NHL game.

Rule 9.6 reads:

“It is mandatory for all players who entered the NHL beginning with the 2019-2020 season or later to wear their helmet during pre-game warm-up. To be clear, all players who entered the League prior to the 2019-2020 season and who are currently playing are exempt from this mandate.”

The NHL amended its rules in 2022 to mandate helmet usage in warmups out of player safety concerns, in particular with rookies who took the ice without helmets before their debut games as part of a longstanding NHL tradition. Much like the league’s visor rule, some veteran players were “grandfathered” in and exempt.