More bad news for Evan Bouchard after being knocked out at World Championship.

Fans in Edmonton were left stunned on Thursday when they saw Edmonton Oilers star defenseman Evan Bouchard suffer a knockout blow during the International Ice Hockey Federation's World Championship of hockey while representing his home country of Canada.

Bouchard was on the receiving end of a thunderous body check from Seattle Kraken forward Ryan Lindgren, who was representing his home country of the United States of America at the tournament, a hit that was deemed to be illegal by the officials on the ice who awarded Lindgren a 5 minute major for the infraction.

The hit briefly separated Bouchard from consciousness and there was never any doubt that Bouchard would have to miss time as a result of the injury, but now it sounds like that time will be significant.

Edmonton Oilers general manager Stan Bowman has confirmed that Bouchard will miss the remainder of the tournament, a big blow to the Canadian squad.

"I think maybe some other teams are seeing how effective...he's playing a great hockey for Canada over there, so it's unfortunate that he's not gonna be playing the remainder there, but I think he's gonna be okay," said Bowman of the injury.

Bowman also expressed his displeasure with the hit, making it clear he felt it had been a dirty play.

"He's injured, but he's doing well... thankfully it's not worse than it was, but clearly it was a terrible hit. It's disappointing to see that happen," said Bowman.

There is a silver lining here and that is the fact that Bowman believes we are far enough removed from the start of another NHL season that this injury shouldn't impact Bouchard moving forward.

"Thankfully, it's May, and a long time till training camp, so I think you know everyone in Edmonton knows how great Boosh is," said Bowman.

You never want to lose an important player to injury but having it happen while that player isn't even representing your team is a very difficult pill to swallow. Hopefully Bouchard does indeed make a full recovery before the start of next season.