The hits just keep coming for the Anaheim Ducks. Today, the team announced that Ryan Getzlaf has undergone surgery on his zygomatic (cheek) bone and will be out up to two months. Getzlaf was hit in the face with the puck on October 29th against Carolina, and had the surgery yesterday to repair a fracture. This is just the latest in what has been an incredibly injury-filled season so far for the Ducks, who are still without Ryan Kesler and Cam Fowler long-term.
Getzlaf’s absence has been tough on the Ducks, who had questions about their center position even before losing their top two options. The team has had to rely on players like Derek Grant and Antoine Vermette to pick up the slack, but could eventually need to look outside the organization for some help.
GM Bob Murray did tell Eric Stephens of the Orange County Register that Kesler and Fowler were progressing, but even when he gets back into a game it will likely take some time before he’s at full strength. Kesler hasn’t played this year following hip surgery, and back in September the hope was to have him back by Christmas. If the Ducks do go outside the organization, they don’t have a ton of cap space to play with.
Interestingly, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports that the Ducks tried to acquire Vadim Shipachyov from the Vegas Golden Knights, but couldn’t get around the issue of the bonus repayment. Had he been moved, the Golden Knights wouldn’t be entitled to the nearly $2MM that Shipachyov will give back as he files his retirement papers.