The Colorado Avalanche announced today that captain Gabriel Landeskog will undergo a cartilage transplant in his right knee, likely causing him to miss the entire 2023-24 season.
This is a devastating blow for the Avalanche, who hoped to have their leader back on the ice for the upcoming season. Landeskog missed the entirety of the 2022-23 campaign due to a previous knee injury dating back to the season prior when Landeskog and his Avalanche lifted the Stanley Cup.
Colorado felt Landeskog’s absence deeply this season. Combined with other rashes of injuries, Colorado was plagued with inconsistency but seemed to get hot at the right time going into the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Without Landeskog (and eventually Valeri Nichushkin) in the fold, though, the Avalanche’s depth couldn’t keep up, and they were eliminated by the Seattle Kraken in a seven-game First Round series.
The decision to undergo a cartilage transplant is a serious one, and it’s clear that Landeskog and the Avalanche are taking a cautious approach to his recovery. The procedure is a substitute for a joint replacement, involving a lab process where biopsied cartilage is allowed to grow and multiply before being inserted into the knee.
Despite the on-ice setback for Colorado, the team now knows Landeskog’s $7MM cap hit can remain on long-term injured reserve next season, giving them ample breathing room to make needed additions to their forward corps.
Off the ice, the focus now shifts to Landeskog’s long-term health in a personal sense, not just on the ice. Chronic knee pain is evidently becoming a serious issue in Landeskog’s life, and the team is inarguably making the right choice by supporting procedures such as this that prioritize Landeskog’s long-term comfort.
At this point in his career, Landeskog has skated in 738 regular-season and 69 playoff games, all with Colorado. He recorded 22 points in 20 games and a league-leading +15 rating en route to 2022’s Stanley Cup win and has amassed 248 goals and 571 points in his regular-season career.
Wow, did not see any of this coming. Damn!!!
absolutely brutal , poor dude. hoping for a speedy recovery.
Awesome
As awesome as a skate blade over one of your tendons or arteries.
Calm down both of you.
Sure thing Mom…
Hope healthy recovery but great leader way to soon to retire health is everything though…
Yeah, you got to figure — given that he’s missed around 30 games a season since 2019 — that retirement might be in the cards. He’s got the whole rest of his life to think of, and it’s not as if he’s got anything to prove.
Hope he can make a recovery, regardless of whether he plays hockey again. Best of luck, Gabe!
BRING OUT YOUR DEAD
BRING OUT YOUR DEAD
I wonder if Landeskog now regrets playing injured in last year’s playoff run, I also wonder why a player would even consider playing with an already serious injury, I wonder what trainer and or team doctor looked the other way on this one, I wonder if Landeskog would do the same thing again, Trading the rest of his career for the Stanley Cup.
There’s no question that he would. Any athlete would. I’m forever banged up from hockey, but I wouldn’t take any of it back and I didn’t win the Cup. That’s what you play for.
I wonder as I wander…..
Lucky for Gabe is that if he can’t ever play again, he’s got a Cup ring to walk (or limp) out the door with.
Lousy news for the Avs. Though this does open up a lot of LTIR cap room.
Patrick Kane signs with the Avs.
It’s not a bad notion. Thing is that even with LTIR Colorado isn’t going to have all that much cap space: that’d give them $19 MM with only fourteen guys under contract. Compher’s a UFA, so is Rodrigues and Malgin, and Byram and Newhook are RFAs. They’ve got some work to do, and they really couldn’t even afford to give Kane more than around $5 MM … and someone will offer him a lot more than that.
Kane’s Hip needs a cartilage transplant too
Ugh, like Marchand’s? Marchand came back insanely fast from that, and it was still a few months.