It hasn’t been a great offseason for players when it comes to Achilles injuries. Buffalo’s Jack Quinn tore his and will miss a big chunk of next season. So, too, did Anaheim’s Isac Lundestrom. Now, another forward has suffered the same injury as Chicago’s AHL team in Rockford announced that Luke Philp underwent Achilles surgery over the weekend and will miss approximately the next six months.
The 27-year-old made his NHL debut last season, getting into three games with the Blackhawks down the stretch where he picked up his first career assist at the top level. Philp spent most of the season in the minors with the IceHogs and was quite productive, notching 29 goals and 24 assists in 60 games, good for fourth on the team in scoring.
That performance helped Philp land a one-year extension back in March, one that carries a $775K cap hit at the NHL level and a $375K salary in the minors. However, he won’t get much of an opportunity to play on that new deal since he’ll be out until likely sometime in February.
Philp will start the season on season-opening injured reserve and since he was up with Chicago for six days in 2022-23, the Blackhawks will carry a small cap charge on the books until he’s cleared to return. The calculation is his number of NHL days divided by the number of days in the upcoming season (192) multiplied by his NHL cap hit ($775K). In this case, the prorated cap charge will be just over $24K.
Does Pacioretty have an alibi here? Or were there a few “Max Pacioretty Fortified Offseason Nutritional Supplement Drinks” lying around?