As the season gets closer and closer, injuries and rehab from offseason surgery pepper the headlines. Here are a few updates on injured players around the league:
Patrik Laine underwent knee surgery back in June, but according to head coach Paul Maurice (via Mike G. Morreale of NHL.com) he’s been back at full strength for a while now, and has shown no ill-effects. Laine will take part in the upcoming World Cup of Hockey, and then compete for a spot at Jets camp. Maurice says that Laine is “certainly going to be given the opportunity to excel right out of the gate,” and goes on to speak about his experience with young players and high draft picks:
The hockey is going to come, the hockey is there, but all of these other things are also important. I’ve coached a lot of good young players, I’ve coached a player who won the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year (Jeff Skinner, Carolina, 2010-11) and I’ve seen the ups and downs of those seasons they’ve had. If he has a great two weeks, I’m not going to get too excited about it; if he doesn’t look right in the first two weeks, I’m not going to worry about it a bit.
A player that won’t be able to play in the World Cup is Ryan Callahan, who pulled out in June because of hip surgery. According to Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times Callahan is expected to be out until mid-November, but he’s trying to get back even sooner:
It’s such a long estimated timetable that there’s obviously variation in there. Some guys come back a little bit earlier than that, some guys it’s five months. If it’s before then, then great.
Callahan hasn’t even started skating yet, though he is on schedule to start on the ice next week. Smith reports that the injury had been bothering Callahan since January, and links it to the 18-goal drought the forward suffered during that time. Since Callhan thought he could rehab it instead of surgery originally, he’ll now miss about a month of the season.
Lastly, Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Dispatch mentions on twitter that Blue Jackets prospect T.J. Tynan has a possible fractured bone in his arm after being hit with the puck in practice a week ago. He’s still unsure whether the former third-round pick will miss any regular season time, even if it is in fact broken.
Tynan was an excellent playmaker last season, scoring just six goals but assisting on 40 for the Calder Cup winning Lake Erie Monsters. That made back to back 45+ point seasons in the AHL for diminutive forward; Tynan stands at just 5’9″, 165 lbs.