It was a month ago that we learned that Stars center Tyler Seguin was set to undergo surgery to repair a torn labrum but GM Jim Nill told reporters, including NHL.com’s Tracey Myers, that the procedure hasn’t happened just yet. Instead, due to complications from the pandemic, the new plan is that Seguin will be able to go under the knife sometime next week.
The timeline for recovery remains the same at four months. All of a sudden, instead of potentially being ready to start the season (or at least soon after), he could be out at late as early March and miss considerable time. Even with the start date for the 2020-21 campaign still up in the air, all indications point to the league trying to get underway at some point in January.
That would certainly be a big loss for Dallas as even though Seguin is coming off a quiet season offensively by his standards (17 goals and 33 assists in 50 games), he still led the team in scoring by a considerable margin while logging more than 19 minutes a night for the third straight year. While that’s not a great return on a $9.85MM price tag, replacing a number one center is tough for any team to have to try to do for any extended period of time.
It would be difficult for Nill to make a move to try to replace him as well. While they have more than $4MM in cap room still, a good chunk of that will be going to RFA winger Roope Hintz. Meanwhile, while Seguin would potentially be eligible for LTIR which would give them some space to work with to replace him, they’d have to get back into cap compliance before he could be activated. Given how difficult it has been to move money in the offseason where there is technically more flexibility, having to free up cap space in-season will be a challenge. Accordingly, the Stars will likely have to fill Seguin’s spot from within and hope to manage without him in the early going next season.
I think you meant 69 games.
@Brian – @The Mistake of Giving Eugene Melnyk a Liver Transplant is correct. That should read 50 points (17G+33A) in 69 games. Other than that, I could just see Tyler going into the hospital, and getting told by the nurse to “take a number, please.” “But I have an appointment for surgery, says T-Seguin.” “I know, but everyone must take a number and wait their turn.” He takes his number from the machine, and notices it is 9191. “Wow, how lucky is that?!” Then the horror hits: the display reads “Now serving #14 – The Captain always gets to cut in line!” We’ll see Tyler in a couple of years…