It has been a tough season for Canucks center Teddy Blueger. He missed the start of the season with a lower-body injury, came back, and had the injury flare up again in his second game. Now, things don’t appear to be going well in his recovery. Speaking with reporters today (video link), head coach Adam Foote indicated that Blueger has suffered a setback and will be shut down for at least a few days. The hope is that he will be able to resume skating after that. In his first two seasons with Vancouver, the 31-year-old has put up 28 and 26 points while notching a career-high 104 hits in 2024-25 as well. With their center depth being thinned out at the moment, they were hoping that Blueger would be able to come in and play soon but that won’t be the case.
Other news from Vancouver:
- On the good news front, Conor Garland’s absence will wind up being just one game. After missing Sunday’s game with an undisclosed injury, Foote noted that the 29-year-old will return on Thursday against Dallas. Garland is off to a good start to his season with five goals and eight assists in 17 games, a point-per-game rate that, if maintained, would be the best of his career. He’s also averaging nearly 20 minutes per night which is also a personal best, coming in ahead of the career-high 18:39 set last season.
- Foote also shared an update on winger Nils Hoglander. Out since the preseason due to lower-body surgery, he was initially expected to miss eight to ten weeks. It appears he’s still on that trajectory but the recovery time now appears to be on the back end of that scale. After a career year in 2023-24 that saw him record 24 goals and 36 points, his production dropped last season to just eight goals and 25 points and with the time he’s missed this season, he might be hard-pressed to match that total in 2025-26.
- Lastly, regarding defenseman Derek Forbort, Foote said that “I think, the last couple years. When you get into the midsection stuff, whatever it is, I think they want to start from scratch and fix it.” The veteran has only played in two games this season due to the injury and Foote’s comments suggest that a return isn’t imminent.