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Matthew Tkachuk Underwent Surgery, Aiming For January Return

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Panthers star Matthew Tkachuk’s health entering the season has been a topic of conversation after he returned early from an adductor injury sustained at the 4 Nations Face-Off to suit up in Florida’s run to a second straight Stanley Cup. David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period now relays that Tkachuk indeed opted for surgery to repair it, undergoing the procedure “a few weeks ago,” and could miss as much as the first four months of the campaign.

It’s still not clear what caused the right-winger’s injury during the 4 Nations tournament, but he missed the balance of the regular season and wasn’t cleared to return until Game 2 of the Cats’ first-round win over the Lightning. Opting for non-surgical rehab initially to accelerate his return timeline, he still managed to rattle off a point per game as he marched to his third straight Stanley Cup Final and second straight win, although his 17:24 average time on ice was a noticeable drop from his previous usage.

His projected return timeline makes him LTIR-eligible and offers the Panthers a pathway to cap compliance to begin the season, but it’s not that simple. They’re now $4.5MM over the cap and, on top of shuffling their roster to optimize his LTIR relief, they have to figure out a way to reinstate him on the active roster when he’s ready to return while staying below the $95.5MM upper limit. They likely won’t concern themselves with the first bit too much, as he’s not a season-long absence and their roster is full, but their roadmap to a compliant roster and a healthy Tkachuk is still murky.

Tkachuk, 27, has averaged 99 points per 82 games since arriving in Florida in 2022 via the blockbuster trade with the Flames that sent Jonathan Huberdeau and MacKenzie Weegar the other way. He also has 25 goals and 69 points in 67 playoff games for the Panthers over the last three years, ranking fourth and third in franchise history, respectively.

In the interim, the Panthers can expect 2021 first-rounder Mackie Samoskevich to play a pivotal role in their early-season success. The 22-year-old winger filled in for Tkachuk down the stretch last year and finished his rookie campaign with a 15-16–31 scoring line in 72 games. He’ll now get more opportunity out of the gate after essentially being forced to sign a league-minimum contract this summer thanks to Florida’s cap crunch and his 10.2(c) status prohibiting him from signing an offer sheet.

Players Who Could Start The Season On LTIR

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While only a handful of teams project to need cap relief via long-term injured reserve to open the season, multiple candidates across the league might technically qualify for a placement. Doing so would bar the player from returning until Oct. 31 at the earliest – 24 days from the season start date of Oct. 7.

Avalanche: Logan O’Connor

O’Connor underwent hip surgery in early June. Given the five-to-six-month projected recovery window, he won’t be available until early November at best, putting him past the 10-game/24-day threshold required for LTIR. Colorado, which has $2.10MM in current cap space, will likely place O’Connor on standard IR if they don’t make any other cap-affecting moves between now and October. If they need the relief, though, they could create up to O’Connor’s $2.5MM cap hit in cushion for the first few weeks of the season if they need it.

Blues: Torey Krug

St. Louis general manager Doug Armstrong announced in May that Krug’s career is done because of pre-arthritic conditions in his left ankle that surgical intervention only slowly corrected. Since the Blues only have around $625K in cap space, Krug and his $6.5MM cap hit will be going on LTIR as soon as they need the flexibility for a call-up.

Canadiens: Carey Price

What’s certain is that Price won’t play this season or ever again. He’s entering the final season of his contract at a $10.5MM cap hit after confirming nearly two years ago that his knee injury would prohibit him from suiting up again. What’s uncertain is whether or not he’ll begin the season on LTIR. Montreal isn’t in a great position to optimize its LTIR relief, either by matching his cap hit in excess or getting down to $0 in space before placing him on the list. That’s made his contract a trade chip for teams who might need the relief more.

Devils: Johnathan Kovacevic

Kovacevic underwent knee surgery in early May and won’t be ready for training camp and likely opening night as well. Whether that stretches past Oct. 31 and makes him eligible for an LTIR placement if New Jersey needs cap relief early on remains to be seen.

Flyers: Ryan Ellis, Rasmus Ristolainen

Ellis’ career is over after sustaining a wide-ranging muscular injury in his pelvis just four games into his Flyers tenure in 2021. Ristolainen underwent a procedure on his right triceps tendon on March 26 with a six-month recovery time, putting him right on the edge of potential LTIR eligibility. Philly will have a better idea of the latter’s LTIR deployment potential after he undergoes his training camp physical. With $370K in cap space, they’re in a good position for near-max LTIR capture and will almost certainly at least place Ellis there to begin the year to give them call-up flexibility.

Golden Knights: Alex Pietrangelo

Pietrangelo is already on offseason LTIR, meaning the Knights actually still have to add an additional $1.2MM to their roster before opening night to optimize his capture and unlock his full $8.8MM cap hit’s worth of relief for this season. The team confirmed he requires multiple undisclosed but significant surgeries that will likely mark the end of his playing career, but it’s unclear if he’s actually had them done yet.

Jets: Adam Lowry

Lowry underwent hip surgery in late May and won’t be available until after Thanksgiving at the earliest. Winnipeg likely won’t be formalizing an LTIR placement with nearly $4MM in cap space, though.

Mammoth: Juuso Välimäki

Välimäki underwent ACL surgery in early March. He likely won’t end up on LTIR given Utah’s current cap flexibility ($6.68MM), but he’ll be out until at least early November so he’ll be there as an early-season option in case they need relief for whatever reason.

Oilers: Zach Hyman

Hyman’s inclusion here is on the speculative side. The winger could very well be ready for the start of the season. However, there hasn’t been much clarity on how much recovery he still needs after undergoing surgery to repair a severe wrist injury that kept him out of the Stanley Cup Final. A report in early June indicated there was uncertainty about his status for training camp, with no meaningful updates since then.

Panthers: Matthew Tkachuk

Tkachuk told ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski earlier this month that he’s still deciding whether he wants to undergo surgery to address the adductor issue that hampered him down the stretch and in the playoffs after sustaining it at the 4 Nations Face-Off. All signs point to him opting for it and spending the next two to three months on the shelf as a result, though. Placing him on LTIR is the only way the Panthers, who currently have a cap exceedance of $3.725MM, can be compliant to start the season without shedding a significant contract, something they aren’t keen to do.

Wild: Jonas Brodin

Minnesota has $9.41MM in cap space, but that number will shrink once they re-sign restricted free agent Marco Rossi (or add salary while trading his signing rights). Neither scenario will likely push them into a situation where they need to use LTIR relief, but they might have Brodin and his $6MM cap hit as an option for some short-term flexibility if required. He underwent an upper-body procedure in early June and is questionable for the beginning of the season, so it’s not yet clear if he’ll miss enough time to qualify.

Mammoth’s Caleb Desnoyers Has Wrist Surgery, Out Three Months

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Mammoth center Caleb Desnoyers, whom they selected fourth overall in this year’s draft, has undergone successful wrist surgery, the team announced Thursday. He’ll be sidelined for approximately 12 weeks while recovering, keeping him out of training camp and delaying his season debut until early November.

Whether that debut comes in the NHL with Utah or back with the QMJHL’s Moncton Wildcats remains to be seen, but it’ll likely be the latter. Desnoyers wasn’t viewed as a likely selection to make the jump to the NHL in his post-draft season anyway, and a lack of training camp time to show he can hang with the big guns definitely won’t help his case.

Desnoyers has been dealing with wrist issues for nearly a year. He declined to participate in pre-draft combine testing after playing through injuries to both of his wrists since November, he told Scott Wheeler of The Athletic back in June.

While his initial MRI indicated he would be able to rehab his wrist issues without surgery – an assessment Mammoth general manager Bill Armstrong concurred with, per Belle Fraser of the Salt Lake Tribune – something’s changed in the last several weeks. If his subsequent recovery goes to plan, though, it won’t take too big a bite out of a pivotal point in his development.

More of a cerebral-type center with decent size and some room still to grow into his 6’2″ frame, Desnoyers was among the most decorated players in the QMJHL last season. After recording 84 points and a +51 rating in 56 games for the Wildcats, he was named the league’s Best Professional Prospect, their Personality of the Year, and was included on the league-wide First All-Star Team at season’s end. The St-Hyacinthe, Quebec, native also added 30 points in 19 postseason games en route to a league championship, leading the playoffs with 21 assists and earning MVP honors.

Desnoyers is the highest-drafted player out of the QMJHL since the Rangers took Alexis Lafrenière first overall in 2020. While he may need an additional year of runway, the Mammoth are likely anticipating him joining them full-time for the 2026-27 season to complement an expertly constructed young center corps already headlined by Logan Cooley.

Arbitrator Rules In Favor Of Flyers In Ryan Johansen’s Grievance

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An arbitrator has ruled in favor of the Philadelphia Flyers in a grievance filed by veteran centerman Ryan Johansen, over the team’s termination of his contract prior to the 2024-25 season, shares TSN’s Darren Dreger.

The Flyers acquired Johansen alongside a conditional 2025 first-round pick at the 2024 Trade Deadline, in exchange for sending defenseman Sean Walker to the Colorado Avalanche. Philadelphia placed Johansen on waivers immediately after the trade, with the intentions of assigning him to the AHL and potentially flipping him before the deadline. When no trade manifested, Johansen refused to report to the minor leagues, instead claiming that he was limited by a nagging hip injury. The NHL sided with Johansen, and reversed his AHL assignment after a failed physical exam.

Johansen spent the remainder of the 2023-24 season on injured reserve. There was a clear wedge between him and the Flyers’ top brass – one that only rooted deeper as the 2024 summer went on. By August, Philadelphia decided to place Johansen on unconditional waivers for the purposes of contract termination – citing the player’s delay in notifying them of the injury, and failure to pass physicals or report to his assignment.

Johansen passed through waivers and became an unrestricted-free agent. He filed a grievance with the NHLPA soon after, claiming the Flyers had wrongly terminated his contract. Now, a full year later, it seems the NHL will side with Philadelphia in their handling of the situation.

The implications of this decision aren’t immediately clear. Johansen had one year remaining on an eight-year, $64MM contract originally signed with the Nashville Predators in 2017 – though Philadelphia was only due $4MM in cap hit, after Nashville retained half of the contract when they traded Johansen to Colorado. The range of outcomes seems far-reaching – from Philadelphia being due that full $4MM price tag, to a settlement with the player, to no cap implications on the team’s side at all. Details on the exact impact against the Flyers will likely be revealed in the coming days.

The NHL’s last contract termination to reach headlines over a material breach came in 2015, when the Los Angeles Kings terminated forward Mike Richards’ contract with five years remaining. He was still due $22MM on the deal. Richards also filed a grievance with the NHLPA, and would end up settling with the team for an undisclosed amount before becoming a free agent. He signed for one season with the Washington Capitals following the dispute, but would retire from hockey in 2016.

It seems less likely that Johansen will return to the NHL. His play gradually dwindled throughout the 2020s – falling from 63 points in the 2021-22 season to just 23 points in 2023-24. He slowed down in all aspects, likely due to what was proven to be a very real and long-running hip injury. That slow-down pushed Johansen to Colorado’s fourth-line in his final few games with the team. With a decision in place on his grievance with the Flyers, he would realistically have time to sign a short contract, or try-out agreement, before the 2025-26 season. But those chances hinge on the 33-year-old’s recovery, and willingness to return, after a full season away from the league. If he does call his career to a close, the former fourth-overall selection will finish with 578 points in 905 games in the NHL.

Latest On Matthew Tkachuk

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Florida Panthers star Matthew Tkachuk is continuing to work his way back from an adductor injury sustained during the 4-Nations Face-Off tournament in February. The injury ended Tkachuk’s regular season early, though he played through it for all 23 games of Florida’s run to the Stanley Cup. Now, Tkachuk is paying the price of a long-term injury, and faces the often uncomfortable question of whether to undergo surgery to address the ailment. Tkachuk told ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski that surgery would require him to miss the first two-or-three months of the regular season.

That’s a long time for Florida to be without one of their top scorers. Tkachuk finished the year ranked third on the team in points (57) even despite missing the last 30 games of the regular season. Luckily, the St. Louis-native has shown a consistent knack for being able to play through, and above, painful injuries. He tied for Florida’s scoring lead during the postseason, with eight goals and 23 points in as many games. It was an incredibly impressive performance, given Tkachuk entered the postseason having not played a game for three months.

That ability to bounce back to form could make a delayed start to the season a bit easier to stomach. Wyshynski emphasized previous reports that one of Tkachuk’s main goals for next season is to play for Team USA at the 2026 Winter Olympics. A few-month absence would put him back on the ice just weeks ahead of the NHL’s midseason break, and could provide a chance for 10-to-15 games worth of conditioning. That may be a short window for the average player, but Tkachuk’s ability to quickly jump back onto the scoresheet should only be emphasized on the international stage.

He scored three points in three games at the 4-Nations tournament, his first time representing America at a Men’s National tournament. Prior to that, Tkachuk managed 11 points in seven World Junior Championship games in 2016, 12 points in seven games at the World U18 Championship in 2015, and seven points in six games at the World U-17 Hockey Championship in 2014.

Around his spot appearances with Team USA, Tkachuk has managed a star-studded NHL career. He earned his first 100-point campaign in the 2021-22 season – netting 104 points in 82 games with the Calgary Flames – and then one-upped it with 109 points in 79 games with the Florida Panthers in the next season. Tkachuk was also rarely injured, averaging 74 games and 72 points per season before the 2024-25 campaign. Last year’s shortened season brought his career averages down to 71 points in 71 games each season.

That scoring precedent will make Tkachuk a must-include for the Olympic roster, should he be healthy in time for the tournament. He shared that he was “50/50” on undergoing surgery when the season came to a close, and has spent the off-season taking the time to ensure he’s making the right decision. If he does go under the knife, Florida could be due for a big boost of cap space through the first-half of the season.

Islanders’ Semyon Varlamov To Resume Skating

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After indicating in mid-April that he’s hoping to be ready for training camp, it appears Semyon Varlamov’s rehab from a knee procedure last December is tracking in the right direction. On the podcast The Sheet, hosted by Daily Faceoff journalist Jeff Marek, New York Islanders General Manager Mathieu Darche mentioned that Varlamov’s recovery is progressing well, and he is expected to resume skating soon.

Despite being the 17th season of his professional career, there’s no questioning that the 2024-25 season was Varlamov’s worst. Not due to his performance, but his knee injury limited him to only 10 games on the season. After the Islanders signed Varlamov to a four-year, $11MM contract in 2023, the idea was that they would have a consistent above-average backup netminder behind Ilya Sorokin for the foreseeable future.

In his defense, that’s largely what he’s been doing with the Islanders. Since ceding the starting job to Sorokin during the 2021-22 season, Varlamov managed a 35-34-8 record in 78 starts with a .914 SV%, 2.74 GAA, and 21.8 Goals Saved Above Average from the 2021-22 season to the 2023-24 campaign. Given that New York has struggled to score throughout this time, their strong play in the crease has been a primary reason the Islanders have qualified for the postseason in two out of the past four years.

Throughout his limited action last season, Varlamov finished with a 3-4-3 record in 10 games with a .889 SV% and 2.89 GAA. It was the lowest save percentage he’s achieved since the 2016-17 season with the Colorado Avalanche, though it was far too small a sample size to make any strong projections about his value moving forward.

Still, their offseason moves indicate that New York’s new front office isn’t wholly confident in Varlamov’s abilities, at least for the upcoming season. The Islanders signed David Rittich, the former backup goaltender for the Los Angeles Kings, to a one-year, $1MM contract on the opening day of free agency this summer.

Although he had a forgettable season last year with the Kings, his two-year stint in California was largely positive, finishing with a 29-20-5 record in 58 games with a .902 SV% and 2.55 GAA. Despite the down season in 2024-25, Rittich has only had one brief stint in the AHL since the 2017-18 season, so it stands to reason he wouldn’t put himself in a position for a demotion entering his age-33 season.

In summary, the Islanders are in a strong position regarding their goaltending, primarily due to having one of the best netminders in the game. There are other teams with much bigger issues in the crease than deciding between Varlamov and Rittich as their backup.

Bruins’ Charlie McAvoy Good To Go For 2025-26

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Boston Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy hasn’t played in game action since sustaining a shoulder injury during February’s 4-Nations Face-Off. He specifically injured the AC joint in his right shoulder. The injury then became infected, forcing McAvoy to undergo an irrigation and debridement procedure to remove debris from his shoulder. It would prove a season-ending ailment for McAvoy, but despite procedures and an extended stay away from the ice, the Bruins’ top defenseman has shared he’ll be ready for puck drop next season. He told Steve Conroy of the Boston Herald:

[My summer training plan] was [focused on] ‘how are we going to get better? How are we going to get healthy? How are we going to get to where I know I can be going into this year?’ And then since then, it’s just been all excitement, hitting a lot of marks and accomplishing a lot off the ice and now I’m starting to ramp up more on the ice, so I feel great. And mentally, I’m super-excited about this year.

McAvoy ended the season with seven goals and 23 points in 50 NHL games, and no scoring in two 4-Nations games. The Bruins would go on to miss the postseason for the first time since the 2016 season, before McAvoy had joined the team. He expressed frustration with missing the postseason for the first time in his career, but found the silver-lining of some extra time to condition his injury.

Health specifics aside, it’s hard to imagine McAvoy wouldn’t have tried to push his way into the lineup had the Bruins made the playoffs. He has been the team’s confident #1-defenseman since his second year in the NHL in 2018-19. By then, Bruins legend Zdeno Chara had crossed the hill of age-40, and was working his way out of a nightly top-pair role. McAvoy was there to make up for the lost minutes. He’s averaged north of 22 minutes each night in every single season of his eight-year NHL career, and took over the title of most minutes on the team in 2018-19.

With a clear-cut role on the top pair, McAvoy has found his way to lofty totals on the scoresheet’s scoreboard and penalty box. He scored a career-high 10 goals and 56 points in 78 games of the 2021-22 season, while averaging 24:38 in nightly ice time. It was a true career performance that McAvoy kept up with 52 points in 67 games of 2022-23, then one-upped with 12 goals, 47 points, and 24:51 in average ice time in the 2023-24 season.

His scoring pace dwindled this season – though McAvoy’s final score of the season marked his 300th NHL point. It took him 504 games to get their, making McAvoy the third-fastest Bruins defender to reach the mark, behind record-holder Bobby Orr and Boston legend Ray Bourque.

It will be the momentum of joining two iconic Boston defensemen that pushes McAvoy forward heading into next season. He emphasized his good health, and shared with Conroy that he and winger David Pastrnak will serve as the club’s assistant captains in the new season. 2025-26 will mark the fourth-year in the eight-year contract extension McAvoy signed in 2021. He’s so far recorded 122 points in 191 games on the contract – or an 82-game average of 52 points each season. Improving on that mark will be top priority as McAvoy enters his prime years, and age-27 season.

Bruins Prospect Cole Spicer Won’t Play At Arizona State University

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Boston Bruins forward prospect Cole Spicer won’t move forward with his commitment to Arizona State University, per Brad Elliot Schlossman of the Grand Forks Herald. Spicer previously played two years at the University of Minnesota-Duluth, but returned to the USHL’s Dubuque Fighting Saints for the 2024-25 season. He was set to join Arizona State as a junior-year transfer this fall. Instead, it will be a fall of uncertainty for the 2022 fourth-round pick.

Of note, Spicer’s split from ASU could be a result of being sidelined. He was said to be dealing with significant injury issues, per sources available to Ty Anderson of Boston’s 98.5 The Sports Hub. Spicer dealt with concussions through his time in junior and collegiate hockey, and has been severely limited through multiple parts of the last two seasons. He missed 20 games with Minnesota-Duluth in 2023-24 due to a concussion and being declared academically-ineligible for the second semester. His injury woes continued through this season, as he missed 25 games with Dubuque for various reasons. He even sustained an injury in his very first game with the Fighting Saints.

The plot around Spicer’s relationship with hockey has grown thick. He cited recovery from concussions as a major limiter of his academic performance in a 2024 interview with Joe Haggerty of the Boston Sports Journal. Spicer also cited the mental health challenges that came with routine absences, low-scoring, and battles through concussion recovery. Struggles with concentration and mental health are two common, but often underdiscussed, symptoms of concussions that can drag on beyond official clearance to return.

Spicer was once a top prospect in America’s 2004 age group. He was recruited to the U.S. National Team Development Program’s 2004 cohort in 2020, after a 15u AAA season that saw him post 51 goals, 118 assists, and 169 points in 63 games with Honeybaked. Spicer struggled to earn a starring role at the NTDP behind Logan Cooley, Frank Nazar, and Rutger McGroarty. He was relegated to a bottom-six role in both seasons, and scored just 21 points in 46 USHL games with the Program. Still, his high-motor and gritty forechecking was enough to convince Boston to draft Spicer with the 117th-overall pick in 2022.

Spicer followed his draft selection with a move to the Bulldogs lineup. He again found himself trapped behind a stacked top-six, and scored just six points in 32 games from a fourth-line role in his freshman year. He added nine points in 17 games as a sophomore, before stepping away from the team. It was a quartet of underwhelming seasons for the feisty centerman – but one that he made up for with a return to the USHL this season. He scored 35 points in 37 games on the full year, good for Dubuque’s team-lead in points-per-game.

As things stand, there appears to be no clear path forward for Spicer. At age 21, he’ll no longer have eligibility to return to the USHL or CHL. He could transfer to a third – or, fourth, after an initial commitment to North Dakota – collegiate program, though another NCAA move would be a surprise on the heels of this news. With that, it seems minor-league, or European, pros will be his best options, should he decide to continue his career next season. The Grand Forks-native will be one to watch for Bruins fans trying to get a full picture of the team’s pipeline.

Red Wings Activate Carter Mazur From Injured Reserve

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In the rare summertime injury transaction, the Detroit Red Wings have activated center Carter Mazur off of injured reserve, per PuckPedia. Mazur sustained an upper-body injury in his NHL debut on March 6th. The injury forced a four-month stay on IR, but Mazur told NHL.com’s Jonathan Mills that he’s back to full health, and has even added 15 pounds, this summer.

Mazur grew up just over an hour outside of Detroit, and played locally for Little Caesers AAA and the U.S. National Team Development Program in youth and junior hockey. He left Michigan for two seasons in both the USHL (Tri-City) and NCAA (Denver), but returned to Grand Rapids to begin his AHL career in 2023. He quickly became a feature of the Griffins’ offense, with a combined 58 points in 86 career AHL games.

Mazur had plenty of steam headed into 2024-25-  but was knocked out of the lineup by injury just three games into the AHL season. He returned in late-January and quickly got back to routine scoring, even ramping up to a point-per-game pace through 11 games between February and March. That hot hand was enough to earn Mazur his NHL debut on a Spring road trip to Utah. But bad luck struck once again, when Mazur suffer an awkward, upper-body injury just a few minutes into the game. The injury would prove season-ending, limiting Mazur to 15 points in 20 AHL games and just a couple of shifts with the Red Wings.

The 23-year-old prospect told Mills that strengthening up has become a core focus of his development plan in the months since, including a detailed nutrition and conditioning plan. Mazur said:

I was called up for a reason. My game is still there… Gaining strength was always a big part of probably why I’ve gotten hurt a lot. I’m on the smaller side, but [Griffins Strength and Conditioning Coordinator] Marcus [Kinney] and [Griffins Physical Therapist] Zack Harvey put me in a good spot heading into the summer.

Some added bulk, and emphasized persistence, could take Mazur to new heights in the 2025-26 season. He’s found his way into a top-six role and strong scoring numbers at every level he’s played at – often on the back of gritty and fearless forechecking. He’ll be a candidate to shape the Griffins’ top-line to start the season, but could win out a depth roster spot, or top call-up consideration, with a strong training camp.

Nicklas Backstrom Signs With SHL’s Brynäs IF

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Jul. 28th: According to a team announcement, Brynäs IF has confirmed Backstrom’s signing.

Jul. 27th: Brynäs IF of Sweden’s SHL will hold a press conference on Monday where they’re expected to announce the signing of former NHL center Nicklas Backstrom, per Sammi Silber of The Hockey News. The news was first reported back in May by Tomas Ros and Hans Abrahamsson of Aftonbladet They mentioned that Backstrom’s deal is expected to run only one-year.

Backstrom played in eight NHL games during the 2023-24 season, and missed the entirety of 2024-25, as he works his way back from hip resurfacing surgery conducted in 2022. The surgery was the culmination of eight years of hip pain and discomfort for Backstrom. He first underwent an arthroscopic surgery in 2015 to identify and remedy causes of hip pain. That helped Backstrom stay on the ice long enough to win a Stanley Cup with the Washington Capitals in 2018, but his hip injury took a downturn with flare ups in the 2020-21 season. He’d go on to miss the first two months of the 2021-22 season while looking for non-surgical remedies, but ended up moving forward with a Belgium-based surgery in the following summer.

Backstrom has missed a lofty 234 games over the last four seasons, dating back to 2021-22. That’s 71 percent of the possible 328 games he could have appeared in. He’s made hardy attempts at returning throughout those long-term absences, but ran into continued hip pain and was forced out soon after each return. Those routine exits have been tough to bear given Backstrom still performed at a top level when he maintained good health. He scored 31 points in 47 games of the 2021-22 season, and 21 points in 39 games of the 2022-23 season.

Outside of his near-decade long battle with hip injury, Backstrom’s prowess is hard to ignore. He was the perennial top-line center for the Capitals from 2007 to 2019 – routinely rivaling 20 goals and 70, or 80, points. His career year came early into his career – when he scored 33 goals and 101 points in 82 games of Washington’s 2009-10 campaign, then went on to net six points in four games with Team Sweden at the 2010 Winter Olympics. But Backstrom was effective for a decade beyond that peak, and will go down in history as the playmaking centerman setting up the NHL’s all-time leading goal-scorer, Alex Ovechkin.

Now, Backstrom will leave behind his NHL legacy to try and return to the ice with his hometown club. He grew up through the Brynäs youth hockey program, and made his professional debut with the club in the 2004-05 season. In total, Backstrom has racked up 66 points in 110 games with the Brynäs clover on his chest. He’ll hope to return to those levels of productivity – or, perhaps first, routine games – with the club next season, after racking up 1,033 points in 1,105 career NHL games since his last league game in Sweden.

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