Nobody quite knows when Gabriel Landeskog will be back from his knee injury, not even Avalanche coaches and executives.
But coach Jared Bednar made an important distinction this week about the nature of the captain’s recovery: The arthroscopic knee surgery Landeskog underwent in October 2022 was unrelated to the knee issue that led to surgery in March 2022.
The first one was more of a clean-up procedure, not caused by a specific injury that was going to imminently prevent Landeskog from playing. “It was bothering him, so he got it fixed,” Bednar said. “Good timing to get it fixed. He didn’t want it bothering him through playoffs.”
It took about one month for Landeskog to return to the ice after that surgery. He was able to play in Colorado’s playoff run to the Stanley Cup, although skating on the knee so immediately after surgery probably didn’t help its health, Bednar added, even if the two procedures weren’t technically related. The hope remains that he can still get on the ice this season, but as Landeskog’s timeline continues to stretch out, there is increasing concern about long-term ramifications.
“You never know. I don’t know,” Bednar said. “For me, you go through it, you do everything you can do, and am I a little bit concerned? Yeah. He hasn’t played all year. Do I think he can easily come out of this and be fine? Yeah. He’s putting in the work. So only time will tell. You just don’t know.”
Landeskog returned to Denver in February and started skating individually Feb. 20. He has routinely gotten on the ice since then, but he’s working on the fundamentals of movement, not progressing quickly. He was originally projected to return in January when the surgery took place last October, but the team reassessed during the ensuing 12 weeks and issued a different timeline.
Avalanche general manager Chris MacFarland has echoed Bednar’s increasing uncertainty about whether Landeskog can return this season. He and the organization were not able to reach a conclusion on Landeskog’s timeline by the March 3 trade deadline.
