Today, Gabriel Landeskog met with the press for about 50 minutes to update on the progress of knee rehab. The Colorado Avalanche captain has been working his way through several knee injuries going as far back as March 2022. The most recent surgery was in May 2023 and he has been progressing ever since then.
— Colorado Avalanche (@Avalanche) May 23, 2024
The progress
“It has been a slow form of torture,” Landeskog said about watching his teammates playing. He has been out of the lineup now for 162 regular season games. In both seasons, the Avalanche made it to the playoffs but faced earlier-than-anticipated eliminations.
Gabriel Landeskog posted this as of 20 minutes ago. It appears that everything went as anticipated for his surgery. #GoAvsGo #Avs @FullPressNHL pic.twitter.com/ifDUX4tUxI
— Brennan Vogt (@brennan_vogt) May 11, 2023
“I’ve felt really good now for two straight months physically, with no setbacks, major or minor,” Landeskog said. “That’s a real positive.” The last few weeks there has been an obvious ramp up in his rehabilitation. Landeskog has added stops and increased the speed that he is skating around the rink. At one point, Landeskog joined his teammates for the morning skate and did a few drills.
The Swede touched on when he could return to the team and jokingly told everyone “between September and April.” But realistically, you can probably expect a return in the first half of the season. If the were to miss 10 games and 24 days, the Avalanche could start the captain on long-term injured reserve. It will take some time and him seems to understand that. The last game the captain saw any contact was on June 26, 2022, when he lifted the Cup in Tampa.
Landeskog is taking some shots here… looks almost normal. Towards the end, MacKinnon sets him up for a couple of shots from one knee 🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌 #Avs #GoAvsGo @TheRinkColorado pic.twitter.com/9LH07vZwU3
— Brennan Vogt (@brennan_vogt) May 14, 2024
“We can’t go and get a guy the caliber of Gabe,” General Manager Chris MacFarland said. “He deserves the time.” MacFarland reemphasized the fact that Landeskog has worked hard through the rehab process and is still the leaders of the club.
Conclusion
There are still some unknowns with Gabriel Landeskog, but he understands he is only 12.5 months into what could be an 18 month process. With Landeskog increasing his activity as of late, it is only an encouraging sign that things are moving along as they should. Fans should not be upset that Landeskog is gone, they should be happy that everything is going so well.