Gabe Landeskog is confident he’ll return … at some point.
When that is going to be remains very much to be determined. At one point during an end-of-season press conference sitting alongside general manager Chris MacFarland, the Colorado Avalanche captain asked when training camp for the 2024-25 season is going to start.
“Between mid-September and the start of April,” Landeskog joked.
Landeskog and MacFarland met with the media for nearly an hour Thursday. The Avs have some major questions this offseason, and when their captain can return after four procedures on his knee and missing the past two seasons is one of the biggest.
The timeline for Landeskog’s return had been quoted by members of the Avs organization was 12-16 months after the latest, which was a knee cartilage replacement in May 2023. He reached the 12-month mark during the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, but wasn’t that close to returning when Colorado lost to Dallas in six games.
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Landeskog said there were times during the playoffs when he felt mentally close, but the physical side was another story. He called it “laying the foundation” for a new skating technique for his surgically-reprogrammed knee.
He also used “12-18 months” when discussing the recovery period.
“I’ve felt really good for two straight months now, physically, with no setbacks minor or major,” Landeskog said. “Without sharing too much, it’s been a bumpy road. I knew that coming into it, but I didn’t realize how hard it was going to be, especially when you do hit those bumps and all of a sudden you’re off the ice for a month when you think you’re actually ramping it up.
“There’s no point in me setting a timeline or setting a benchmark for July 1 that I want to go at game speed … or whatever. You’re setting yourself up for disappointment with this stuff when it doesn’t happen.”
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