Avalanche F Landeskog to play first game in three years in AHL Friday
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Colorado Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog will play in his first hockey game since 2022 as part of a conditioning stint with the AHL's Colorado Eagles on Friday.
This will be Landeskog's first game action in nearly three years. He last played while helping the Avalanche win their third Stanley Cup in franchise history in 2022.
Landeskog underwent knee surgery in the off-season after the Avalanche's Stanley Cup victory and then required a cartilage transplant in May 2023. The 32-year-old forward has been skating on and off since January 2024 and joined practice with the team earlier this year.
TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun said Thursday there is "guarded optimism" that Landeskog could be in the lineup at some point in the postseason.
"There's so many people pulling for him within the Avalanche organization, but also around the hockey world," TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun explained on Insider Trading. "It's been such a long journey back. He's ramped up his recovery here in the last couple of weeks. He practiced in full with the AHL Colorado Eagles on Wednesday. It was off the ice on Thursday doing rehab.
"And the expectation is depending on how he feels on Friday, is that he would suit up in a game for the Eagles. And what a moment that would be in his comeback. But as someone told me today, it's day by day. How does he feel the next day? How does the knee hold up? That's why no one's ready to announce that for sure he will be a member of the Avalanche come playoff time. But that's the hope for a guy that's recovering from a knee surgery he had in May 2023 that no NHL player has recovered from, has played again in a game."
In his most recent season, Landeskog posted 30 goals and 59 points in 51 games in 2021-22 and then added 11 goals and 22 points in 20 playoff games.
Drafted second overall by Colorado in 2011, Landeskog won the Calder Trophy as the NHL's best rookie in 2012 and was named to the All-Star Game in 2019. The Stockholm, Sweden native has skated in 738 NHL games, scoring 248 goals with 571 points, all with the Avalanche.