Colorado Avalanche forward and captain Gabriel Landeskog, who missed all of this season after knee surgery, is having another procedure on his right knee and is expected to miss the 2023-24 regular season, the team announced Tuesday.
Landeskog will have a cartilage transplant in his right knee, and the procedure will be performed Wednesday by Dr. Brian Cole at the Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.
The 30-year-old Swedish forward missed the entirety of the 2022-23 regular season with a knee injury that led to him having surgery in October. He was initially expected to miss 12 weeks, but ultimately, the timetable for his return was continually pushed back to the point that he was ruled out for the remainder of this year’s playoffs.
Landeskog and the organization hope this more extreme approach allows him to get past the knee injury that has sidelined him. Named Colorado’s captain in 2012 at age 19, he has played 807 regular-season and playoff games for the team and is signed through the 2028-29 season.
Landeskog, who is one of the NHL’s longest-serving captains, has been one of the most pivotal players in the Avalanche’s lineup. He has given them a top-line left winger and has produced nine 20-goal campaigns. He scored a career-high 30 goals and finished with 59 points over 51 games during the 2021-22 season.
He has not played since hoisting the Stanley Cup in Tampa, Florida, in June 2022 after helping the Avalanche win their third title in franchise history. He was instrumental in that run, recording 22 points in 20 games.
During that run to the Cup, Landeskog was second on the team with 11 postseason goals, while his 22 points made him one of four 20-point scorers for the Avs that postseason.
Landeskog recently explained that his knee injury stems back to the 2020 bubble season when he was sliced by a skate in a playoff game against Dallas. He said he suffered a cartilage injury on the bottom of his patella.
Colorado already knows what it means to go a full season without Landeskog. His injury was one of a few that the Avalanche had to work around while eventually winning the Central Division title this season