Gabriel Landeskog will remain Avs captain even without playing
Sep 20, 2023, 10:32 PM
Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images
The last time Gabriel Landeskog suited up for the Colorado Avalanche the team took home Lord Stanley.
The captain of the Burgundy and Blue was sidelined the entire 2022-23 season with a knee injury that he first suffered over three years ago. Landeskog will miss the whole 2023-24 season as well with the same injury as he tries an experimental surgery to get his playing career back on track.
The good news is we’re a few months past when the operation took place and Landy says he feels good. The bad news is, Landy said he felt great before the surgery in all situations besides skating—which means he’s still got a long road ahead.
“I feel really good. We’re about four and a half months into this. It’s been a really good process so far,” the Avs captain said on Wednesday just ahead of the team’s training camp opening. “Going into it I didn’t know what to fully expect but it’s been really good.”
Landeskog will remain the Avs main leader, maintaining the captaincy he’s held since 2012. he took it from team legend Milan Hejduk, who followed in the footsteps of fellow legend Adam Foote, who got it from Joe Sakic—and that’s the entire list of leaders in team history.
Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar and Mikko Rantanen have all worn the “A” for alternate captain in the past two seasons and likely will be the group wearing it again the entirety of this coming year.
“Yeah I’ve thought about it, but I’m not going to do that.” head coach Jared Bednar said on if he is going to name a new captain, now that there’s no doubt Landy will be out this entire year, which was unknown until late last season.
In 2021-2022 Landeskog played another 51 regular-season before getting knee surgery, he returned for the playoffs where he tallied 22 points in 20 games en route to the Avs’ first title since 2001.
“I don’t regret anything especially not about last year’s playoffs. I would do anything to help this team. Last year was very special,” Landeskog said at a press conference in April. “This has been an ongoing conversation and I felt confident I was progressing until the last few weeks when things started to plateau.”
Landeskog has now missed the last 105 regular-season games dating back to last season, but had those 20 games of magic in between. The 11-year captain of the Avs is fifth in career games played for the franchise with 738, seventh in goals at 238, and eighth in points at 571.
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