Avs captain Landeskog fires back at fan who tells him to retire

Avs captain Gabriel Landeskog is starting to hear some of the noise.

But he’s not going away anytime soon.

Landeskog fired back at a fan on social media on Tuesday who suggested he should retire. The Colorado Avalanche captain hasn’t played in the NHL since the Avalanche won the Stanley Cup in the summer of 2022, as he’s undergone multiple knee surgeries including a cartilage transplant in May of 2023.

Here’s the interaction, with Landeskog’s comment receiving several more “likes” than the fan’s suggestion.

Gabriel Landeskog replying to a comment on an @Avalanche Instagram post 👀 pic.twitter.com/IsWdc37ntz

— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) October 22, 2024

In one sense, you like Landeskog clapping back. He doesn’t want to retire and still thinks he can play good hockey and help the Avs win. Landeskog said this summer it’s a matter of “when not if” he can return to NHL action.

On the other hand, is it a good look for the leader of the team to have rabbit ears? People are going to say stuff on the Internet, and sometimes it’s better just to ignore it.

Regardless, Landeskog knows that some Avalanche fans are growing a little impatient. Colorado’s 0-4 start to the season didn’t help matters, but they’ve since won two games in a row to get to 2-4 with four points.

Reinforcements should be coming sooner rather than later in the form of Landeskog, Valeri Nichushkin, Artturi Lehkonen, Jonathan Drouin, Devon Toews and others.

And in the meantime, it sounds like Landeskog has no intentions of retiring. It’s something he’s happy to make perfectly clear.