A day after surgery, Avs captain Gabriel Landeskog posts positive update

It’s going to be a long road, but it seems like Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog is taking it in stride.

On Tuesday, it was announced Landeskog will miss the 2023-24 NHL regular season as he underwent yet another knee surgery. This one was described as a “cartilage transplant” to hopefully finally fix his ailing right knee.

That was performed by Dr. Brian Cole at the Rush University Medical Center in Chicago on Wednesday. On Thursday, Landeskog posted a positive update on his Instagram and appeared to be in good spirits.

An update from the Captain ❤️ pic.twitter.com/RvvPfPzYuf

— Colorado Avalanche (@Avalanche) May 11, 2023

Landeskog’s only played in 20 hockey games the last 14 months, the 20 that helped deliver the Avalanche their third Stanley Cup in franchise history. It was a gutty performance by a man who probably had no business being out there.

When Landeskog met with the media to talk about his latest surgery, he said he didn’t contemplate retirement and isn’t ruling out playing in next year’s postseason. That’s obviously a long ways off, but both were encouraging updates.

The Avs gritted through a brutal regular season filled with injuries to plenty of other players besides Landeskog, but clearly missed his leadership in Round 1. They lost to the Kraken in seven games, ending their hopes of repeating as champions.

We’ll see if Landeskog can ever be the same player again, or even get on the ice at all. But it looks like the captain is taking an optimistic approach, and that’s all you can ask for at this point.

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