Gabriel Landeskog making ‘big strides,’ still no date for Avs return

The last time Gabriel Landeskog played a game for the Colorado Avalanche it ended with him lifting the Stanley Cup.

Two seasons off the ice later and Landeskog is still working his way back from a May 2023 knee surgery which he hoped would repair an issue he suffered in September of 2020. The experimental procedure has ended the career of several athletes before him but the Avalanche captain has never publically talked about retirement. And while there was no real positive update from Colorado’s season-opening media ability on Wednesday per se, team head coach Jared Bednar let it slip that there have been good steps made by the second overall pick in the 2011 NHL Draft.

“No update on Gabe, I think his situation has been the same for quite some time,” Bednar said. “He’s doing everything he possibly can to get back on the ice and get ready to play. He’s certainly making a lot of big strides. There’s a lot of hope there, and I think that his timeline is when he says he’s ready to go. It’s been the same for a while and he and we are encouraged by the progress he’s made but as far as putting a date on it we won’t do that.”

Here’s the Gabriel Landeskog update from Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar. There’s still no timeline for a return, but he’s made “big strides.” pic.twitter.com/T70FnK2W8S

— Will Petersen (@PetersenWill) September 18, 2024

Landeskog has said in the past that the injury only really impacts him when skating. He first suffered the issue when  Cale Makar cut his knee during Game 6 of a playoff series against the Stars. Landy missed that Game 7, which was a loss, and came back to play 54 of the Avs’ 56 games in the COVID-shortened 2020-2021 season and another 10 in the playoffs. In 2022-2023 Landeskog played another 51 regular-season before getting knee surgery. Landeskog returned for the playoffs where he tallied 22 points in 20 games en route to the Avs’ first title since 2001.

Landeskog has now missed the last 195 regular-season games dating back to the 2021-22 season but had those 20 games of magic in between. The longtime captain of the Avs is sixth in career games played for the franchise with 738, eighth in goals at 238, and eighth in points at 571—getting past last season by his current teammates in some of those marks.

Nathan MacKinnon is very excited about Gabriel Landeskog coming back, but doesn’t want to jinx anything. He says Landeskog got the surgery “he needed all along.” pic.twitter.com/Tt4kjcm14S

— Will Petersen (@PetersenWill) September 18, 2024

Landy’s help would be even more key this season given fellow forward Valeri Nichushkin will miss about the first quarter of the season due to suspension from substance issues. The team also has little room under the salary cap to find a true and productive replacement for either player which hints at the team’s struggles since Landeskog last played.