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Gabriel Landeskog won’t play at all this season for Avalanche

By Graham Tiedtke

Oct 26, 2022; Denver, Colorado, USA; Colorado Avalanche player Gabriel Landeskog (L) sits with his wife Melissa Shouldice (R) during the third quarter of the game between the Denver Nuggets and the Los Angeles Lakers at Ball Arena. Mandatory Credit: Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 26, 2022; Denver, Colorado, USA; Colorado Avalanche player Gabriel Landeskog (L) sits with his wife Melissa Shouldice (R) during the third quarter of the game between the Denver Nuggets and the Los Angeles Lakers at Ball Arena. Mandatory Credit: Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports /
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The uncertainty of Colorado Avalanche center Gabriel Landeskog’s status is no longer questionable at this point. After much time of “will he or won’t he play in the 2022-23 season?”,  it has been announced that Landeskog will not in fact play even in the 2023 playoffs.

Landeskog has been dealing with some sort of knee injury dating back to the 2021-22 playoffs and never got onto the ice for a single game this season. Though he made it onto the ice in a red jersey for non-contact practices, it never translated into big enough progress for him to suit up for a game.

As far as his injury, there has never been a true public diagnosis of what Landeskog’s injury actually is but it is obviously big enough to cause him to miss an entire season. The fact that the injury is from last season is absolutely wild. It has to be a major injury.

The Avalanche have missed Landeskog tremendously this season. The team barely sneaked into the playoffs without him in the lineup all season and it was a slow start for Colorado before they started to get red hot.

Landeskog, the second-overall pick in the 2011 NHL Draft, played 51 games for the Avalanche last year and recorded 30 goals as well as 29 assists. He has 248 goals and 323 assists in 738 career NHL games.

Honestly, the lack of updates regarding Landeskog’s status has been very confusing and troubling. It’s hard to believe that nobody knew what was going on with him. Why not give people actual updates on the captain’s status? It’s possible they were just holding out hope that he could return at some point but the silence was absolutely deafening.

None of that matters now though. Unfortunately, we will have to see this Avalanche team try to fight its way into the Stanley Cup finals without Landeskog. It’s not a complete surprise; it’s just disappointing.

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