After he had 22 points (11 goals, 11 assists) and finished with a team-high plus-15 in 20 playoff games in 2022, Landeskog missed the entirety of the 2022-23 season following surgery in his right knee in October 2022. Landeskog then opted for cartilage transplant surgery on May 10, 2023, which resulted in him missing the 2023-24 season and all of the 2024-25 season to date.
Landeskog previously had surgery on his right quad after suffering a laceration from a skate in the 2020 postseason, and knee surgery on March 21, 2022, prior to the playoffs.
The Avalanche (49-29-4) finished third in the Central Division and will visit the Stars for Game 1 of the Western Conference First Round. The Stanley Cup Playoffs begin Saturday.
If Landeskog plays in Game 1, it will have been more than 1,027 days between NHL games. Despite that, the Avalanche still see his potential return as major boost to the lineup.
“He’s a guy who can play up and down the lineup and bring any type of game — skill, hard, strong game, physical, whatever,” forward Charlie Coyle said. “He can adapt and play whatever it calls for. He is hard to play against … just because he can play any situation, any type of game. He can out-skill you. He can outwill you. He can out-compete you. Those guys are hard to come by.
“You know the skill’s there. They can make the plays. They see the ice. They have the shot. They can score, pass, whatever, but when you add compete and work ethic and the way he goes about his business, takes care of himself, like that’s a pretty deadly combination.”
Selected by Colorado with the No. 2 pick of the 2011 NHL Draft, Landeskog has 571 points (248 goals, 323 assists) in 738 regular-season games and 67 points (27 goals, 40 assists) in 69 playoff games.
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