The Colorado Avalanche certainly didn’t play at full strength when they played in the previous two seasons, especially in the recent 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs where they were picked off in the second round at the hands of the Dallas Stars. However, the team has seen some good news regarding their roster with Gabriel Landeskog now expected to wrap up his recovery and return to the lineup in the 2024-25 season.

While there’s no accurate timetable for Landeskog’s actual return this season, the team hopes to see more from the captain in the early parts of the 2024-25 season. Landeskog had quadriceps surgery back in the 2020 postseason and later a knee surgery in March 2022 and October 2022. He recently had a cartilage replacement surgery on his knee back on May 10, 2023. Since then, the Avalanche captain has missed out on his chance to grace the ice rink again.

Initially, Landeskog was expected to return at a later stage in the previous edition of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. All of those hopes of him strengthening their chances of winning diminished when the team fell to the Dallas Stars in the second round. This did good for Landeskog to have more time to recover from his injuries, which helped him prepare in the coming season now more than ever.

A Captain’s Return

According to head coach Jared Bednar, the captain is expected to show off his big game at a high level once he comes back into the game. The coach is optimistic that Landeskog will be able to play at least within the first two months of the season – although most of it remains at the hands of the captain’s condition heading into the said timeline.

"He's trying to make a return here sometime near the start of the season and if that goes well, it would be a really big boost for us," the Avalanche coach said of Landeskog’s return timeline. "So, that's something we're all a little anxious about, but really excited about as well. He hasn't played for us in two years."

Landeskog was selected by the Avalanche in the 2011 NHL Draft with the second pick and has since scored a total of 571 points coming off 248 goals and 323 assists in 738 games. In his last run in the 2021-22 season, Landeskog tallied 30 goals in 51 games. His return would definitely be of massive value for the Avalanche moving forward.

Retooling the Roster

The Avalanche have missed a couple of big names in the previous season due to injuries, trades, and many other reasons. Aside from Landeskog, Valeri Nichushkin is suspended at least all the way to November after he was placed in Stage 3 of the NHL/NHL Players' Association Player Assistance Program on May 13. On the other hand, Artturi Lehkonen had shoulder surgery in the offseason, which should make him available later in the campaign as well.

If all goes well according to plan, the Avalanche might just survive its first parts of the season with impressive games and can potentially add Landeskog, Nichushkin, and Lehkonen all in the first two months of the campaign.

"You're talking about two first-line wingers and Lehkonen, obviously, the same kind of things," Bednar said. "All those guys kind of bounce around in our top six depending on who we want them to play with, but three guys that can make the impact those three guys can make, obviously, it changes the whole dynamic of our team."