DENVER — Colorado Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar isn't sure he'll be getting a fully effective captain back at any point this season.
Gabriel Landeskog has yet to play this season after undergoing knee surgery in October. That came after knee surgery he had last March that caused him Landeskog to miss 23 games.
He did, however, came back to help the Avalanche win the Stanley Cup, recording 22 points (11 goals, 11 assists) in 20 playoff games.
"And am I a little bit concerned? Yeah," Bednar said Wednesday, per NHL.com. "I mean, he hasn't played all year. Do I think that he can easily come out of this and be fine? Yeah, I mean, he's putting in the work. So, only time will tell. You just don't know."
Desptie being back on skates, there's no expected return date this season for an Avalanche team trying to repeat as Cup champs.
"He's missed a long time; I don't know," Bednar said. "It's a slow-moving process for him, so we've just got to take it day by day. And he continues to do the work to push to try to get back and help our team."
Baby steps come first, the hosts of Locked on Avalanche said when Landeskog first took to the ice a couple weeks ago.
The Avalanche sit third in the Central Division at the moment, one point up on ther Winnipeg Jets with three games in hand. There's little chance they'll fall out of a playoff spot, and still have plenty of star power sans Landeskog in the form of Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen, and Cale Makar.
Still, not having their captain at full strength could be detrimental to Colorado's chances of repeating, even in a fairly open Western Conference.