NEWS: Insider Confirms Landeskog Will NOT Play in Regular Season

This is not exactly surprising news, but it appears to be official: Gabriel Landeskog will not play for the Avalanche in the regular season.

Sportsnet Insider Elliotte Friedman confirmed this on Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday night after doing some digging.

Here is Friedman’s full quote on Landeskog:

“There’s no question, the biggest mystery injury is Landeskog’s. All we know at this point in time is he continues to skate by himself, and he won’t play for the Avalanche this week as they conclude their regular season. When he makes his debut, it will be in the playoffs.”

You can watch the full video here. The Avalanche talk starts around 2:32.

The wording around the playoffs is interesting. As of three weeks ago, I had heard that the Avalanche were not expecting Landeskog to be ready for the start of playoffs. Expecting and hoping are two different things. Now, who is to say Landeskog doesn’t give it a shot? There’s no doubt that he looks better with each passing week, but he doesn’t look like a player ready to play just yet, at least to me. Throwing him right into the fire in the playoffs would be interesting. He has yet to take a full practice with the team.

Either way, it’s been a tough year for Landeskog, and one no one could have seen coming. The original expectation was that he would be back in November, and then January, and now we’re looking at the Avalanche going an entire regular season without their Captain. Now, they just hope to be able to insert him into the lineup at some point in the playoffs.

Stay tuned to CHN for more info as it comes in. The Avalanche will return home after Sunday night’s game in Anaheim, but likely won’t skate again until Tuesday morning.