Dallas Stars suffer another major blow as star forward faces three months out after surgery
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Matt Duchene will miss about three months after surgery to repair a core injury, the Dallas Stars announced Monday, putting a mid-January return at the earliest.
The Dallas Stars will be without Matt Duchene for a long time.
The veteran forward underwent surgery to repair a core injury and is expected to miss about three months, the team announced Monday.
That puts his earliest return around mid-January.
Duchene is 35 and has not played yet this season.
Dallas placed him on long-term injured reserve right before opening night with a lower-body injury he had been fighting since the start of training camp.
A setback on the preseason road trip changed the plan.
A tough run for the veteran
Injuries have followed him for a while now.
Duchene missed close to two months last fall with a concussion after a hit from Minnesota defenseman Jake Middleton, and he still finished with 16 goals and 45 points in 57 games.
He added nine points in six playoff games before the Stars fell to the Wild in the first round.
The year before that, he played all 82 games and put up 30 goals and 82 points, which shows what Dallas is missing when he is healthy.
What it means for Dallas
The Stars are 2-2-1 through five games, and losing a forward who can play center or wing cuts into their depth.
Colin Blackwell and Arttu Hyry were recalled from AHL Texas when the LTIR move was made.
Duchene signed a four-year, $18 million extension before last season, and his $4.5 million cap hit runs through 2028-29.
Moving him to LTIR is what opened the cap room for those recalls.
Dallas now has to get through the opening months of the schedule without him, and January is the next real checkpoint.
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