Gabriel Landeskog to play Friday for AHL's Colorado Eagles, 1st pro game in nearly 3 years

Gabriel Landeskog will play in a professional game Friday night for the first time in nearly three years when he suits up with the Colorado Eagles of the American Hockey League.

The longtime Colorado Avalanche captain is on loan to the Eagles as part of a minor league conditioning assignment. He went through the morning skate at Blue Arena in Loveland, Colorado, and was given the green light to make his Eagles debut against the Henderson Silver Knights.

The game will be streamed for free on the AHL's Facebook page, or FloHockey's X and YouTube.

Landeskog has been sidelined since he helped the Avalanche win the Stanley Cup in 2022 because of a knee injury and subsequent surgeries.

If all goes well with his Loveland stint, the 32-year-old gritty forward from Sweden could be activated for Game 1 of Colorado's first-round playoff series. The Avalanche enter the postseason locked into the Central Division's No. 3 seed and will open on the road.

"I'm excited for him and his family," coach Jared Bednar said Friday before the team left for its two-game trip to California to close out the regular season. "Obviously, it's been a long, hard road and to finally get back on the ice in a game situation, I'm just thrilled for him."

Several of his Avs teammates very well could be in the stands in Loveland to catch a glimpse of No. 92 in an Eagles sweater. Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar are among several players skipping the final trip to get some rest before the playoffs. The team may assemble a watch party on the road to catch a glimpse of Landeskog's return to the ice.

"He put a lot of work in, a lot of time," said defenseman Erik Johnson, a longtime friend of Landeskog. "It's something he didn't have to put his body through but wanted to for the team. To have him get this far in his recovery is exciting for us."

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Landeskog's injury dates back to the 2020 "bubble" season when he was accidentally sliced above the knee by the skate of Cale Makar in a playoff game against Dallas. Landeskog eventually underwent a cartilage transplant procedure on May 10, 2023, and has been on long-term injured reserve.

The procedure was similar to the one performed on Chicago Bulls point guard Lonzo Ball in March 2023. Ball returned to the court for a preseason game in October, which hinted at a possible timeline for Landeskog's return.

Landeskog's comeback has been the subject of a documentary series called "A Clean Sheet: Gabe Landeskog" that's airing on TNT and TruTV.

This is Landeskog's 13th season as a captain, with only Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin serving as leaders of their current teams for a longer span.

"He carries such a weight within the locker room," Colorado forward Logan O'Connor said. "Obviously, his voice is huge."

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As for the plan with Landeskog after Friday, Bednar said that's still to be determined. Over his career, Landeskog has been nearly a point-a-game player in six playoff runs with the Avalanche.

"This is the toughest time of the year to jump back into a lineup, right? And he's still not there yet," Bednar said. "We'll just see how he does tonight, and we'll just keep reevaluating from there, just like we would do with any other injury. But the length of time that this has gone on, it's significant.

"So we'll see how he looks in practice. We'll make the decisions on our lineup for the games if he gets that point, and go from there. But still one day at a time."

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