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Ryan S. Clark
The captain of the Colorado avalanche, Gabriel Landeskog, will play Friday for the affiliate of the Ahl franchise, for his first professional match in almost three years.
The AHL team of the avalanche, the Eagles of Colorado, announced after the morning skating that Landeskog would play in their match against the Henderson Silver Knights, the affiliate of the AHL for the Vegas Golden Knights.
On Wednesday, the avalanche sent Landeskog to the Eagles for a conditioning passage. Landeskog has spent the last days with the Eagles, who play a little over an hour in Loveland, Colorado, in order to be ready for the club’s offer to win its fourth Stanley Cup.
The last appearance of Landeskog occurred in match 6 of the Stanley 2022 Cup final. He led the avalanche to the third championship in club history. It would then be missing all the 2022-23 season with a knee injury, then underwent a knee cartilage replacement surgery in May 2023. Landeskog would then miss the entire 2023-24 season.
The 32 -year -old had traveled with the team in recent years and has done work on the team’s ice. This season, however, led Landeskog to gradually spend more time with the avalanche, which added to the conviction that it could be part of their plans in the playoffs.
AVS coach Jared Bednar told journalists after training on Friday that they would monitor Landeskog’s progress and that there was no plans beyond him by playing against the Silver Knights. If the AVS wanted an extended look at Landeskog, they would have this option since the Eagles have four more games before the end of their regular season next Saturday.
Return Landeskog to the playoffs would potentially provide the avalanche not only with their captain but a bidirectional winger who gives them another top six and / or top-nuf option according to how they use it.
Friday, the avalanche (48-28-4) finished third in the central division classification with two games on the road remaining against the Kings of Los Angeles on Saturday before ending the regular season on Sunday against the Anaheim ducks.
