Steven Stamkos Injury: Updates on Lightning Star’s Recovery from Knee Surgery
Tampa Bay Lightning star forward Steven Stamkos left Tuesday night’s game during the first period against the Detroit Red Wings. On Wednesday, the team announced he would be out indefinitely after suffering a lateral meniscus tear in his right knee, which required surgery.
Latest on Stamkos’ Timeline to Return After Surgery
Thursday, Nov. 17
The Lightning announced Stamkos is expected to miss “approximately” four months after undergoing surgery on Thursday.
While on the penalty kill, Stamkos got tangled up with Red Wings forward Gustav Nyquist along the boards, and his leg contorted oddly:
Upon getting up, Stamkos grabbed his knee and gingerly skated off the ice.
The 26-year-old scored his ninth goal of the season just 6:09 into Tuesday’s game to give the Lightning an early 2-0 lead.
As captain of the Lightning, Stamkos has become one of the NHL’s premier goal scorers over his eight-plus seasons in the league.
He’s scored 30 or more goals five times while leading the league in scoring twice with 51 goals in 2009-10 and 60 in 2011-12.
During his tenure, he’s led the Lightning to the Eastern Conference Finals twice with one Stanley Cup Final appearance in 2014-15.
However, he’s had his fair share of injury issues, which included a broken leg in 2013 that limited him to just 37 games. Last season, while the Lightning made a third Eastern Conference Finals during Stamkos’ career, he was lost for most of the postseason due to blood clots.
Through 17 games this season, he already has 11 assists with his nine goals for 20 points. But this injury could provide a rocky start to an eight-year, $68 million deal he signed over the summer, via Spotrac.com.
With Stamkos out, the Lightning would look to Nikita Kucherov to carry the offense in his absence. Kucherov is coming off his first-ever 30-goal season and has seven goals with 13 assists after putting up two points during the first period on Tuesday.
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