2/12/22 | 10 AM: Larry Brooks writes that Kakko’s injury is not related to the one he had in October and that it is “safe to infer” that Kakko is “undergoing surgery.” (NY Post)
He adds that Kakko skated on his own prior to the break, but that his injury didn’t respond to treatment. (NY Post)
2/11/22 | 6:17 PM: Gerard Gallant said on Friday (NYR):
- On getting Fox back, “He looks good out there, first day, but he looks good, everything going good. We expect him to be ready to play.”
- On Kakko, “He’s going to be out for a while….probably at least a month.”
- A Month on top of what he has already missed, “yep.”
- Is there any surgery for Kakko, “Not telling you that, upper body.”
- At least a month, “yep.”
- Is that a month until he can play or, “seriously…I can’t…I don’t know, I’m not sure. The trainer told me this morning it’s going to be a month. We want to make sure he is ready to go and we will see where it is in three weeks’ time and go from there.”
- Is this something that has lingered longer than anticipated, “yep.”
- Is this related to the upper body injury he had in October, “October, that is a long time ago. I don’t know what you are telling me. In October I have no idea what happened.”
- This was something that had been bothering him, “yea, nagging him for a week or so. It’s been nagging him.”
- Did you like Kakko’s game before he got hurt and is this a setback for him as a young player, “It was aggravating him. He was playing fine, Kakko is a real good defensive player. He wasn’t scoring as much as he’d like, but I liked his game. He’s an intelligent player for a young player, I liked his game, he’s played a lot with the top lines and he’s trending in the right direction. There is nothing I didn’t like about Kaapo all year, he’d like to score more and we’d like him to score a little more, but we liked his game, he was playing with two players that are having great seasons and played well and solid with them. Kreider was doing all the goal-scoring, it would have been nice to see Kaapo get a few more, but, again, I liked his game from day one.”
- On Chytil’s status, “we’ll see. He’s just coming back and hopefully, he’s at full strength. He skated really good today and we will take it one day at a time, but I see him being real close if he’s not ready now, he skated hard today.”
3:59 PM: Larry Brooks tweets that Kaapo Kakko will remain on IR and out of the lineup for an “extended period” with his upper body injury.
Kakko last played against Carolina on 1/21.
Morgan Barron was called up from Hartford. (NYR)