Tyler Seguin had not played since Dec. 2, when he tore the ACL in his right knee during a 3-2 overtime loss at the New York Rangers. Surgery followed on Dec. 16. The standard recovery window is nine to 12 months.
By mid-September he was cleared for contact and skating real practices again. On Sept. 25 he made his preseason debut in a 2-1 win at Minnesota, logging 13:57 and a plus-1.
"It's great. Feels like your first game all over again," Seguin said after that night, per NHL.com's status report. "In one way it's nice to get that out of the way, in another way it was just so much fun."
Friday's regular-season home opener against St. Louis is now the next checkpoint - not a medical press release, but the first night the standings keep score.
Where he fits when healthy
In camp, Seguin opened on a line with Jason Robertson and Roope Hintz, the same neighborhood Mavrik Bourque occupied for much of last season before the Nashville trade and the same right-shot, faceoff-capable role Joe Pavelski filled late in his Dallas years.
Robertson pointed to draws and hockey sense as the traits that make the fit workable: similar to Pavelski in function, different in how Seguin uses his own tools.
General manager Jim Nill said the club missed Seguin when he went out because he had been playing well in limited stretches, calling him a well-conditioned piece who knows the standard. Coach Glen Gulutzan has used "scar tissue" language around how veterans carry physical and mental load; Seguin's recent medical history includes the ACL plus earlier hip, labrum, and Achilles problems.
A summer setback required another procedure inside the rehab, stretching the timeline beyond a clean nine-month cartoon.
Seguin, 34, entered the season with 1,016 games and 826 points (367 goals, 459 assists). He had 17 points (seven goals, 10 assists) and was plus-10 in 27 games before the December injury. His eight-year contract expires after this season.
