Why the 2024-25 NHL season could be the year of the comeback

You could almost hear the hockey world breathe a sigh of relief when the news on Patrik Laine’s injury came through Tuesday afternoon.

It was bad — he will miss two to three months with a knee sprain — but it wasn’t catastrophic. His season wasn’t over like last season when he managed just 18 games due to a broken clavicle and then time spent in the NHL’s player assistance program.

There’s hope he’ll be back in regular form by midseason, patrolling the left side in the top six with the rebuilding Montreal Canadiens.

After watching the first couple weeks of training camps and preseason around the NHL, I started to pull together a list of remarkable comeback stories. There are a lot of veteran stars, up-and-comers and likable journeymen attempting to resurrect their careers this season, and Laine was going to be one of the headliners.

A popular figure since he was drafted No. 2 eight years ago, Laine is one of the game’s colorful characters and landed with a marquee franchise after a lost 2023-24 campaign in Columbus.

More than just Habs fans were hoping to see him succeed. That’s why his injury status was headline news after a controversial knee-on-knee collision with Toronto Maple Leafs farmhand Cedric Pare.

You see players like Laine, 19-year-old teammate David Reinbacher and Los Angeles Kings star Drew Doughty go down in preseason, and you can’t help but want to see a different outcome. In the wake of those incidents, some have called for a shorter preseason — something that will certainly get support from a lot of corners around the league — but the reality is this can be a brutal, unforgiving sport, with devastating injuries rather commonplace, no matter the time of year.

Rather than focus on the negative, I wanted to highlight some of the inspiring stories that are taking place around the league this fall. Laine’s is one comeback that will have to wait, but others could begin as soon as this weekend when the NHL season opens in Prague.

Here’s hoping these players can turn their careers around after trying circumstances coming into the year.

Gabriel Landeskog, Colorado

I was hard-pressed to find many other examples of an NHL captain missing an entire two seasons due to injury and making a comeback, outside of Mario Lemieux nearly 25 years ago. But that’s what the Avalanche veteran is about to attempt.

Landeskog last took the ice on June 26, 2022 — 829 days ago — when he led Colorado to its third Stanley Cup with a win in Game 6 over the Tampa Bay Lightning. He even assisted on the game’s tying goal.

Since that point, however, Landeskog has been going through some significant medical procedures to repair a badly damaged knee. He had cartilage transplant surgery in May 2023 after undergoing multiple knee surgeries in 2022.

There’s no real timeline on when he can return, but the Avs have been pointing to early in the season as a possibility.

Landeskog is only 31 years old and in the fourth year of an eight-year, $56 million contract he signed in the summer of 2021. He would be the first player to return from cartilage transplant surgery, making any kind of return to the ice a remarkable story.

Dougie Hamilton, New Jersey

A lot of the Devils’ implosion last season — as they fell from third to tied for 23rd in the overall standings — was understandably blamed on what happened in goal.

But missing their top defenseman, and one of their best (and highest paid) players, for all but 20 games was a huge reason for their freefall. Hamilton needed surgery on a torn pectoral muscle at the start of December a year ago, and without his 22 minutes a game, New Jersey threw two of the youngest defensemen in the league in Simon Nemec and Luke Hughes into key minutes.

With Hamilton back healthy and the additions of solid veterans Brett Pesce and Brenden Dillon, the Devils suddenly have a pretty crowded group on the back end. If Hamilton can regain his 2022-23 form — when he put up 72 points and finished sixth in Norris Trophy voting — and Nemec and Hughes take another step, New Jersey could definitely boast one of the deeper defense cores in the league.

And that’s a significant reason why — in addition to the reinforcements in goal — the Devils are suddenly getting some of the best Stanley Cup odds in the league.

Matt Murray, Toronto

Murray missed almost all of 2023-24 due to offseason surgery on his hips.

His last NHL appearance was way back on April 2, 2023, one of only 26 games he was able to play in during his first season with the Leafs. After winning back-to-back Stanley Cups with the Penguins in 2016 and 2017, Murray has started just 109 regular-season games over the past five seasons due to a variety of injuries.

Only 30 years old, Murray is penciled in as the Leafs’ No. 3 behind Joseph Woll and Anthony Stolarz this season, but he will have to clear waivers by Sunday in order to join the AHL’s Marlies. He struggled in three appearances with the farm club to end last season, which marked the beginning of this latest comeback attempt.

The Leafs are likely going to need to call on Murray, however, given their two primary netminders have a long injury history and are short on experience. Murray will be back in the NHL at some point, defying the odds.

Kirby Dach, Montreal

After posting two points in the Canadiens season opener a year ago, Dach’s year ended after just four minutes played in Game 2 when he tore his ACL and MCL.

Montreal dealt a No. 13 pick along with a third-rounder for Dach in 2022, but the promise he displayed as a junior that led to him being picked No. 3 in 2019 has been derailed by a series of injuries.

Surgery done ✔️. Thanks everyone for all the support over the last few weeks. Road to recovery starts now! pic.twitter.com/Zb5mM8u6ab

— Kirby Dach (@kdach77) October 31, 2023

Dach showed some nice mettle and maturity in how he spent his recovery last season, as he remained around the team, soaking up lessons from coach Martin St. Louis and helping the Habs’ other young players like Juraj Slafkovský.

Dach is expected to center the Canadiens’ second line this year and should receive plenty of minutes on a team that remains relatively thin up front. He’s already scored a couple of goals in preseason but not having a veteran like Laine to play with until midseason is going to add another level of difficulty in his return to play.

Logan Couture, San Jose

Couture is another popular NHL captain with a very murky future.

He hasn’t been skating in camp with the San Jose Sharks this fall after playing sparingly last season while dealing with osteitis pubis, a painful condition involving inflammation of the pubic bones that can impact athletes in particular.

“Some days were terrible,” he told The Hockey News earlier this year. “Some days, I couldn’t get out of bed.”

Couture’s last NHL game was at the end of January, one of only six he played all of last season. He had a setback at that point and hasn’t been back on the ice since, meaning his return for the rebuilding Sharks remains very uncertain.

Now 35, Couture’s playing future is in doubt, but he hasn’t given up on a potential return at some point.