Off-season Injury Notes (Aug 29)

There was a fair bit of stirring, when the roster for Team USA was announced and Pittsburgh Penguins forward Phil Kessel wasn't on it, but it was seemingly obvious why, when the announcement came that he was to undergo hand surgery.  On Monday, a cryptic update came down the pipe on Twitter from one of the beat writers, suggesting that Kessel wasn't just dealing with a hand problem in this off-season, but of course, details were not easy to come by.  Nevertheless, Penguins GM Jim Rutherford was suggesting that he would be ready to go at the start of the season, but cryptic messages are not good at any point.

This will be something worth monitoring, especially if you think Kessel is to really pick up his socks this season in the scoring department.  59 points last season may have been underwhelming to some and my early projection is for 65 points and I think right now, it has a better chance of going down than up, with this news.

A tweet (see below) this morning from one of the best beat writers in the game, Joe Haggerty in Boston, is suggesting that David Krejci is rehabbing from some off-season surgery of his own, of the hip variety.  With a little bit more research, it was showing that he did have his procedure at the end of April.  He is on the ice already, which is certainly a good sign for his recovery and he is yet to be replaced on the Czech Republic's World Cup team, so everything must be on track for him to play, but we'll keep you posted on new revelations, as they come up.

David Krejci left the ice when other Bruins starting getting into edge work and skating drills. He's still recovering from hip surgery

— Joe Haggerty (@HackswithHaggs) August 29, 2016

April also saw shoulder surgery for defenseman Torey Krug, which was to repair a torn labrum. The initial rehab schedule was for six months, which would be into October and it sounds like he is making progress to be ready or close to ready for the start of the regular season. Of course, there will be the potential for setbacks and it will need to be closely monitored at this point.

There is no reason for any projection setbacks yet, we'll have to wait for training camp to open, before we make any of those assessments.