Predators' Ryan Johansen out 12 weeks after being cut by skate
Johansen suffered the injury when Canucks defenseman Quinn Hughes inadvertently clipped the back of his ankle with his skate blade.
Nashville Predators center Ryan Johansen will miss an estimated 12 weeks after undergoing surgery on his right leg, the team announced on Thursday.
Update: Ryan Johansen will miss an estimated 12 weeks following surgery on his right leg Wednesday afternoon.
— Nashville Predators (@PredsNHL) February 23, 2023
Johansen suffered the injury in the second period of Tuesday's shootout victory over Vancouver when Canucks defenseman Quinn Hughes inadvertently clipped the back of his ankle with his skate blade. Johansen left the arena on crutches following the incident.
The 12-week timeline sidelines the 30-year-old for the remainder of the regular season. He could hypothetically return if the Predators are able to make a deep playoff run, but the club has plenty of work to do to even qualify for the postseason as it currently sits seven points back of the final wild-card spot in the Western Conference.
“We’re in a dogfight to find our way into the playoffs and it’s going to suck not being out there with my brothers but y’all fans inspire us everyday and our group is gonna need you for this push,” Johansen wrote on Instagram after his surgery on Thursday.
With just over a week remaining before the March 3 trade deadline, the Predators could potentially benefit from becoming sellers should they fall off the pace even further. Nashville has four games before then to choose a direction, starting with Thursday's contest against the San Jose Sharks,
Johansen is having a down year with just 12 goals and 28 points through 55 games this season. He was coming off one of the best seasons of his career in 2021-22, scoring 26 goals.
Despite the drop in offensive production, the fourth-overall pick from the 2010 draft was a key piece of Nashville's forward corps and logged time on the first power-play unit. The Predators rank 26th league-wide in goals per game and are already without leading scorer Filip Forsberg, who has been sidelined since Feb. 11 with an upper-body injury.
