Avalanche make an absolutely brutal announcement heading into the playoffs

The Colorado Avalanche have announced that captain Gabriel Landeskog will be out for the entire 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs due to a knee injury.

Landeskog, of course, has missed the entire regular season with the same injury.

The 30 year old winger led the Avs to a Stanley Cup championship last summer, but won't be around this Spring/Summer to help with the repeat effort. In last year's post-season the gritty winger put up 11 goals and 22 points in 27 post-season games. More than that though, he was the team's heart and soul player, doing whatever was needed to ensure victory. It may be a lazy comparison given their nationality, but Landeskog is very much like a B Level Peter Forsberg. Equally adept defensively as he is offensively and with a surprising mean streak underneath it all. Both men were fierce competitors who put their entire being into representing the Avalanche. To say that this is a tough break for the Avs is the understatement of the season.

If you're an Avs fan, this has to be concerning news. Landeskog is 30 years old, has missed an entire season and post-season with a knee injury and is just one season into a massive eight year deal that pays him $7 million per season. That's... that's a risky contract. Obviously, we wish the best for Landeskog in his health but things aren't looking so great at the moment from a salary cap and roster management perspective.

Add in the fact that the Avs didn't weaponize Landeskog's full salary cap relief at the trade deadline and things look even more bleak. Joe Sakic and GM Chris MacFarland could have acquired a replacement on the trade market, say someone like Ryan O'Reilly, Tyler Bertuzzi, Vladimir Tarasenko, Patrick Kane or Bo Horvat. Instead, they rolled the dice that Landeskog would be healthy enough to return and revitalize their lineup. Today's news confirms that that won't be happening and that the team will be forced to move forward with the group they have. How you feeling, Avs fans?