Veteran Blackhawks goalie Laurent Brossoit is now further away from returning to action than he supposedly was in late August.
Brossoit, who has yet to play this season after signing a two-year, $6.6 million contract in July, underwent a follow-up arthroscopic surgery on his right knee Tuesday, the Hawks announced Friday. He will be re-evaluated in six weeks, which equates to around Jan. 7.
The 31-year-old goalie initially underwent meniscus surgery Aug. 27 and was ruled out for five-to-seven weeks, putting his estimated return in the first half of October. That time frame came and went, however, without much progress, as Brossoit skated individually at Fifth Third Arena a few times but never progressed all the way to participating in a team practice.
"I’m sure he's really frustrated,” coach Luke Richardson told reporters in Minnesota. "The key is to look after it now, and that was the right decision. We’ll just have to be patient."
Even if things look good in Brossoit's January re-evaluation, it will probably take him a few weeks to fully ramp up before being ready for game action, meaning he'll have missed more than half the season by that point.
If this second surgery does prove successful and Brossoit feels ready by mid-January or so, the Hawks will have a goalie logjam to sort out. Petr Mrazek has been their workhorse this season, but third-stringer-turned-backup Arvid Soderblom has also vastly improved, posting a .926 save percentage in six games.
If Soderblom plays in four more games — and he definitely will have by January — he'll require waivers to be sent to Rockford, and the Hawks will be reluctant to take that risk with a 25-year-old whom they believed might be their goalie of the future as recently as last year.
Trading one of the three goalies might make the most sense at that point, but midseason goalie trades are neither common nor easy to pull off. General manager Kyle Davidson, who had his second baby this week, will need to begin brainstorming possible solutions to this conundrum soon.
