St. Louis Blues’ Jori Lehtera Will Miss 6-8 Weeks After Ankle Surgery
The St. Louis Blues announced on Monday that center Jori Lehtera will miss 6-8 weeks after having surgery to fix an ankle injury that occurred late last season and nagged him throughout the summer. The 27-year-old Lehtera was one of the Blues’ key offensive contributors during his first NHL season in 2014-15, scoring 14 goals and notching 30 assists over 75 games while acting as leading scorer Vladimir Tarasenko‘s primary setup man on the “STL line” for much of the season.
If Lehtera recovers at the quicker end of that timetable, he would be back to full strength right around the time of the Blues’ preseason opener, two split-squad matchups with the Columbus Blue Jackets on September 22. With that said, he would need more time to skate and get in shape, and there would be very little pressure on him to play in early preseason games, so the ideal scenario would probably be for Lehtera to return near the end of the Blues’ preseason schedule, which concludes with a October 1 matchup against the Chicago Blackhawks.
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If Lehtera takes a bit longer to get back to full strength, he may miss a few games in the early part of the regular season, which begins on October 8. The Blues’ hope, however, is that they can avoid this possibility now that they’ve nipped Lehtera’s issue in the bud, as the St. Louis Post-Dispatch‘s Jeremy Rutherford relayed on Monday:
Army: "The hope was time would have the ankle settle down but he was still sore...we acted so he would be ready for the start of the season"
— Jeremy Rutherford (@jprutherford) August 10, 2015
If by some chance Lehtera’s injury does keep him out for the very early portion of the schedule, it could give young forwards like Robby Fabbri, Magnus Paajarvi, and Ty Rattie a chance to prove themselves and earn a spot in the lineup for the first few games. At the very least, those players will have more of an opportunity to establish themselves during training camp practices and preseason games without Lehtera occupying a spot among the team’s top forward groups.
While it’s slightly frustrating to know that one of the key elements of the Blues’ scoring attack could miss time with an injury, it’s better to have him out early on than to have him wear down and be in discomfort as the games become more important.