EVERETT — The final diagnosis is in on Dawson Leedahl’s knee, and it isn’t the news the Everett Silvertips wanted to hear.
Leedahl has damage to the medial collateral ligament in his right knee, and it’s an injury that likely will require surgery and keep him out four-to-six months.
Leedahl, an 18-year-old winger from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, suffered the injury during Saturday night’s 3-2 overtime victory at Spokane. He’s now looking at a lengthy stretch on the sidelines.
“I just went to hit the guy,” Leedahl recalled about the incident that led to the injury. “Our feet kind of tangled up, my body went over, my legs went back, and my knee went out.
“It’s not something you want, being out for a long time, that’s for sure,” Leedahl added. “I definitely want to be out there with the guys.”
Leedahl underwent an MRI on Tuesday, which revealed damage to the medial collateral ligament. A second MRI on Wednesday revealed further damage. The diagnosis was that Leedahl required surgery.
He is getting a second opinion. One option is to rest the knee for two months and hope it heals itself. However, if it doesn’t, surgery would be required and Leedahl would miss the rest of the season. If he has the surgery now, there’s still a chance he could return late in the season or during the playoffs.
Leedahl, a second-round pick in the 2011 bantam draft, is a significant loss for Everett. He hasn’t yet been a big point producer for the Tips — last season he had eight goals and 24 assists in 70 games, this season he had one goal and three assists in nine games. However, he’s a player whose impact can’t be judged solely by numbers as he’s one of Everett’s top defensive forwards and penalty killers. He attended rookie training camp with the NHL’s Boston Bruins this year, making him just one of four players on the current roster to attend an NHL training camp.
“He’s a good, solid player for us and a real good team guy as well,” Everett general manager Garry Davidson said. “We’re disappointed for him, but also for the team’s sake as well. Hopefully, the surgery goes well and he has a speedy recovery.”
The circumstances of the past weeks suddenly leave Everett short at forward. This time last week Everett had 24 players, all of whom were healthy, and the Tips were having difficulty finding playing time for everyone.
However, the Tips traded winger Tyler Sandhu to Red Deer on Monday, and with Leedahl now out for a lengthy period, the Tips have just 12 forwards available, which is the total a team typically dresses for a game. That total includes 17-year-old rookie winger Nik Malenica, who still hasn’t appeared in a game this season — Tips coach Kevin Constantine elected to use defenseman Carter Cochrane as the 12th forward in Wednesday’s 5-4 home loss to Spokane, even though Malenica was healthy and available.
Everett is still well stocked on defense with eight blueliners. But any more injuries up front will be a problem.
“If nobody gets hurt we’re all right,” Davidson said. “We’ve got the ability, with eight defensemen, to play someone up front, too. (Wednesday) night it was Carter Cochrane who played some forward, I know (Tristen) Pfeifer has played forward before, and I’m sure (Jordan) Wharrie can, too. We’re at 22 and the coaches will just have to make the best of what they’ve got, for the short term anyway.”
Everett’s options at filling the hole in-house are few. The Tips have several prospects who are categorized as affiliate players and could be called up, but those would be just temporary fixes as those players would eventually need to return to their current teams.
The Tips also could address the situation through the trade market. However, Davidson said he wasn’t going to make any panic moves in the wake of Leedahl’s injury.
“We’re keeping our eyes and ears open to see what’s available,” Davidson said. “But we’re not going to just make a move for the sake of getting a body. It has to be more than that, it has to be someone we feel will contribute substantially as opposed to being a stopgap just to get our numbers up.”
Check out Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog at http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog, and follow him on Twitter at @NickHPatterson.
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