There may be no player on the Dallas Stars with worse injury luck than Tyler Seguin.
In a season where injuries have ravaged the Stars’ roster, he is now the latest victim — in the most severe fashion yet.
The Stars forward will miss months and possibly the rest of the season with an ACL injury, Stars coach Glen Gulutzan announced Wednesday.
“Unfortunately, Tyler, he’s got an ACL [injury], and he’ll be out for months,” Gulutzan said. ”We didn’t get great news today. I haven’t spoken to Tyler yet, but probably just letting everybody know that he’s going to be out for a significant amount of time, probably the rest of the season.”
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The Stars are still awaiting more information from doctors on the exact timeline of Seguin’s recovery and whether he could be available for the playoffs.
Seguin suffered the injury in Tuesday’s overtime loss to the New York Rangers. Less than two minutes into the road contest, Seguin went down awkwardly after a collision with Rangers defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov, who appeared to have fallen on Seguin’s right leg.
Seguin needed to be helped off the ice, couldn’t put much weight on his leg and never returned.
The 33-year-old forward was off to a strong start to his 16th season in the NHL, recording seven goals and 10 assists in 27 games. He played in his 1,000th NHL game on Oct. 30 in Tampa, an impressive feat given all he’s had to overcome in his career.
Seguin played in only 20 regular-season games last season, missing the majority of the season for hip surgery he had around this time last year. Seguin returned for the last game in the regular season and the playoff run.
In 2016, he suffered a sliced Achilles tendon that sidelined him for the rest of the regular season. He missed all but three games in the 2020-21 season due to hip and knee surgeries.
Seguin’s contract doesn’t expire until the summer of 2027, but given all the serious injuries he’s faced, it’ll be a question of how much longer his career can continue.
“I didn’t live it with him last year, but I did talk to our leadership group here and what I did know is just how hard and the effort that he put in to come back last year and how diligent he was,” Gulutzan said. “He’s a great pro, and he’s a great leader for us. He’s been a guy, quite frankly, that I’ve been maybe the most impressed with, just his leadership ability when I’ve come in here.
“This is tough news for our whole group.”
The Seguin injury is just the latest toll a relentless injury bug has taken on the Stars’ this season. Oskar Bäck, Jamie Benn, Lian Bichsel, Matt Duchene, Adam Erne, Thomas Harley, Roope Hintz, Nils Lundkvist, Ilya Lyubushkin and now Seguin have all missed time this season due to injury.
The Stars learned ahead of Tuesday’s game that Bichsel would be out the next 6-8 weeks for surgery to repair a lower-body injury. Duchene, Erne, Harley and Lundkvist also remain out of the lineup.
As of Tuesday, the Stars have had 107 games lost this season due to injuries, which ranked eighth in the NHL.
Gulutzan said Nathan Bastian will enter the lineup for Wednesday’s game against the New Jersey Devils in place of Seguin but a number of players will have to step up to replace his production.
“You’re gonna have to have other guys step up,” he said. “If Dutchy comes back, he’s gonna have to take some of that. [Mavrik Bourque] is gonna get more opportunity. There’s gonna be more opportunity for more guys, and you’re gonna see who takes it.”
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