Last year Jakob Chychrun missed the first four months of the season with a knee injury.
He came back and was OK. Not great, but OK. The knee injury cost him some development, but he's only 20 year-old and he showed enough after the injury to justify the excitement the Coyotes and there fans have about their young potential star defenseman.
Only problem: he injured his other knee in April.
Craig Morgan - now of the Athletic - wrote a great article about his rehab and the surgery and doctor that he had/used. If you're interested at all in sports medicine, or just how athletes rehab, it's a great piece.
In the piece he mentioned that rehab from that injury is usually nine months, that Chychrun is already skating and that maybe he will be back in time to start the season.
It's a shame that Chychrun has now injured both his knees, but then again, in hockey you risk a career ending injury every time you step on the ice. By the sounds of things, he should be fine, but I guess you never know.
Stepping in for the injured Chychrun, should he not be ready in time, would be whichever one of Jordan Oesterle or Kevin Connauton will be the Coyotes #7.
Both players have their pros and cons, but I do like Oesterle to secure the regular role. Connauton went on a bit of a scoring bender last year, but I have no idea if he's any good or not.
He's 28 and while those 11 goals did seem to come out of nowhere, he did score 9 goals with Columbus a few years ago.
Either way, they are both decent enough guys for a bottom of the roster role.
As for Chychrun, it's hard to know what to think at this point. He dropped in the draft, but then he showed that maybe he shouldn't have by almost immediately making the NHL.
The offense looks good, but the defense, no so much, so far. The other problem: he missed 46 games over his first two years and had to have both knees surgically repaired.
At this point, you have to tone down the excitement, and just hope he recovers OK and that he can make up the time lost and hit his potential.
Washington Capitals Blogger • 
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