August is that time of year when nothing is happening in the world of hockey. Players are coming to town to join informal skates, but when the captain shows up, it is all business. Last year, there were a lot of question marks surrounding Gabriel Landeskog. Would he be able to handle a full season or have to manage the knee? Would he be able to play every day during training camp? These were some of the many questions surrounding Landeskog.

Last season proved everyone wrong

Before the season started, the Swede came to town in early August (before August 10th). Landeskog played in 60 games last year, putting all the questions to rest. He even tacked on five additional games with Team Sweden during the Olympics in February. The 12 games that the captain missed were because of injuries not related to his knee. In January, Landeskog lost his edge and slid into the goalpost while playing the Florida Panthers. The other injury came from a Cale Makar slap shot that, well, uh… hit a sensitive spot and required emergency surgery. He tallied a career-low (since 2012–13) 14 goals and 21 assists, but added six goals and five assists in 13 playoff contests. Landeskog became the first player in the NHL to return to full action after having a major right knee cartilage transplant and a tibial tubercle osteotomy.

This season is all business

This will be the first time since September 2, 2020, that fans will see a completely healthy Landeskog starting training camp. That is the game when he took a skate from Makar to his knee that started all the problems leading to surgery in 2023. With a healthy Landeskog, we can probably expect a jump in stats compared to last season as well. Now that the captain has returned to Denver, we can expect more players to show up. We have already seen Brent Burns, Devon Toews, Brock Nelson, Josh Manson, and a bunch of the new guys. This may encourage more to get to town and train at altitude.

Landeskog may be leading a slightly different team, but that won’t change the fire he will bring. Even on Tuesday morning, he was already helping the new players like Fedor Svechkov and Zachary L’Heureux. He is back to his old ways, and we will see the payoff on the scoresheet because of it.