Teddy Blueger confident he will be back for the beginning of regular season

As the Vancouver Canucks prepared for training camp in Penticton last week, general manager Patrik Allvin advised of several injury concerns. These included Thatcher Demko, Dakota Joshua and Cole McWard.

Another injury concern announced by Allvin was Teddy Blueger, who had undergone minor lower body surgery and was listed as day-to-day. The prognosis was one to be thankful for, giving his standing on the team.

Blueger was an extremely successful addition to the Canucks last season as he proved to be a key component in the bottom six, including even setting a single-season personal best of 22 assists. He was subsequently signed to a two-year, $3.6 million extension and expected to fill a similar role in 2024-25.

Ruled out but no concern for Blueger

It is notable that the 30-year-old was ruled out of the Canucks' first preseason game, against the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday night. This was after he took part in his first practice back with the team, on Tuesday morning.

After practice, Blueger spoke to the media and provided an encouraging update on his injury recovery. As per Tyson Cole of Canucks Army, he said: "I feel great. I thought my conditioning was really good. I didn’t really think I was out of shape or anything like that or way behind or gasping for air, so that’s always nice."

Following Tuesday night, the Canucks will have another five preseason games to play. It stands to reason that it would be helpful for all concerned, if Blueger saw some playing time ahead of the real action.

A cautious day-by-day approach

However, the 2012 second round draft pick is preferring to take a wait-and-see approach, which is fair enough. He said: "There’s no hard timeline like that. We’re trying to not overdue the expectations and things like that. Like, honestly, I know it sounds annoying, probably for you (media) guys, and you hear it all the time, but day-by-day has been the thing."

At the same time, Blueger sure sounds like someone who will be ready to go, when the Canucks' regular season begins at home on Oct. 9, versus the Calgary Flames. He said: "Very confident I had plenty of time to get back. There’s no guarantees, but I played with a guy last year with the exact procedure done at the same time as I did and he was back in plenty of time to start the year."

Initial projections for the 2024-25 campaign have Blueger as the Canucks' centre on their fourth line. All things considered, it seems a safe bet to assume he will be suiting up to take on this role come opening night in Vancouver.

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