News of Ilya Mikheyev being shut down for the rest of the season to surgically repair a torn ACL would be trivial, if unfortunate, even for a mess of a Vancouver Canucks franchise. Yet one key detail added to the sense of organizational disarray: Mikheyev had been playing through the injury since before the season has even started.
For what it’s worth, Mikheyev took to Twitter on Saturday to defend the Canucks’ decision — and his own — to play the majority of the campaign. Specifically, Mikheyev stressed that it was his decision to dress despite the injury.
In the first tweet, Mikheyev claimed that he, along with the team’s medical staff, determined that playing on the torn ACL would cause no further damage.
“I understand that there is a lot of debate about my decision to play with an ACL injury. Here are the facts: when I was injured during pre-season, I went through several tests and realized that I could play without doing more damage. That’s what I wanted to do,” he wrote.
The 28-year-old striker noted that his knee was tested twice a week, crucially adding that “I’ve never felt pressure (to keep playing), I’ve never felt worse. It was my decision” to continue playing.
Finally, Mikheyev noted that the decision was made to have surgery so he would be ready for Canucks 2023-24 training camp, and that he has “no complaints about how it went.” been managed”.
Considering the disastrous way the Canucks have handled many decisions this season (and in recent years), people would already be hesitant to give management the benefit of the doubt. But that situation has sparked increased speculation after Quinn Hughes expressed serious disdain for the way Tanner Pearson’s wrist injury was handled earlier this season.
Orthopedic surgeon Dr. Bill Sterett explains here some key reasons why it’s a bad idea to perform on a torn ACL. The bottom line: By playing through a torn ACL, you also risk injuring the MCL in your knee. From there, you increase the chances of arthritis problems in the knee.
Note that, according to playoff projections by Dom Luszczyszyn of The Athletic, the Canucks’ playoff chances dropped to around 20% around December. Not only was biting the bullet in September already doubtful, but waiting until the end of January once again indicates a lackluster view of an organization that continues to step in.
Mikheyev is 28 and the Canucks have $4.75 million in cap space dedicated to him for four seasons (deal expires after 2025-26). Rolling the dice with any player’s health seems insane; it is doubly worrying when it comes to someone who is committed for a fairly long period of time.
Of course, it would be even worse if the Canucks pressured Mikheyev to keep playing on a torn ACL, but letting him do it — especially way past the point where this season has already been lost — isn’t. just another alarming sign of a franchise in disarray.
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