Top Kraken defenseman Vince Dunn remains out of the Seattle line-up, and based on simple hockey observation and math, it’ll probably be at least a couple of weeks before he returns.
“He’s progressing well, he’s not on the ice yet, currently he’s in a rehab, work-out phase off the ice,” Kraken head coach Dan Bylsma said Friday. “He’ll be progressing to the ice in a few days, I’ll say the four to seven day range.”
That’s likely optimistic.
Given the fact that he’s still not skating and might not be for another week, that would put Dunn’s return to game action at at least two weeks. Regardless of the type of injury, players sitting out this long need extra time to ‘find their legs’ while also getting back into game condition.
He’s eligible to return off long term injured reserve (LTIR) on November 12th — his status was retroactive to October 17th — after sitting out the obligatory 25 days.
Obviously that’s not going to happen.
When Dunn returns, Kraken General Manager Ron Francis will have to deal with the salary cap implications. The team is in a crunch to say the least, particularly after trading for winger Daniel Sprong on Friday. Although “Spronger” isn’t expensive, there simply isn’t any room for him under the cap with Dunn back in the line-up.
Either Francis pulls of a deal to move some money, one that probably should have made during the summer, or Seattle plays and travels around with a roster that’s bare minimum. They started the season in tenuous fashion with 21 players on the active roster rather than the maximum 23, and it might get worse.
“We’ve got some time here before Vince comes back unfortunately, so we’ll take that time and see what our roster’s doing,” Francis told media on Friday. “But we’ll have some decisions to make once he comes off LTIR for sure.”
More importantly, despite the win over Vegas on Friday night, this club can ill afford to continue playing without their most dynamic blueliner. Newcomer Brandon Montour has been a strong addition, but the overall depth of the blueline, the team’s power play and its overall offensive productivity, could definitely use ‘Dunner’.
Fans might not see Dunn until the end of November.