LOS ANGELES – The Anaheim Ducks and Sweden will be without their No. 1 center for the next month–a critical month for both squads.
Leo Carlsson will be out three-to-five weeks after a procedure to treat a Morel-Lavallée lesion in his left thigh, the Ducks announced on Friday.
The Ducks, who sit four points out of a playoff spot after snapping a nine-game winless streak, have 10 games in the next 18 days, including eight games against Pacific Division opponents, in the run-up to the Winter Olympic break. Sweden opens Olympic play on Feb. 11, which is 26 days from now, or three and a half weeks.
The 21-year-old leads Anaheim in points (44) with 18 goals and 26 assists. However, Carlsson had not played up to his explosive standards in the last month before he snapped a 12-game goal-less drought in his last game played a week ago in Buffalo.
Carlsson missed one game with a lower-body injury on Dec. 22, in what then was called a precautionary and short-term at the time. He returned to the line-up in the next game on the other side of the Christmas break.
Upon returning from the most recent road trip which ended with that goal–his 50th career goal–in Buffalo, Carlsson left practice on Monday about five minutes after it started, and despite participating in morning skate on Tuesday, he did not play against Dallas that night.
The Karlstad, Sweden native did not participate in morning skate at Crypto.com Arena on Friday, and when asked for an update on Carlsson’s prognosis, Ducks coach Joel Quenneville said “We’ll probably know more sooner than later.”
Carlsson underwent the procedure for the Morel-Lavallée lesion in Los Angeles on Friday.
According to the National Library of Medicine, Morel-Lavallée lesions are “soft tissue injuries seen in high-velocity trauma” and is further described as a “closed degloving injury that occurs post traumatically where deep fascia get separated from the skin and superficial fascia, hence creating a potential space.”
That space can often fill with blood or lymph, and can lead to “the setting of a chronic inflammatory reaction, which later leads to the formation of a capsulated lesion lined by a fibrous capsule and filled with necrotic fatty tissue, blood products, fibrin, and debris.”
Carlsson is in the final year of his entry-level deal and will be a restricted free agent at the end of the season. The 2023 No. 2 overall pick has registered 118 points (50 goals, 68 points) in 175 career games over three seasons.