Opilka undergoes third hip surgery
KITCHENER — Luke Opilka is on the mend yet again.
The Kitchener Rangers goalie had a third hip surgery last month and is sidelined indefinitely.
“He’s still in recovery mode,” said Rangers general manager Mike McKenzie.
“It’s a long process, obviously. It’s months, not weeks (that he’ll be out).”
Opilka had surgery on is left hip in May 2016 and once more this past August.
The St. Louis Blues draft pick was hoping to return by Christmas but saw that timeline disappear when he had surgery on his right hip in October.
The 20-year-old hasn’t played since the Rangers were eliminated by the Owen Sound Attack in the first round of the playoffs last spring.
He joins goalie Anthony Dumont-Bouchard and forwards Kole Sherwood and Jake Henderson as the team’s overage players. Ontario Hockey League clubs can carry four OAs right now, but have to get down to three by early January.
Dumont-Bouchard’s return is also unknown.
The veteran got off to a blistering 6-1 start but hasn’t played since Oct. 15 due to an upper body injury.
“It’s (injury) just kind of lingering,” said McKenzie. “There is no real timeline from our trainers yet on when he’s going to be back on the ice. He’s missed enough time now that he’s going to have to get into shape, so it might take a little bit longer than we thought.
“There is concern any time a big part of your team gets injured. But it’s still a long season and there are still a lot of games left.”
In the meantime, the Rangers will ride the tandem of Luke Richardson and Chris McGonigle in net.
Richardson started slow but has settled down nicely and won seven of his past eight starts. McGonigle picked up his first win of the season this past Saturday in Barrie after missing more than a year due to hip surgery of his own.
The OHL trade deadline is about a month away but there is a trade freeze from Dec. 9 until Jan. 5 for players involved in the world junior hockey championships. All other players cannot be traded from Dec. 19-28.
The Rangers did some heavy lifting early by acquiring defenceman Logan Stanley from Windsor in the off-season and then added Sherwood in a trade with Flint in mid-October.
The team has points in nine consecutive games — a streak that includes eight wins — and is in no rush to fiddle with a good thing as it prepares to head north from a triple bill beginning Thursday in North Bay.
“Right now we’re happy with where we’re at,” said McKenzie. “We made the move to get Kole Sherwood earlier in the season rather than waiting. That was kind of a big deal and has helped us get to where we are now.
“We’re taking it week by week. The team is playing really well and we don’t want to mess with it too much.”
McKenzie pegs the upcoming world juniors and the tight standings as reasons leaguewide trade chatter has died down of late.
“It has been pretty quiet,” he said. “There are going to be a lot of hard decisions on what to do because there is a lot of parity. You can have a good or bad weekend and be up or down in the standings very fast. It’s kind of one those
funny years. It will be interesting to see how it unfolds.”
RANGERS RANKED: The Blueshirts are listed 7th in the Canadian Hockey League’s weekly Top 10. Other OHL teams in the mix include: Sarnia (1st) and Sault Ste. Marie (3rd). Kitchener was an honourable mention last week but this is the first time they have cracked the Top 10 this season.