Golden Knights’ Shea Theodore Labelled Week-to-Week Following Upper-Body Surgery
Vegas Golden Knights defenceman Shea Theodore is set to miss significant time after undergoing successful surgery to address an upper-body injury, the team announced on Wednesday.
Theodore, who last played on Nov. 22nd against the Dallas Stars, doesn’t have an exact date for a return and is currently being listed as week-to-week.
The Golden Knights placed Theodore on injured reserve last Sunday, sidelining the 28-year-old blueliner for at least seven days. His earliest return date falls ahead of next Monday’s contest at home versus the St. Louis Blues.
Vegas has yet to disclose any specifics regarding the origin of the 6-foot-2 defenceman’s injury. He played the entire game his last time out, leading all Golden Knights skaters in ice time (24:42) en route to a 2-1 overtime victory over the Stars.
Head coach Bruce Cassidy held Theodore out of the lineup due to the ailment during last Friday’s meeting against the Arizona Coyotes, which marked the beginning of the club’s current three-game slide.
Kaedan Korczak received the call-up from AHL Henderson after Theodore landed on IR over the weekend, with the 22-year-old registering an assist in two games while averaging 18:19 minutes since rejoining the team. He owns one goal and five points in nine games this season.
In addition to losing Theodore, the Golden Knights have been without fellow top-four defenceman Alec Martinez, who’s missed the last four games due to a lower-body injury and is currently day-to-day.
Without that talented duo, Vegas has lacked two top-five minute leaders, with Theodore and Martinez ranking second and fifth, respectively. Alex Pietrangelo sits atop that list averaging a team-high 23:55 per night.
Theodore, in particular, was off to an incredible start before going under the knife, leading all Golden Knights defencemen in goals (four) and points (18) across 20 contests. That put him on a 73-point pace, which would’ve blown past his previous career high of 52 set in 2021-22.
The Langley, B.C., native’s impressive start also put him at 65 goals and 265 points across 417 career games with Vegas since joining the franchise via trade at the 2017 expansion draft. He spent his first two NHL seasons with the Anaheim Ducks, scoring five goals and 17 points in 53 combined games.
Following a breakout inaugural season in 2017-18, where he posted six goals and 29 points in 61 games, Theodore earned a lucrative seven-year, $36.4-million contract extension in September 2018. The deal runs through 2024-25 and carries a $5.2 million cap hit per season.
As one of the five remaining original members of the Golden Knights expansion roster, the club has sorely missed the veteran blueliner’s presence, especially amidst their recent skid.
Vegas showed no sign of a Stanley Cup hangover out of the gate, winning 11 of its first 12 games and securing at least a point in each matchup. But since then, they’ve stumbled to a 3-5-3 record, dropping five of their previous six.
While they still lead the Pacific Division, the rest of the competition has caught up behind them, as just three points separate first and third place entering Wednesday’s slate of games.
-Thomas Hall
Twitter: @ThomasHall85
Photo: Michael Miller. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.