Ducks' Leo Carlsson out 3-5 weeks with thigh injury, threatening his OIympic availability for Sweden

Audio By Carbonatix

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Anaheim Ducks center Leo Carlsson will be sidelined for three to five weeks after undergoing a procedure to treat a left thigh injury, putting his Olympic participation for Sweden in question.

Carlsson had the procedure Friday in Los Angeles on a Morel-Lavallée lesion — a rare degloving injury in which skin and fat become separated from fascia tissue, leaving a fluid-filled space.

“I haven't heard exactly how he's doing right now, but I'm sure he's in the situation where he's going through the process and the procedure that he went through,” Anaheim coach Joel Quenneville said after the Ducks beat the Los Angeles Kings 3-2 in a shootout Friday night. "We wish him nothing but the best, and then have a great recovery and come back and help us out."

Carlsson, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2023 draft, got off to an exceptional start for the Ducks this season with 38 points in his first 29 games. But he had been in a scoring slump for the past month, producing just six points in the past 15 games.

Quenneville acknowledged that Carlsson had been attempting to play through the problem.

“Yeah, but I don't know for how long, and then I think it progressively got worse,” Quenneville said. “It was one of those things that they had to nab it when they did today.”

The 21-year-old Carlsson was selected for Sweden's Olympic team, but the Milan-Cortina Games begin in 3 1/2 weeks.

Carlsson is still the leading scorer for the Ducks this season with 44 points in 44 games. His extended absence is another setback for Anaheim, which has slumped for the past five weeks after spending much of the season's first 2 1/2 months in first place in the Pacific Division.

Despite playing without their top two scorers due to injury, the Ducks rallied from a two-goal deficit to win at Los Angeles in the first leg of a home-and-home Freeway Faceoff miniseries. Troy Terry was placed on injured reserve with an upper-body injury, missing his fourth straight game.

___

AP NHL: https://apnews.com/NHL