St. Louis Blues defenseman Marco Scandella will be out for at least the next six months after undergoing successful surgery to his right hip.
Scandella reportedly injured himself in late August while training for the upcoming 2022-23 season. The current timeline has him slated to return in late March at the earliest, so he will likely get into about 10 regular-season games and possibly playoff games if the Blues qualify this year. Scandella also dealt with a lower-body injury for various parts of the second half of the 2021-22 season and has struggled to have a fully healthy season for the past few years.
The injury is probably the last thing Scandella needed at this moment, as he was hoping to rebound from a forgettable 2021-22 campaign. Aside from dealing with injuries in the regular season and playoffs, his play on the ice wasn’t what he had hoped for, with three goals, 11 assists and 14 points in 70 games despite playing for one of the best offenses in the league last season.
Where he really struggled was on the defensive side of the puck, which is where he’s needed for the Blues. He got caved in at even strength, with a 44.81% shot attempt share and 46.73% expected goal share, although that’s something the Blues as a whole dealt with in 2021-22, with the team finishing the year with a 47.98% and 48.6% in those respective stats.
The Blues will still have viable options on the back end this season, even without Scandella for a majority of the year. Along with the higher end defenders in Colton Parayko, Justin Faulk and Torey Krug, they re-signed trade deadline acquisition Nick Leddy to a four-year contract with a $4 million cap hit and will also have Niko Mikkola and Robert Bortuzzo to round out the blue line for the season.
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