Max Pacioretty to undergo surgery, out for six months

The Carolina Hurricanes announced that winger Max Pacioretty will undergo surgery on a torn Achilles, and is expected to miss the next six months.

The Hurricanes made the announcement Tuesday evening, saying that Pacioretty will undergo the surgery on Wednesday at Raleigh Orthopaedic by Dr. Kevin Logel. The timeline of six months has Pacioretty coming back in early February, so that should be enough time to get adjusted to the team and warmed up for the postseason.

It’s unclear whether or not the surgery is for something that occurred during the offseason or a prolonged injury from during the season. The timing and the severity of the injury would indicate that it’s an offseason injury, but there is no official word from the team at this point.

The team adjustment is even more significant when you consider that it’ll be with a team that he hasn’t played for. Pacioretty joined the Hurricanes at the start of the 2022 offseason in a deal that sent him and defenseman Dylan Coghlan from the Vegas Golden Knights to the Canes in exchange for future considerations, a deal that was mostly made to offload Pacioretty’s $7 million cap hit to create cap space for Vegas. Pacioretty has one year left on his contract.

Injuries have plagued Max Pacioretty recently, as he only managed to get into 39 games with the Golden Knights last season. He played really well in those games, with 19 goals, 18 assists, and 37 points, but it’s a lot of missed time in both 2021-22 and, now, 2022-23.

While losing an almost point-per-game scoring winger is never a great thing, it at least helps the Hurricanes that he wasn’t traded for anyone on the roster, so they’ll manage to start the season with what was a similar lineup to last season, aside from a few other offseason moves.