Peverley, Harding and Letang Done for the Season

This afternoon, Rich Peverley walked into a press conference thanked doctors, family, teammates and everyone who sent their good wishes his way after a scary incident on Monday night.

Here is part of Peverley’s statement:

“I’d like to thank you and to thank all the people that saved my life. First, I’m going to start off with Dr. Robert Dimeff, Dr. Bill Robertson, Dr. Gil Salazar and Dave Zeis, our trainer with the Dallas Stars. They all attended to me once I passed out and they saved my life and I will forever be grateful. The owner Tom Gaglardi, Jim Nill, Lindy Ruff have all been in constant contact with me this entire time. I’d also like to say thank you to my wife and family for their love and support. Finally, I’d like to thank everyone from past and present teammates to management, coaches, my agent, fans and media from the entire NHL family for all their support for which I’m very much grateful. Thank you.”

After a terrifying incident the other night, it was an awesome sight to see Peverley stroll into the press conference, deliver his thanks and walk out. Doctors announced that Peverley’s season is over and he will have a procedure done on his heart. The procedure was originally scheduled to happen this summer, but after Monday he will get it done immediately.

He is going to need about 2-3 months to recover from the surgery, but his NHL future remains in limbo. Doctors believe he will be able to play again, but former Detroit Red Wings’ defenseman Jiri Fischer had a similar surgery and never played again.

Letang and Harding update:

Letang resumed skating on Tuesday after having a stroke in early February. However, he remains without a timetable and it does not sound like the Penguins expect to have him back in uniform this season. Letang was reportedly in good spirits and had begun putting weight back on after losing a lot of muscle mass due to rest from the stroke.

As for Harding, he skated as well on Tuesday, but he is also not expected to be back this season. Harding has not played a game since December 31 because of complications with his multiple sclerosis. This is unfortunate because Harding was having a tremendous season before the MS forced him from action. He was 18-7-3 with a 1.66 GAA and .933 SV% at the time he stopped playing. The effects of MS will likely haunt him throughout his playing career. Expect Darcy Kuemper and Ilya Bryzgalov to manage the Wild goal for the remainder of the season.