Carolina Hurricanes’ Max Pacioretty re-tears Achilles tendon
Almost as quickly as it began, Max Pacioretty’s 2022-23 season appears to be over.
The Carolina Hurricanes left winger, 34, re-tore his right Achilles tendon in Thursday night’s 5-2 win over the Minnesota Wild, reports The News & Observer’s Luke DeCock. An MRI Friday confirmed the diagnosis.
MRI confirms Max Pacioretty tore his right Achilles tendon, two weeks after returning to action after suffering the same injury in August.
Just a brutal turn of events. https://t.co/kPZt5RQv39
— Luke DeCock (@LukeDeCock) January 20, 2023
Pacioretty went down with the non-contact injury late in the third period of Thursday’s game and had to be helped off the ice. He was playing in just his fifth game this season. He had undergone surgery for a torn Achilles in the summer and had an expected recovery timeline of six months, but he made it back in roughly five months, debuting for the Hurricanes Jan. 5. He scored three goals in his first three games but exited after just four shifts in his fourth game with an undisclosed lower-body injury. A week later, Pacioretty returned to the lineup only to suffer the catastrophic re-injury.
Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour indicated after Thursday’s game and that it “didn’t look good,” and imaging Friday confirmed the team’s worst fears. Given the estimated recovery timeline coming back from the initial injury, it’s likely the new one ends Pacioretty’s season. He’s a pending UFA, so it’s possible his Hurricanes career ends after just five games with the team.
The Hurricanes had acquired Pacioretty and his $7 million AAV plus defenseman Dylan Coghlan from the cap-crunched Vegas Golden Knights in July in exchange for future considerations, meaning Pacioretty was essentially free as a salary dump.
The production for ‘Patches,’ a six-time 30-goal scorer, had not waned as he reached his 15th NHL season. He entered 2022-23 with 88 points in 87 games over his previous two seasons with Vegas. Health, however, has been a non-stop bugaboo in recent years. In 2021-22, he was limited to just 39 games, with maladies ranging from a broken foot to wrist surgery.
Pacioretty has a history of persevering through physical adversity, however. He suffered a horrific neck injury in 2010-11 on a hit from the Boston Bruins’ Zdeno Chara, sustaining a severe concussion and fractured vertebra in his neck, and returned the following season. Pacioretty won the Masterton Trophy in 2011-12 for his perseverance and dedication to the sport.