- Craig Conroy says Jonathan Huberdeau hit a skating setback about two weeks ago
- Calgary will not rush him back from hip resurfacing surgery with camp closing in
- Read below for Conroy’s full update and Huberdeau’s own timeline from April
Jonathan Huberdeau’s summer just got complicated.
Flames general manager Craig Conroy said Tuesday on QR770 in Calgary that Huberdeau ran into a setback in his recovery from hip resurfacing surgery, and Calgary is no longer putting a firm date on when the winger gets back.
Conroy was asked how the rehab has been going since the March operation.
“This is a major surgery, so he had a little bit of a setback maybe two weeks ago with his skating,” Conroy said. “With that, we just want to make sure we do the right thing for him, and if it is to take a little bit more time and have him 100 percent feeling good about the hip, that’s what we’re going to do.”
Catch Conroy’s answer here:
Gym work is the encouraging part. Contact is the question.
“In the gym, everything else is real positive,” Conroy said. “We just want to make sure that when he’s on the ice and taking that physical contact, that he’s ready. But it’s coming, and it’s still on his schedule. We’re not going to rush him into something. We feel that at the beginning of the [season], he’s going to be pretty close. It’s just when, we’re not 100 percent sure yet.”
Huberdeau played 50 games last season and put up 10 goals and 25 points while skating through hip pain before Calgary shut him down in late January. The surgery followed in March.
Back at his year-end media availability in April, the 33-year-old sounded a lot more certain. He targeted late June to get back on the ice and said he saw no reason he would miss opening night, adding that getting the procedure done early was the whole point.
Watch Huberdeau explain the decision:
Conroy was singing a similar tune in late June, when he said Huberdeau was already back skating and aiming to be 100 percent ready to go for camp.
Hip resurfacing is a rough road in this league. Patrick Kane came out the other side and kept producing. Ed Jovanovski and Ryan Kesler never really did.
That matters for Calgary because Huberdeau still has five years and $52.5 million left on the deal he signed in 2022, and moving that contract was already a tall order before a healthy hip became a question mark.
He has 65 goals and 194 points in 291 games across four seasons in Calgary, with his best year coming in 2024-25 at 28 goals and 62 points in 81 games.
The Flames open the season Oct. 1 against the Kraken at the Saddledome, and Conroy would not promise Huberdeau will be in that lineup.
