- Tyler Seguin called his ACL rehab the most challenging stretch of his career
- A setback in June pulled him off the ice before he started trending back up
- Read below for what Seguin said about the Stars’ Oct. 2 opener
Tyler Seguin has come back from two hip surgeries and a season that was basically wiped out. He says none of that was as hard as this knee.
The Stars forward took questions Tuesday at the Dallas Stars Foundation’s Drive Fore the Kids golf tournament in Carrollton, Texas, and he was asked what nine months of ACL rehab have actually felt like.
“I never thought I’d get slapped in the face with something this different than the rest. I thought a lot of things were hard, and then this one’s been probably the most challenging.”
Robert Tiffin of NHL.com was at the tournament and reported it:
Seguin also gave up a detail nobody had heard before Tuesday. The summer did not run in a straight line.
“I had a setback in the middle of June and had to kind of stop skating. Now I’ve been trending in the right direction.”
Dallas opens the season against the Blues on Oct. 2. Seguin was asked whether he expects to be in that lineup, and he refused to put himself on a date.
“I expect to keep getting better every day. Continuing to work and seeing where I’m at. One day at a time.”
He is skating, at least. Seguin confirmed he has been on the ice with teammates at the practice facility in Frisco over the past few weeks, which the Stars announced last week.
Dec. 2, 2025 is where all of this started. Seguin got tangled up with Rangers defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov in a 3-2 overtime loss at Madison Square Garden, and surgery followed two weeks later.
ACL recoveries average around nine months, and Seguin is sitting right on that line. General manager Jim Nill sounded fine with where he is when he talked about him on NHL Network last week.
“He’s back on the ice. He’s feeling good. He’s at the nine-month mark, which for ACL injuries, that’s a pretty good window. So, he feels good. He’s excited. He wants to get back at it. It’s a big year for him.”
Nill is right about the stakes. Seguin is in the final year of the eight-year, $78.8 million contract he signed in 2018, a $9.85 million cap hit. He turns 35 in January and can hit unrestricted free agency next summer.
There was real production sitting on the shelf, too. Seguin had 17 points in 27 games before the knee gave out, third on the team in scoring at the time, and he was killing penalties and taking draws on top of it.
Whether Dallas gets that player back on Oct. 2 or in November, Seguin is not guessing out loud. The knee sets the date.
