Well, this certainly makes Jamie Benn’s Art Ross victory more impressive -- on Monday, the Stars announced that Benn has been playing with a hip injury, one that will require surgery and sideline him for the next 4-5 months.
As a result, Benn won’t play for Team Canada at the upcoming World Championships.
It’s unclear when Benn suffered the injury, but the timeline doesn’t seem to matter much -- he appeared in all 82 games this year while averaging 19:57 TOI and, down the stretch, broke the 21-minute plateau in seven of Dallas’ final 13 games.
That late run also saw Benn pile up 13 points over his final five games, catapaulting him ahead of the Islanders’ John Tavares for his first-ever scoring title.
While the surgery and recovery time are significant, the timetable suggest he should be ready to go when the Stars open training camp in mid-September.
In other injury news, forward Ales Hemsky will also undergo offseason hip surgery following what was a disappointing first season in Dallas. The veteran Czech winger scored just 11 goals and 32 points in 76 games, finishing a lowly ninth on the team in scoring.