Oft-injured and suspended San Jose Sharks forward Raffi Torres has recently had “a procedure” done on the knee that he’s had a couple of surgeries on, according to CSN Bay Area’s Kevin Kurz.
That procedure means that there’s a chance that Torres will not be healthy and able to return to the Sharks’ lineup once he’s done serving his 41-game suspension for a hit to the head of Anaheim’s Jakob Silfverberg.
Between two surgeries on his knee and suspensions, Torres has played just 44 games since the start of the 2012-13 season. It’s hard to imagine how much the Sharks can bank on him once he returns. The knee continues to be a source of problems and the suspensions continue to limit him getting in regular game action. You have to track back to the 2011-12 season to find a time where he played more than half a season.
He has been effective in the 16 regular season games he’s seen with the Sharks since being acquired from the Arizona Coyotes, but he missed all of last season and hasn’t played this season. The 34-year-old winger’s ability to be still be effective, even if he can get beyond his knee problems, has to be questioned.
Any potential future in the NHL may depend on him getting healthy and showing he is able to do more than agitate. He’s in the final year of his contract with San Jose. Suspensions make him a player a lot of teams won’t be interested in and if he can’t get into the lineup, he’ll have had two straight seasons on the shelf. It’ll be tough for any GM to spend precious cap dollars on him.
