Washington Capitals forward Tom Wilson underwent surgery Tuesday to repair a fractured left fibula suffered during what the team has only described as a "fall."
"At this stage the recovery is going well and he is likely to back on ice during [training] camp," his agent Mark Guy said in an email.
The 20-year-old was one of three NHL rookies to appear in all 82 of his team's regular-season games last season, scoring three goals and 10 points in a fourth-line role. Wilson participated in 14 fights and accumulated 151 total penalty minutes, fourth-most and seventh-most in the league, respectively.
The Capitals originally disclosed the injury as an ankle issue. Regardless, coach Barry Trotz is not concerned about Wilson missing significant time.
"That's just part of sometimes training, part of just being a human on this planet Earth. You're going to get hurt, so it's unfortunate," said Trotz, who did not divulge the cause of the injury. "I was really excited about Tom having a real good summer and then coming into camp. He's young. He'll be, I'm sure, pushing it to be ready for the start of training camp. If he comes in a little bit late, then he'll have some catching up to do.
"I was really excited about him. He's going to be a really good player. He's one of those young players that you know you're going to enjoy coaching. He's young, he'll bounce back pretty good."
In other injury news, Trotz also expects defenseman Dmitry Orlov, who broke his left wrist during the IIHF World Championships and underwent surgery to repair it in late May, to be ready in September. Orlov played in 54 games for Washington last season.
Sports
"He's probably right around training camp or just right into it," Trotz said. "Usually what I find, and just out of doing this for 17 years, is doctors have a time frame and they're very conservative timeframes. Realistically, on probably 90 percent of fhe time, the time frame is shortened.
"Their timeframes are for us mortals who aren't athletes and maybe as young. These guys train, their bodies are machines and they heal quicker. They've got more resources to do that, from trainers to rehab to all that. They seem to recover a lot quicker than the time frame, but I understand that we have to have a time frame and let's be on the conservative side all the time."
Follow Adam on Twitter @AdamVingan and e-mail your story ideas to adamvingan (at) gmail.com.
