Sad news from the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday: Ryan Callahan’s NHL career is likely over, and his $5.8 million cap hit will be relegated to LTIR.
The 34-year-old spoke with Bryan Burns of the Lightning website about what appears to be a career-ending back injury, described specifically as “degenerative disc disease of the lumbar spine,” which Callahan noted affected his lower-back most of all.
” ... Unfortunately there doesn’t even seem to be anything they can do immediately to fix the problem,” Callahan said. “And that’s never easy to hear when you’re speaking to a couple doctors and all of them agree on the same thing.”
Callahan told Burns that it’s unlikely that this would be something he could try a comeback from after trying to heal up for a year or two.
“I don’t think a year off or two years off is going to help it to be honest with you,” Callahan said. “From what the doctors have said and the way I feel, it doesn’t look like I’m going to be able to come back.”
From there, it’s the very sad reality of an athlete who put his body on the line by delivering a ton of hits, blocking a lot of shots, and generally going all-out physically. The goal is for Callahan to maintain a quality of life, and that means daily rehab to manage pain.
About the only bright side seems to be that, at the moment, Callahan doesn’t seem to think he’d need invasive back surgery. Here’s hoping that remains the case, as long as that’s the safest and most comfortable route for Callahan.
Of course, Lightning fans will wonder about the various routes the team will take to handle Callahan’s $5.8M cap hit, now that a buyout isn’t really an option. Cap Friendly notes the savings the Lightning receive from Callahan’s unfortunate circumstances.
Ryan Callahan has a $5.8M cap hit. If the Tampa Bay #Lightning place Callahan on LTIR, it will allow them to exceed the upper limit by up to a maximum $5.8Mhttps://t.co/PoBSXjdTILhttps://t.co/GK70hPLaHB https://t.co/nS7T5iJwC6
— CapFriendly (@CapFriendly) June 20, 2019
That $5.8M will certainly come in handy for the cap-challenged Lightning as they hope to sign rising star and RFA Brayden Point, preferably before he reaches the point where an offer sheet would be a threat (credible or otherwise). The Lightning were almost certain to try to trade Callahan, or at least his cap hit, during this summer, so a small silver lining is that one awkward situation was avoided.
Here’s hoping that Callahan can get to a point where he’s comfortable on a daily basis, and his experiences are another reminder that, for all the talk about hockey players being “warriors,” this rugged sport takes a toll on players, particularly longtime ones such as Callahan.
Callahan scored 386 points (186 goals, 200 assists) in 757 regular-season games between the Lightning and the New York Rangers, a team he captained from 2011-12 to 2013-14, when he was a key part of the Martin St. Louis trade. Callahan was credited with 626 blocked shots and 2,147 hits, according to Hockey Reference, and that ignores 14 games from 2006-07. Callahan brought that same spirit to 121 career playoff games.
And, as a reminder, he was more than just a “heart and soul” player, particularly during his peak with the Rangers. Callahan scored 20+ goals on four different occasions, and reached his career-high of 54 points during two different seasons.
That’s a heck of a career for the 127th pick of the 2004 NHL Draft, but here’s hoping that Callahan achieves the most important victory of feeling better.
—
James O’Brien is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @cyclelikesedins.