Avalanche’s Gabriel Landeskog returns to ice as Olympic status remains up in the air

The Colorado Avalanche have been without Gabriel Landeskog since he suffered an upper-body injury in the first week of January — but the captain just took a big step toward his injury return.

The Stanley Cup champion was on the ice in Toronto on Tuesday morning, as first reported by The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun.

It’s great to see Landeskog back on the ice after he sustained an injury early in the second period of a 2-1 loss to the defending champion Florida Panthers on Jan. 4. The veteran lost his footing while driving to the net and crashed into the goal; he needed to be helped off the ice and was later expected to miss “some weeks.”

Avs captain Gabriel Landeskog on the ice here in Toronto as he continues to work his way back from injury, hopefully in time for the Olympics for the Sweden captain. pic.twitter.com/6Nq6uCn16M

— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) January 27, 2026

Although Landeskog’s status for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan next month is up in the air, head coach Jared Bednar provided an encouraging update late last week.

“He’s getting better,” Bednar said on Sunday, per NHL.com. “He’s doing more and more in the gym, he’s hitting the ice now, he’s still limited a little bit. He’s sore. Time will tell, but the goal would be for him to be able to go play for the Olympics, and he’s still targeting that.”

The bench boss continued: “He really wants to play and I really want him to go play. There’s always a little bit of nervousness when you’ve got players going that maybe aren’t fully healthy, but he’ll do the right thing and I’m really hoping that we can watch him in the Olympic tournament because it’s something that he really wants to do — play for his country again. He’s earned that with his season. Hopefully everything works out, but it’s going to be tight.”

It’s looking more and more like Landeskog will be a game-time decision for the Olympics, although he is still aiming to recover in time to play for Team Sweden. The 33-year-old has managed seven goals and 22 points over 41 games in 2025-26.

Defenseman Devon Toews, who is also out of the lineup due to an upper-body injury, is with Colorado amid its four-game road trip. He missed his 10th consecutive game on Sunday, but could play before the Olympic break, Bednar said.

The Avalanche beat the Maple Leafs 4-1 on Sunday afternoon, and with a few days off before Wednesday night’s tilt against the Ottawa Senators in Canada’s capital, the team has remained in Toronto.

They’ll likely make the trek from one major Canadian city to another at some point on Tuesday evening ahead of a clash with a Sens team that just hung seven goals on the Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday.

Puck is set to drop on Avalanche-Senators just past 7:30 p.m. ET from the Canadian Tire Centre on Wednesday night.

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