Chabot went into the offseason last year with a torn ligament and a cracked bone in his right wrist.
Last year, when the Ottawa Senators had their exit interviews and met with the media, defenceman Thomas Chabot told reporters his wrist wasn't in good shape. Chabot said he had a torn ligament and a cracked bone in his right wrist and rehabbing that would be the main focus of his offseason training.
Fast forward one year, after Chabot missed 31 games this season with various ailments, including the wrist, it looks like surgery may next.
In this year's exit meetings a couple of weeks ago, Chabot didn't rule out the notion of surgery. Today, Postmedia's Bruce Garrioch quoted league sources who said that Chabot is now "finalizing the details to undergo a procedure in the near future to fix a wrist issue he’s been dealing with for nearly two seasons."
Former Sens' head coach D.J. Smith leaned heavily on Chabot during his time in Ottawa. After Chabot's second injury this season back in December, Smith had high praise for the defender's resilience.
"I've said openly that Chabot is as tough a player as I've coached," Smith said, two weeks before his firing. "When people say 'tough', they think about fighting or whatever. This is the second injury (Chabot) has had this year where he's played through the game and then eventually they have to pull you out. He's a tough kid. He wants to help this team win. It's unfortunate."
Garrioch says he's been told the recovery time could be 2-3 months. Assuming Chabot gets the procedure done fairly soon, that would leave another 2-3 months for rehab and summer training. Chabot said two weeks ago, he doesn't want to have another season like this one, when he missed so many games.
"It's been hard," Chabot said. "It's the first time I've been hurt that much in a season in my life. It's been hard, physically and mentally. But at the end of the day, that's the game of hockey. What's good about this is it gives you a lot of time to heal up and make sure you have a great summer and be ready for next season."