Quick progressing but obviously won’t be rushed; Vilardi note

More on Jack Campbell, Peter Budaj and Cal Petersen will come this afternoon. But before we get there, an update on Jonathan Quick:

“We’re meeting with the doctors and stuff tomorrow after the game, and then I think they’re going to assess whether he would start skating later on in the week,” Goaltending Coach Bill Ranford said.

There’s no clear timetable yet on when Quick might return. He’s two weeks deep in his rehabilitation from surgery to repair a torn meniscus that was expected to keep him out of games for three or four-to-six weeks, so any assessment on when his recovery may shift onto the ice is just a preliminary starting point.

“He’s getting closer every day for sure, but we can’t rush that. You just can’t,” Willie Desjardins said. “When he’s ready, we’ll put him back in. But we can’t go ‘we really need him, so we’ve got to bring him back quicker.’ We can’t do that. Once he gets medically cleared, we’ll get him ready to play, and then he’ll come in.”

Quick has appeared in four games this season, going 0-3-1 with a 4.55 goals-against average and an .845 save percentage.

“For sure he’s getting closer. His progress has been good,” Desjardins said. “I’m not sure when we’ll get him on the ice, but he’s not that far away. But just because Jack gets hurt doesn’t change anything with his timetable.”

The plan as of Monday morning was to charge full steam ahead with Budaj and Petersen as the two goaltenders. Given that Cole Kehler is injured, they’re the organization’s only two healthy NHL goalies playing professionally under NHL contracts.

“We’ve got just about every guy in our organization hurt except for the two that we’ve got left,” Ranford said. “There’s no external options right now. You rely on waiver wire and stuff like that, but right now there are injuries around the league and there are no guys available. Peter won 30 games two years ago, and that’s the guy we need him to be, and Cal’s a young up-and-comer. We just need them to be good. We don’t need them to be great. We just need them to be good. That’s what Jack was giving us, and that’s what we need from them.”

___________________________

–Desjardins noted that Marco Sturm is scheduled to arrive in Los Angeles tonight and will be at the rink tomorrow. Los Angeles concludes its seven-game home stand against Toronto Tuesday night before traveling for a three-in-four Central Division road trip at Chicago, Nashville and St. Louis. The Chicago and Nashville games represent the team’s first back-to-back set of the season.

–Desjardins, on whether Gabe Vilardi is nearing a return: “I’m not sure he’s quite in that spot yet. He’s working to get back. I think he needs probably a little bit of conditioning. He’s been out for a long time here. It’s good – he’s working out, he’s getting better every day. He’s a really good young player, so if we can get him somewhere along the line, that’ll be great for us.”

–Lead photo via Matthew Pearce/Icon Sportswire