Ryan Ellis Expected to Miss Next Several Months

Predators General Manager David Poile announced Thursday that defenseman Ryan Ellis is expected to miss several months due to recovery from offseason knee surgery.
Poile is hopeful Ellis will be able to return around the start of the new year.
"Ryan Ellis had knee surgery in the offseason, and in discussions with our doctors at this time, they would like to take it a little bit slower with his recovery," Poile said. "The initial prognosis on this type of a knee injury is four to six months. Right now, we feel, and the doctor feels, it's going to take the full six months for him to recover. Ryan is not skating yet, but he will be skating in approximately three weeks and the recovery will go from there. We don't expect him back until the end of the year, maybe right around Christmastime. We had a little bit of heads up, and that's really one of the reasons why we got [Alexei] Emelin from Las Vegas to add to not only our depth but our quality of our defense."

The 26-year-old blueliner tallied a career-high 16 goals and 38 points during the 2016-17 season and battled injuries during the playoffs while helping to guide Nashville to the 2017 Stanley Cup Final.