Going all the way back to this conversation with Kings GM Dean Lombardi in early April, there’s been a dark cloud hanging over the future playing career of defenseman Willie Mitchell.
When the lockout shortened season began it looked like he’d be back in a few weeks, then maybe months. Once he was shut down for the entire season, the gravity of the situation started to take hold. This could be it for one of the game’s true warriors.
During an end-of-season conference call with Lombardi earlier today he was asked if Mitchell’s injury is still being looked at as possibly career threatening. And this was the answer:
“Yeah…whew, boy. (long pause) I’d probably leave it at that now. I mean, it’s possible. But, it’s a day-to-day thing, in terms of his progress. I guess it’s safe to say that he’s at least making progress, but the problem is it’s the same progress he made before. Until we get to those final stages, you’re not going to know for sure. So, if you had asked me this maybe six months ago when we went through the process the first time, I would have been encouraged. But, given that we had two setbacks once he got to a certain point, I’m certainly not as optimistic as I would have been before. But that said, he’s clearly making progress again. But, we still have to go to another level and push it [the knee] to see if it responds. Your guess is as good as mine right now.”
In another part of the call Lombardi discussed the possibility of resigning Rob Scuderi and/or Slava Voynov. Those comments, as well as additional end-of-season quotes with several players, can be found at the links below.
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