Anaheim Ducks goaltender John Gibson undergoes emergency surgery

According to the Anaheim Ducks on X, last night, goalie John Gibson of the Ducks had emergency surgery to remove his appendix. Gibson is looking at a three to six week absence.

Gibson will miss the start of the regular season as the Ducks officially begin play on October 12 against the San Jose Sharks. Gibson has attended training camp even though he hasn't played in a preseason game.

With the exception of 2020-21, Gibson has started at least half of the Anaheim team's games in each of the previous eight seasons, and more than 50 games in five of the last six complete 82-game NHL seasons.

Gibson's name has come up in a lot of trade rumors since Anaheim has missed the playoffs the last six years. According to PuckPedia, he has three years left on his current contract, which has a $6.4 million cap hit and a 10-team no-trade list.

The Anaheim Ducks and head coach Greg Cronin will have to rely on rookie goalie Lukas Dostal to cover goalie duties now that John Gibson is out. Whether the Anaheim Ducks plan to bring in a goaltender or deal with John Gibson's absence internally has not yet been confirmed.

The 31-year-old ranks second in wins and third in shutouts and leads the Ducks all-time in games played by a goaltender and saves.

Gibson is one of four NHL goalies with 5,000 or more saves (5,533) over the past four seasons, the others being Andrei Vasilevskiy (TBL, 5,901), Jusse Saros (NSH, 6,529), and Connor Hellebuyck (WPG, 6,648). In addition, he is ranked 11th in appearances (190) and 10th in starts (187) over that time.

We wish him a good recovery.