Ryan McDonagh shares the truth on Nikita Kucherov’s controversial injury

The Tampa Bay Lightning, who repeated as Stanley Cup champions in the summer of 2021, ruffled more than a few feathers when superstar Russian forward Nikita Kucherov returned for the postseason after missing the regular season while being placed on LTIR. The move enabled the Lightning to maximize their salary cap spending, and according to the rules, Kucherov was eligible to return for the postseason, but wouldn’t have been able to play in the regular season. Since players are not paid in the playoffs, GM Julien BriseBois having was able to re-insert Kucherov into the lineup, despite being 18 million dollars above the salary cap.

It prompted fans and other teams around the NHL to wonder if Kucherov was truly injured that badly.

As a guest on the Dropping The Gloves podcast with John Scott, former Lightning defenseman, now with the Nashville Predators, Ryan McDonagh shared the truth on his former teammate’s situation.

He maintains that Kucherov was indeed injured and all of his teammates were aware of it. He underwent surgery for a reason! And he’s adamant the NHL would have looked into it if the league felt the Bolts were taking advantage of such a situation. NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly even cleared the Lightning of any wrongdoing after an investigation.

This is what McDonagh revealed on the podcast:

“I can honestly say : I was training with him in the gym … Three-four weeks before the camp had started and he was falling over after some squats and at times complaining about his hips and his groin. Anybody who knows Kucherov knows he loves to skate like three or four hours a day and being in the gym for 30 minutes, and so when he wasn’t on the ice and being able to do the things he likes to do cause he’s in pain, we knew something was going on. He tried to train and rehab through and make it do away, but it wasn’t obviously successful. It just happened to be, because we were on a short summer there and after all the bubbles and what not, and trying to figure out his health situation and it was kind of chaotic the way everything was going on. He had to have that surgery to be able to play and do what he did, and he did. It was very ironic that it was a couple days before camp but he was honestly hurt. He went under the knife, he was not lying.”

This should put an end to all the conspiracy theories.