The Saga of the Groin

As reported yesterday by John Shipley of the Pioneer Press and Michael Russo of the Star Tribune, Marian Gaborik is contemplating hip surgery to relieve some pain on his oft-injured groins that would essentially put him out until the end of the season, if not the rest of the season. It was reported that Gaborik was recently in Colorado, presumably to see the same doctors that helped repaired his hip last season. This is only the continuation of a long never ending saga of injuries with Gaborik, and no doubt the Wild are thanking their lucky stars that Gaborik didn't sign the reported $8million however long contract that the Wild offered him during the summer. Obviously the worse part of this for the organization is that now Gaborik has no trade value and will walk July 1 and the Wild will get nothing for him. And for the Wild, a team that struggles to put pucks in the net with and without Gaborik, this only adds to their offensive woes because no matter what your opinion is on Gaborik, he contributes to the offense when he's on the ice.
You got to kind of feel bad for Gaborik, at least I do. Here's a hockey player who's already an elite player and is still young enough to have the potential to do more with his career but he's been plagued with groin injuries that haven't allowed him to play a full season in forever. He's basically been labeled "injury prone" the last couple of seasons and will probably continue to hold that label throughout his career, which is just sad for someone as talented as Marian Gaborik. Now aside from that, I still hope that he gets stuck with the Panthers or Thrashers or some other club struggling to put butts in the arena and Ws in the books.