Left wing Johnny Gaudreau will be in the lineup when the Calgary Flames play the Anaheim Ducks at Scotiabank Saddledome on Sunday (9:30 p.m. ET; SN360, SNW, FS-W, NHL.TV).
Gaudreau, 23, has missed the past 10 games after having surgery to repair a fractured finger sustained at the Minnesota Wild on Nov. 15. He left the game at 7:22 of the third period after taking a stick to his hand from Wild forward Eric Staal and was expected to miss six weeks.
"I'm ready to play," Gaudreau said. "I think the finger's healed up pretty well there. I'm just excited to get things going here.
"I think they did a great job with my finger and we did a great job rehabbing it. They keep tell me it's going to be harder to break the nine other fingers than to re-hurt this one. It feels good. It feels good when I shoot. I'm excited to finally get out there."
The Flames (12-13-2) went 6-3-1 during Gaudreau's absence and are in fifth place in the Pacific Division with 26 points, three behind the third-place Ducks.
"The guys have been doing great without me so I'm just going to try to bring as much energy as I can, find the net a few times," Gaudreau said. "It's a big game for us."
Gaudreau has five goals and 11 points in 17 games. He had three goals in his past three games after scoring twice in his first 14. He led the Flames with 30 goals and 48 assists, and finished tied for sixth in the NHL, with 78 points last season.
In 177 NHL games, Gaudreau has 60 goals and 154 points.
"I thought he was good to go a long time ago," Flames coach Glen Gulutzan said. "He kind of laughed. He's been chomping at the bit forever to play. He really wanted to play. Kudos to him. He went through some pain early with that finger. A few nights there, if anybody's had a broken finger with screws in it, there were a few nights he didn't sleep. He worked real hard.
"Our coaches, when we came back here, the conditioning he did while we were gone they felt while we were skating him the last three days that his conditioning was right where it needed to be. Real good on him to put in the work."
Gaudreau signed a six-year contract reportedly worth $40.5 million, an average annual value of $6.75 million, after playing for Team North America at the World Cup of Hockey 2016, when he shared the team lead in goals (two) and points (four).
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