Devils' Patrick Elias Ready To Return After Missing Six Weeks

The New Jersey Devils received bad news Wednesday when it was revealed that Patrik Elias will miss 3-6 weeks after undergoing successful groin surgery on Tuesday. 

The groin injury was originally not diagnosed, although Elias had surgery on his hip, a torn labrum and abductor muscle in June:

"His groin had still been bothering him, but his hip was feeling fine, so we decided to send him to see the doctor who originally did his groin surgery four years ago, Dr. Myers in Philadelphia," Lamoriello said. "After consultation with our doctors and Dr. Myers, what he did was he decided to look and see what was going on there after the MRI. It happens that he had a lot of scar tissue that had been built up in that area and he just broke up the scar tissue. Everything went extremely well and what we're using as a time frame is anywhere from three to six weeks. And when I say six weeks, [it's] being fully ready to play, depending upon where his conditioning is. But the doctor felt that he could be fairly aggressive right away because it was simplistically scar tissue."

The Devils are sure to miss Elias in the lineup.  He scored 31 goals to go along with his 47 assists last season.  New Jersey could be looking to bring someone in to fill his spot, but they are not ready to commit to anything yet:

"We'll be looking for another center," Lemaire said. "He's an important part of this organization, but we have to expect that. I'm getting used to this, missing the top player."

"You're not in a better position, that's for sure," Lemaire said. "What's good is someone else in the organization will have a chance to play. That's the only thing that is good, that is positive."

This time will determine if the Devils have enough to get by without Elias until he returns or if they need to go outside the organization."

"We'll see," Lemaire said. "We'll see after the exhibition games and we'll see what the kids can do and then we'll talk after."