San Jose Sharks’ Logan Couture attacks injury with rehab options

SAN JOSE — San Jose Sharks captain Logan Couture said he and his medical team are exploring various treatment options for a nagging groin injury that not only kept him out of action for most of last season but could also prevent him from starting this season on time.

Couture missed 76 of 82 games in the 2023-24 season because of a potentially debilitating condition called osteitis pubis, or inflammation of the joint between the left and right pubic bones. After missing all of training camp and the Sharks’ first 45 games, Couture returned and played six straight games from Jan. 20-31 before being shelved again.

Couture won’t play the rest of the season and said in April he hoped to return to skating in July. But general manager Mike Grier said late last month that Couture had yet to hit the ice, leaving some doubt as to whether the career Shark would be ready for the start of training camp this week or be able to play in the team’s season opener on Oct. 10.

“It’s tough. I mean, I want to play hockey,” Couture said in an interview with Dan Rusanowsky of Sharks Audio Network on Wednesday. “It’s what I’ve done most of my life, so not being able to do it for the last 15 months has been tough. But, I mean, the human body can only do so much at any given time.”

“We’re trying to tackle this problem with different types of rehabilitation, and maybe something will happen here.”

Couture, 35, is entering his 16th NHL season and sixth as team captain. He ranks fifth all-time on the Sharks with 933 career games played and fourth all-time with 701 points.

Couture has three years left on his eight-year contract, which carries an $8 million salary cap hit.

Although the Sharks are in a major transition period, Grier said in June he wasn’t interested in trading Couture, who he said would be a major part of the team’s rebuild as it enters its next critical phase. The Sharks have traded veterans Brent Burns, Timo Meier, Erik Karlsson and Tomas Hertl in the past two years.

“If there’s any rumors that I’m thinking about trading Logan Couture or anything like that, that’s absolutely false,” Grier said at the end of Ryan Warsofsky’s introductory press conference. “If you see us bringing young players in here and having a young team, he’s exactly the type of guy you want to have around young players.”

“He’s our captain, he’s our leader, he’s had a tough year. But we love him as a person, and that’s what matters most. He’s still a great hockey player, so you can put aside all those thoughts about me looking to trade our captain.”