Stars captain Benn sidelined through summer: report

Dallas Stars captain Jamie Benn could need until November to recover from his second hip surgery in a week, according to the Dallas Morning News.

Benn is expected to need four to five months to recover, but Stars head athletic trainer Dave Zeis told the newspaper it could be as long as five to six months before Benn would be in hockey shape.

Training camp would begin in a little more than four months. The newspaper said Benn "could be ready for the start of the regular season if all goes well."

Benn had arthroscopic surgery on his hip Monday to shave a bony growth on the head of his femur and repair any cartilage damage. It was performed at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York, where Benn had a procedure on his other hip last Monday.

Benn's second surgery was less traumatic than his first, Zeis said. He said that because the traction needed was too difficult to do both hips at one time, doctors chose to do the less-complicated procedure second to help speed overall recovery.

"It's a major surgery," general manager Jim Nill told the Stars website in mid-April. "But he’ll bounce back from it and probably be a better player than he is now."

Benn this season won his first Art Ross Trophy with 87 points and set personal bests in goals (35), assists (52) and points playing 82 games for the first time since 2009-10, his rookie season.

"There was a lot of pain and a lot of nights we thought he wouldn't be playing. He'd come to us and say, 'No, I am a player,'" Nill said. "That's Jamie Benn. We didn’t hear about it all season. He didn’t come to us and say I had a bad game, and it was because of my injury. We didn’t hear a thing about it, and that’s Jamie Benn.

"He had two or three shots that helped him get through things. To gut it out the way he did and have the success, it just shows that we’ve got a great leader on this team."

On Tuesday, he was named a finalist for the Ted Lindsay Award, which is given to the most outstanding player in the NHL as voted by members of the NHL Players' Association. Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin and Montreal Canadiens goaltender Carey Price also were named candidates for the Lindsay Award. The winner will be announced June 24 during the 2015 NHL Awards from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.