"Ryan is a terrific player, he is getting close," Poile said. "I think we'll see after Christmas, after Saturday, we have a three-day break, we come back and play at St. Louis on the 27th, I'd say that Ryan will skate the 27th, the 28th, 29th, and I think, after that, if things keep tracking the way they are, there's a good chance that Ryan could be very close to playing. I think it's probably just confidence right now. The doctor says that his knee is pretty well healed and he can't do much more. But I'm sure, your workouts, the harder you work there's probably some aches and pains. You probably just don't have your confidence. So the fact that he's been cleared for full contact, and he can get into physical [battles] with his teammates and try some more things, should, hopefully, give him that confidence. So I'm thinking, it's going to be really soon. That's a really nice problem to have, to have Ryan Ellis back in your lineup, what a good thing that is."
Added Poile on Ellis's impending return:
"It's going to be up to Ryan to tell us when he thinks he's ready to play. Again, I hate saying it's because we are where we are in the standings, but we want to handle this right. We expect to make the playoffs and we expect to compete for the Cup and we want everybody in as good a health as possible, and if it takes Ryan a couple more games or a week or so then so be it. We're in good position, and he's going to be a great player to come back and take our club to a higher level."
