Duncan Keith to miss 4-6 weeks after knee surgery

Duncan Keith was absent from Chicago Blackhawks practice on Tuesday and your first thought might have been it was a maintenence day. Not so, as we found out the two-time Norris Trophy winner will miss the next 4-6 weeks after undergoing surgery to repair a meniscal tear in his right knee.

For all the time ice time he plays, Keith has been quite durable during his career. In 11 NHL seasons, he’s never missed more than eight games in a season. He missed eight in 2011-12, but five of those were due to suspension.

This now leave the Blackhawks blueline as Niklas Hjalmarsson, Brent Seabrook, Trevor Daley, David Rundblad, Kyle Cumiskey, Viktor Svedberg, Trevor van Riemsdyk. Michal Roszival will still be on the mend from an ankle injury for a few more weeks. Keith has averaged four more minutes than any other blueliner on the team (24:21), so some added responsibilities are about to handed out.

Keith played 25:34 in Saturday’s win over the Columbus Blue Jackets, so it’s not known when exactly he suffered the injury. The Blackhawks were reportedly already in the market for a defenseman, so this loss should help speed up the process for GM Stan Bowman. He could always give Jan Hejda or Lubomir Visnovsky another call.