Update [16/10/09 10:47am]: via TSN's Darren Dreger
Leafs D-man, Mike Van Ryn will announce he's having knee surgery.via AM640's Greg Brady:
One of [Van Ryn's] doctors believes he should have an osteotomy. It's what Yzerman had in '02.
I immediately said "What's an osteotomy" and then waddled off to Wikipedia (in my mind I'm very fat and Wikipedia is a physical place leave me alone) where I found the following:
An osteotomy is a surgical operation whereby a bone is cut to shorten, lengthen, or change its alignment. It is sometimes performed to correct a hallux valgus, or to straighten a bone that has healed crookedly following a fracture.
Due to the serious nature of this procedure, recovery may be extensive. Careful consultation with a physician is important in order to ensure proper planning during a recovery phase. Tools exist to assist recovering patients who may have non weight bearing requirements and include bedpans, dressing sticks, long-handled shoe-horns, grabbers/reachers and specialized walkers and wheelchairs.
So apparently one of Van Ryn's bones didn't heal right and he's likely going on the shelf for the rest of the year. Personally I thought Van Ryn was a good player whose usefulness was almost entirely negated by his injury troubles which made him a constant question mark in the lineup. Luckily for Mike he'll make $2.9M USD this year so he shouldn't have too much to worry about unless his investments were with Bernie Madoff.
A sad note for Van Ryn is that he's currently 47 games short of being eligible for an NHL pension. This has to be tough for the guy to swallow: he's a UFA this summer who's had constant injury problems. Mike Van Ryn is a talented NHL player who may have played his last game. On the other hand if his knee heals he might sign somewhere cheap and hopefully play at least half a season.