Update: Jordan Staal has surgery on foot, NOT necessarily out for season

RDS reports Staal done for season after tendon surgery

This morning, RDS (A French Canadian media outlet) reported that Jordan Staal had foot surgery and would miss the rest of the playoffs.  Several other outlets jumped on that, including TSN (RDS' English partner) who even said:

Staal underwent surgery Friday night to repair a severed tendon in his ankle and will be out for the remainder of the playoffs. It is the same injury that caused Andrei Markov to miss 35 games at the beginning of the season.

However it seems these initial reports jumped the gun a little.  TSN backed off the "out for playoffs" portion of the story when Bob McKenzie tweeted:

J Staal not necessarily out for playoffs. Had surgery to repair foot tendon that runs to toe, but could be back next round if not sooner

McKenzie's info came out just before Dan Bylsma adressed the media and said:

"[Staal had] surgery to repair a lacerated tendon in his foot....As far as a time frame goes we will not put a time frame on it at this point," Bylsma said. "But he has not been ruled out for a return."

You can never take a coach's word come injuries in playoffs, but had Staal's condition required season ending surgery, there's no reason NOT to announce that, and no reason to think the Penguins wouldn't do so.

Below is some of the original text talking about how big of a blow it'll be to lose Staal, without knowing how long that may be.

-

Jordan Staal is a 3rd lne center, but not many 3rd line centers play 19-20 minutes a night and end up as a team's third highest scoring forward.  Throw in a deserved Selke nomination as a dominant defensive positionally on the PK and it only increases his value.  On top of all of that, there's durability.  Staal's played 383 of a possible 384 games since he turned pro in October 2006.  Aside from Robert Downey Jr. you'd be hard-pressed to find a better modern day Iron Man.

The Pens will have a lot of options in replacement: Maxime Talbot is a natural center and playing his best hockey of the season.  Mark Letestu looked good in the NHL in a brief cameo.  Craig Adams is a clutch playoff player that could pick up a little (but not all) of the slack too.

The Pittsburgh Penguins have taken long playoff runs based off their unmatched strength down the middle.  Without Jordan Staal, they'll lose that unique advantage.

So who knows...All that's sure is Staal had surgery, is out for a while.  How long that will be remains to be seen...Stay tuned.