More surgery for Whitney? - 2-27-09

Dan Wood of the Orange County Register has a pretty good blog post on new Ducks and former Penguins defenseman Ryan Whitney (right) The most interesting item is the possibility of further surgery for Whitney to correct another deformity in his right foot. He underwent a procedure this past summer to correct the same issue with his left foot this past summer.

"'If he has to have the other one done, no problem,' Ducks general manager Bob Murray said. 'We’ll get it done at the beginning of the summer. It’s not major — just correcting something instead of him having to wear orthos.'

The problem with his right foot isn’t 'nearly as bad as the left was,' Whitney said. Whereas the first surgery had to be done in two parts, another potential procedure would require only one, he said."

-On meeting his new teammates Whitney said:

"And Scott Niedermayer is a guy I grew up kind of idolizing. It’s funny. There aren’t many teams in the league that I don’t know one guy. I’ve played a little while now, and you meet guys, but I didn’t know anyone on this team. That was a little intimidating, but the guys were awesome. That helped out."

-Ducks coach Randy Carlyle, also a former Penguins defenseman, on Whitney's debut last night:

"He hadn’t skated in a couple days, so it was a little tough. I’d like to see him shoot the puck more. That’s one thing that we’re going to stress. He has the ability. You can see that he’s not under pressure with the puck. The issue with him is to get comfortable with our stuff and get him in tune with what we’re trying to do.”

(Photo: Steve Babineau/NHLI via Getty Images)