It has been a tough 2023-24 season for Jets 2021 1st rounder Chaz Lucius who has been in and out of the Manitoba Moose lineup during this AHL season. He would play a stretch of games, then miss a bunch and that pattern has continued throughout the first half of the season. Of the 34 games Manitoba has played this season he has been limited to 17 contests.
Photo Credit: Colby Spence (Illegal Curve)
In those 17 games Lucius had two goals and 11 assists for 13 points in his first full pro season. His points per game percentage of 0.76 is tied for 14th amongst AHL rookies this season.
Last year he joined the Moose after spending one year at the University of Minnesota but he was limited to 12 games in the AHL before he was assigned to Portland of the WHL. His 2022-23 campaign came to an end when he required shoulder surgery.
He last played on December 23rd in Iowa. Originally he missed the next set of games at the end of the month due to illness but we were informed at the start of January that Lucius was dealing with an ankle issue and that the team wanted to get him more strength in it before they put him back in a game.
During a media availability on the 17th of January head coach Mark Morrison advised that Lucius had seen a specialist and they hadn’t seen him since but that he had “got back in late last night” and they expected to see him later that day.
Now that they’ve connected with the Jets prospect and he has had an opportunity to discuss next steps with the team doctors the update is the prospect is having season ending ankle surgery.
“We’ll seen Chaz around a lot in rehab here with the team and still be a big part of it here but he is having surgery.”
Tough news for the player and organization.
