Luke Krys on His Recovery from a Gruesome Injury and the Road Back to Excellence for the Texas Stars
The 25-year-old defenseman has been through it, but now he's back playing better than ever
As the calendar changed to 2026, it had been a tough start for the Texas Stars during Toby Petersen’s first year as head coach.
At just 13-15-3-1, the offense wasn’t clicking. Key players from last year in Alex Petrovic, Kyle Capobianco, and Justin Hryckowian were all playing a few hours up I-35 in Dallas for the NHL club, and a player brought in to bolster the offense in Samu Tuomaala was lost to injury in December.
But after that challenging start, Texas has roared to life. Since January 7, the team has gone 19-10-0-0 en route to a 32-25-3-1 record. They now sit third in the Central Division, just four points back of Chicago, and their season has gotten back to a very stable place ahead of the Calder Cup Playoffs next month.
Part of that surge has been fueled by goaltender Rémi Poirier, who boasts the 8th-best save percentage in the AHL while also playing a league-high 42 of his team’s games. But there’s another factor that has correlated with Texas’s 2026 turnaround.
Because January 7 is also the day Luke Krys finally returned to Texas’s lineup after suffering an Achilles tendon injury over the summer. And just like oxygen, Krys’s absence might have made the biggest argument for his importance.
“Yeah, he’s been huge for us,” Petersen said in February. “We’ve had a lot of guys in and out on the back end, a large group of players. And they’ve done a great job in his absence. Everyone who stepped up has done a good job and gave us a chance.”
One member of that defense group has been Tristan Bertucci, who even spent time running the power play as a 20-year-old AHL rookie. The 24-year-old Trey Taylor has also been leaned on heavily in his first full year as an AHL defenseman, continuing to look like a great signing for Dallas in college free agency last year.
Even so, it was a challenge for Texas to keep the ship afloat with so many new faces. And that’s a big reason why, as Petersen acknowledged, getting Krys back was a big deal for Texas.
“When Krysser came in, he gobbled up a lot of minutes right away, early on,” Petersen said. “After being out for a long time, that’s a testament to how hard he worked in his rehab, to be able to jump in and get those kind of minutes. But you can see that you can use him. He’s got a great shot at the blue line, some pretty good offensive instincts.”
That shot was immediately apparent a week into Krys’s return, when he scored his first goal of the season against Coachella Valley.
In his 29 games since returning, the 25-year-old Krys has logged 5 goals and 12 assists. Perhaps more notably, he’s led the team in average ice time, playing 21:55 per night—often on a defense pairing with Taylor.
Krys has also been a staple of the penalty kill, where he logs nearly 2:30 per game. But that’s not surprising if you’ve watched the veteran of over 100 AHL games, as steady defending has been a hallmark of his game ever since Dallas signed him out of Providence College two years ago.
“Blocking shots, getting pucks out of the zone, he’s not afraid to take a hit to make the breakout play,” Petersen said of Krys. “He does all the things coaches want out of their players. We’re glad he’s on our side.”
As a right-hand shot, Krys has also balanced out Texas’s defense, keeping more players on their strong side. And with the more recent additions of defensemen Jérémie Poirier and Jack Anderson (on an ATO), the AHL blue line is looking plenty deep once again. As of this writing, Texas is 8-2-0-0 in their last ten games.
But enough talking about Luke Krys, because I had a chance to chat with Krys himself in Cedar Park a few weeks back, and hearing the details of his injury makes what he’s doing this year even more remarkable.
“I can’t even put it into words,” Krys said in February of being back in the lineup. “This summer, I wasn’t sure when I was going to come back, and if I was going to come back. So just being able to play—I think it’s been 12 games so far—I’m so grateful to be out there and having fun with everyone. Being able to play hockey this year has been an absolute blessing, and I’m trying to take full advantage of it.”
That blessing hasn’t come without a whole lot of work. Because this wasn’t just a cut Achilles tendon, but something much worse: an Achilles rupture—one that Krys could hear when it happened.
“I was just working out with my trainer at home,” Krys said. “An Achilles rupture is pretty scary, because it’s a really loud sound. Some people say it sounds like a gunshot, and you know right away. It was just an unfortunate situation, but I made the most of it. I certainly would never want anyone else to have to hear that sound or have to go through that themselves.”
But this is where Krys’s choice of words is key. With Achilles ruptures, repairing the injury as quickly as possible is crucial to making a full recovery. And Krys just so happens to live in the same town at one the best surgeons to deal with such an injury: Dr. Martin O’Malley.
“When it first happened, I was blessed to be near one of the surgeons who does all the NBA and NFL guys,” Krys said. “Dr. O’Malley got me in, did it right away, which is huge. And then I was able to work with Kevin Durant’s physio [David Hancock] who lived in the town next to me. It was a bad thing that happened, but I was in a great situation. I had a lot of help around me. Dave was unbelievable. He got me ready to play.”
That recovery process was a long one indeed. Jim Nill announced Krys’s injury at Stars training camp in September, a little while after it had already happened. And for most athletes, an Achilles rupture would have meant a lost season. But not for hockey players.
“If I was playing another sport, it would be twelve months,” Krys said. “Luckily, you’re in a boot [in hockey], so it’s a bit shorter. I put a lot of my trust in the physio I did with Dave. He got me ready to play. He got me to be able to trust it really early on, and we kind of just built from there. I don’t think about it at all.”
That timeline may have been shortened, but it’s not over with just because he’s back on the ice. Krys’s play might fool you, but his road to recovery still has a ways to go.
“It’s still going to be a long process,” Krys said. “I have almost a year left until it’s fully healed, but I’m really grateful to be out there.”
In the meantime, Krys is just glad to be back on the ice, helping his team win. Because he was watching those first couple of months just like everyone else, when the team wasn’t having nearly this much success.
“Yeah, I think it was obviously a tough start to the year,” Krys said. “A lot of new bodies. Tough for me to speak on that. I wasn’t around. But it seems like the guys, slowly throughout the year, were building more confidence, building chemistry with each other.”
Finally, Krys is back to being part of that chemistry. And despite a lot of new players as well as a new coach, this Texas Stars veteran is feeling good about where the team is these days.
“Right now we just have full belief in our system,” Krys said. “I think we’ve kind of adapted to that. Full belief in each other, that everyone can do their job. And when things are clicking, it kind of goes your way. We’ve had puck bounces go our way, and we didn’t get those early in the year. They seem to come around now.”
(Sometimes, those bounces might even involve a doctor who lives in your town.)
This is so timely for me Robert. I’m going the Texas Stars’ game in San Jose next week. Gotta see some of these players you talk about often in person. 👀
Love when you get to share these deeper looks at players.
Awesome stuff!