FEATURE: Luke Philp's Road Back from Injury

The IceHogs have been playing without one of their most highly-anticipated skaters for the entirety of the 2023-24 season to this point. Luke Philp was prominently featured as the top-line center for Rockford last season but has missed all of this season so far after tearing his Achilles tendon in the summer during a workout. Last season, Philp posted career highs in goals (29), assists (24), and points (53) with Rockford. His efforts earned him the team’s MVP honors from the coaching staff at the end of the campaign.

Philp is on his second consecutive one-year NHL contract with the Chicago Blackhawks, but he spent the majority of last season in the AHL with Rockford, and it was anticipated that he would again see time with the Hogs this season. Unfortunately for Philp, this season has been spent focusing on recovering from his torn Achilles as opposed to contributing in games for the Blackhawks organization.

Over the past several months, Philp has been tirelessly working to get back on the ice.

“It’s been a long process but starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel,” said Philp. “It’s been a lot of work and still have a lot of work yet, but I’m happy with how things have progressed.”

The Canmore, Alberta native has always had a down-to-earth demeanor that can deal with a wide array of obstacles. Staying positive during this recovery process was a unique challenge.

“I was pretty positive with it, tried to keep a positive mindset throughout, especially early on, but I kept running into people, and they’d ask about my injury. I’d say, ‘torn Achilles,’ and it’s the same response every time. As you go through it, you realize it’s tough. There’s a lot of days where it just doesn’t feel good. You’re working through a lot of soreness and pain. That’s been hard at different times. Just the overall duration of it, you know you’re going to be sidelined for at least five months minimum.”

Once a successful surgery was completed on Aug. 5, a timeline was set for Philp to hopefully return to the ice in February, giving him about a seventh-month runway to return to action. Philp still remembers the injury with painful clarity.

“When it actually happened, I was in the gym doing a sprint, and it was my last rep of the day, so that was pretty deflating. It took a little bit of time to really realize how long it’s going to be. It was super disappointing.”

Any injury is disappointing for a pro athlete, but Philp was gearing up to build on what had been a career year in 2022-23.

“I was having a good summer. I was on the ice a lot. I was feeling great in the gym and on the ice. I thought I had a really strong finish to the season last year, so I was getting excited to ramp up before camp, so that was disappointing.”

The pivot has had to strengthen his mental game and persevere with positivity during the road to rehabilitation, but the physical elements of recovering from a torn Achilles have been taxing as well. The mental side and the physical side go hand-in-hand according to Philp.

“Just strengthening the muscles around that tendon physically and the mental battle with it. I think I’ve done a pretty good job staying positive with it. I wanted to have that mindset of I can dwell on this all the time, or I can seek different ways that I can improve, maybe focus more of my energy in areas that I haven’t had time to really do with the grind of a full season schedule and everything you’re doing every day. Strengthening in and around that tendon has been tough to improve. It takes a lot of time, and you have to grind through it.”

This hasn’t been an entirely solo process for Philp, however. He has spent time rehabbing in Rockford around the current IceHogs (again, Philp has not been assigned to Rockford and is still on IR as a Blackhawks player) and feels a boost being around the group, but is missing being in the middle of the action.

“It’s great to be around the guys. There’s turnover every year from team to team, so there were some new faces for myself this year, new guys to meet and obviously returning guys from last year. It’s been awesome to be around, I mean you feel a little out of it. Anyone who’s suffered a long-term injury can probably attest to that. You’re not with the team on the road, you’re not in those game environments, which is tough but overall great to be around.”

Not being in the middle of the action is hard for a player who has made a living going to the paint and winning battles in tight areas as a well-rounded 200-foot player.

“When you don’t play a game for a long time, you do start to miss it, and you definitely get that itch to get back in the lineup. Just camaraderie with the guys on the road, bus trips, playing cards, dinners, all that stuff is a lot of fun.”

Amongst the returners, Philp is particularly excited to step back on the ice alongside David Gust and Brett Seney. As they were last season when playing on Philp’s wings, Gust and Seney are Rockford’s two leading scorers this season as well.

“It was great playing with those guys [Seney and Gust] last year. They’re both awesome players. You can see they’re having good seasons this year. We played together most of last year and had some success. We had all signed before the end of summer before going to free agency, so it was exciting. Obviously, we’re trying to put our best foot forward and make the Blackhawks and stick around as long as we can there, but if we get sent back down to Rockford, you know you have good players you already know, and it wouldn’t take as long to build that chemistry. It sucks, but I’m looking forward to getting back in game action and trying to figure out the rest of this rehab and get back on the ice and get moving forward here.”

Philp is seemingly just weeks away from making his return to the ice. As of late, scar tissue from his surgery has made it difficult to comfortably to fit his foot in a skate without painful blisters. IceHogs Head Equipment Manager Tyler Carpenter explained the issue:

"We have been working with Luke to try and get him comfortable in his skate as he is returning from surgery. The scar has changed the shape of his foot significantly, so his foot is not fitting properly in the boot.

We have tried fixing things in-house by punching and trying to remold the boot as best we can. We have also been working closely with the skate team at CCM to reshape an existing skate off a new scan of his foot.

The next step is starting from scratch on a new pair to get him comfortable and confident on his skates as he returns to play. It's been a long process, but these are the types of challenges that bring you great satisfaction when the time comes and Luke can get back on the ice."

Once Philp does return to the ice, the Hogs will have a pivotal piece back in their lineup for the push towards the Calder Cup Playoffs. More than that, Luke Philp’s comeback will be completed and the frustration of a major injury will be in the rearview mirror.