Stamkos undergoes successful surgery, expected to miss four months

Steven Stamkos will miss 4-6 months of action with a torn meniscus.

The Tampa Bay Lightning announced that Steven Stamkos underwent successful knee surgery on Thursday and is expected to miss approximately four months.

The procedure was performed to repair a tear in the lateral meniscus of his right knee.

Stamkos suffered the injury during the first period of Tuesday’s 4-3 win over the Detroit Red Wings after an awkward collision with Gustav Nyquist at the blue line.

In 17 games this season, Stamkos has 20 points and found the back of the net nine times.

The Lightning (10-6-1) will have to try to continue their good start to the season without their captain who has had his fair share of injury problems over the past couple of years. Last season he missed time due to blood clots, and in 2013-2014 he missed most of the season after breaking his leg.

Tampa Bay is in third place in the Atlantic Division, six points behind the first place Montreal Canadiens.

When submitting content, please abide by our submission guidelines, and avoid posting profanity, personal attacks or harassment. Should you violate our submissions guidelines, we reserve the right to remove your comments and block your account. Sportsnet reserves the right to close a story’s comment section at any time.