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Nichushkin says surgically repaired hip is pain-free

Valeri Nichushkin

Valeri Nichushkin

AP

With all the big moves Dallas made this summer -- Patrick Sharp, Johnny Oduya, Antti Niemi -- it’s easy to forget that one of the club’s biggest acquisitions could come from in-house.

Valeri Nichushkin, who missed 74 games last year following hip surgery, is currently working out with teammates and giving positive reviews on his health:

Valeri Nichushkin said he is feeling great, no more pain in the hip he had surgery on last season.

— Mark Stepneski (@StarsInsideEdge) August 28, 2015


Nichushkin, 20, lost nearly all of his sophomore campaign to the hip ailment, which he tried to play through at the beginning of the year, only to go under the knife in mid-November. That prevented him from following up on a rookie year in which 14 goals and 34 points and finished 12th in Calder voting; Nichushkin did return for a handful of games at the end of the regular season, and also represented Russia at the 2015 World Hockey championships.

Now at full health, the big-bodied Russian should slot into Dallas’ dynamic top-six forward group, one that projects to feature last year’s Art Ross winner Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin, Jason Spezza, Ales Hemsky and Sharp.