Blues forward Paul Kariya underwent successful left hip surgery Monday in Vail, Colorado.  The surgery was performed by Dr. Marc Philippon, who performed Martin Rucinsky’s hip surgery a few years ago. Blues President John Davidson said everything went well. Here’s a transcript of an interview with JD on Tuesday.

Q: Do you have an update on Kariya’s surgery?

JD: “He had his surgery (Monday). Dr. Philippon did it in Vail, Colo., and he talked to (Blues trainer) Ray Barile who passed it onto myself that it went really well. They worked on the inside of the hip joint. There was two pieces they had to work on . . . one was the labrum and one was some bone work. They’re real happy. One of the major plusses is that there was no Osteo, which is a form of bone damage. That’s a good thing. He went about his business and Paul is going to stay there for a good amount of time and work on rehab.”

Q: Was the labrum torn?

JD: “You know what, basically what I just said is all I know. All I know is there was labrum damage, they did some bone work and it went really well. They’re very happy with what they saw. The big key is when you go in and you look at bone, when there’s soft tissue damage generally bone rubs on bone and that can create problems. But there was none in that respect. So that was one of the biggest real plusses of this whole thing regarding his recovery . . . to play for us in the future. So I think he’ll be back to 110 percent whether it’s late this season or next season, probably next season.”

Q: Have you ruled him Kariya out for this season?
JD: “No, we haven’t ruled him out, but what’s the sense in rushing something that’s as serious as this? We have him under contract for next year and he’s the type of person who really wants to be at 100-plus percent, so we’ll see where that all takes us. I just don’t like putting time frames on things because it can bite you. When Paul’s injury originally started, we thought it was nothing more than a pulled muscle high on the thigh. . . . Then that healed up pretty well and it was still bothering him. So then they did more stuff, tests where they actually froze up the inside of the hip and had him do some things and through the process of elimination find out where the damage was. Eventually you know the result . . . hip surgery. We expect a real complete recovery.”

Q: Even if he doesn’t return this season, you do expect him to be 100 percent by training camp in September?

JD: “Oh, he’ll be 100 percent a long time before camp. He’ll be back to being Paul Kariya that should be better than he’s been for years. If there was something bothering him in the hip, you’re not 100 percent. Now that he’s had that all taken care of, we expect him to be Paul Kariya.”

Q: How does insurance cover the Kariya situation?

JD: “There’s a complex insurance program that you work with. A certain amount of your players are insured. There’s a deductible program that’s involved. We’ll look at that and see where it takes us. Who knows if he’ll come back and play this year. It’s something when you have a salaried player and he’s on your insurance program, and he can’t play for a long period of time, at least you get something back, which is very helpful . . . (but) they can’t pay your insurance until they find out how many games you’re going to miss.”

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As expected, Andy McDonald (ankle) skated with the Blues on Tuesday and it appears he will be going on the three-game road trip.

“I talked to Andy afterwards and he said he felt better than he thought he was going to feel,” Murray said. “I mean, he’s not close to playing, but he’s out there with our team and that’s encouraging. Andy wants to go and keep practicing with the team when we’re on the road. We’ve got a day in between (each game) and he wants the practice time . . . otherwise he’s skating by himself (in St. Louis). He wants to step it up a little bit here if we can. But we’ve got to be prudent, as JD said.”

McDonald was not available after practice.

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Defenseman Jay McKee (finger) will also go on the trip and could be in the lineup Friday against Vancouver.

“I feel good,” McKee said after practice Tuesday. “I excited about being back soon. I’m pretty sure I’ve got the OK from the doctors and I think a lot depends on how I handle the puck. It feels good in the glove and I even took a few slap shots today that felt pretty good. Sometimes you catch a pass, it will rattle your stick, send a vibration through it. When I get that, it feels a little tender, but that doesn’t happen enough to complain about.”

JR