LEWISTON – Stefan Chaput’s status throughout the Lewiston Maineiacs’ training camp has been a mystery. Still is, to some degree.

Two clues were locked into the puzzle over the weekend when Chaput walked into Androscoggin Bank Colisee and watched each day of practice in a T-shirt and shorts.

He’s here in body, but it could be weeks before Chaput is physically and mentally ready to hit the ice in a meaningful capacity.

“I’ll start when I start and take it slowly,” Chaput said. “When I get on the ice I won’t play. I can’t play until I get in shape and in game mode. No idea yet when that will be.”

Chaput, a 19-year-old forward entering his third full season and fourth overall with the Maineiacs, has been absent from all team activities since camp opened more than three weeks ago.

While Chaput scurried out of practice and hustled to a college course on his first day back in town, Lewiston coach Ed Harding cited his player’s right to privacy and described his separation from the team as a medical issue.

“It was something that occurred over the summer time,” Harding said. “It’s been a nagging thing and he finally decided to have surgery done on it.”

Chaput later confirmed that he underwent the procedure on what would have been his first day of training camp.

“Just some minor surgery. I had an infection and I had to get it taken care of,” he said. “I had to do it before training camp or else it was going to get even worse later.”

It was a major life decision, to say the least.

Chaput missed a month of bonding with a team that right now only vaguely resembles the reigning President’s Cup champions. (“So many new guys,” he noted at the end of his second day.)

Skating and lower body workouts remain off-limits. Chaput said he is restricted to limited weight lifting from the waist up. At Saturday’s practice, he listened dutifully as a nutritionist recommended a menu to keep him in game shape during this sedentary stretch.

And in perhaps the harshest personal pill to swallow, Chaput had no choice but to pass up an invitation to training camp with the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes, who selected him in the fifth round of the 2006 entry draft.

“I called Carolina last week and it was a big disappointment for me,” Chaput said. “They totally understand that I had to get the surgery done. It was just bad luck, I guess. They just said have a good season until next year.”

When healthy, Chaput has excelled at both ends of the ice for the Maineiacs. In his first full season, he piled up 48 points in 69 games. Chaput produced 17 goals and 29 assists in 57 regular-season games during last year’s magical march.

Chaput’s progress was slowed by a concussion last winter, but the current rehabilitation is by far the longest and most frustrating of his hockey life.

“Usually the whole summer I was on the ice and I was never sick of it. Even if I needed a break, it was only a week, and now this has been a month,” said Chaput. “Until it heals up, I can’t go on the ice or do any running.”

Those unknowns are a small part of the juggling act that complicates Harding’s preparations for his first game as Lewiston’s head coach, Thursday night at the Colisee against Saint John.

Six players are either injured, representing Team Canada in international competition or showcasing their skills at NHL camps.

“He just got into town today, so we’re going to monitor him,” Harding said of Chaput. “He’s not even working out yet. It might be a couple weeks before he could even start to work out. But we wanted to bring him down. He’s got to start school, and we wanted to get him around the guys.”

Chaput is thankful for the Internet, or his summer contact with the Maineiacs would have been nil.

He didn’t see a single preseason game, only scores and statistics. Many of the players Chaput knows best – David Perron and Jonathan Bernier among them – are elsewhere.

“I had no news and I wasn’t here,” Chaput said. “I’m just getting back into it now.’

So far, the 185-pound center likes what he sees.

“We’re looking pretty good right now. Ed’s a new coach with a new philosophy and a new system,” said Chaput, who expects a more aggressive approach from the Maineiacs this season. “If we apply it right, I’m sure it will work out great. I can’t wait to get back on the ice and work out harder.”

The feeling throughout the dressing room is mutual. No mystery about that.