Slafkovsky to miss multiple months as Canadiens announce pile of injuries

Jan 18 2023, 5:39 pm

Montreal Canadiens rookie Juraj Slafkovsky will miss three months because of a lower-body injury that does not require surgery, the team announced amongst injury updates to five different players.

Slafkovsky, the No. 1 pick in the 2022 NHL Draft, has 10 points (four goals, six assists) in 39 games this season.

He hadn’t registered a point in 15 straight games and was a minus player in 10 of those contests.

Slafkovsky will have plenty of company on the injured list.

Forward Jonathan Drouin will be out until the All-Star break after sustaining an upper-body injury on January 12, as will Joel Armia. Goaltender Jake Allen will also miss a minimum of one week because of an upper-body injury, and forward Jake Evans is expected to be out eight-to-10 weeks because of a lower-body injury that does not require surgery.

The team also placed Sean Monahan on LTIR. He has not played since December 5 because of a lower-body injury.

“That’s the league,” Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said, according to NHL.com. “You control the things that you can, and we’re going to manage this.

“So, I feel like those guys have an opportunity here to come in and have an impact and maybe they can steal a chair, so to speak. But you never get to steal a chair if you don’t have the opportunity, and sometimes the opportunity gets created just by misfortune from somebody else.”

The Canadiens are last in the Atlantic Division with a 19-23-3 record for 41 points. Montreal sits 26th out of 32 teams in the league, and currently have a 6.5% chance at the No. 1 pick in the 2023 NHL Draft and projected top pick Connor Bedard.

Aaron VickersAaron Vickers

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