It’s not necessarily the number of Montreal Canadiens injuries, but the players who are injured. The last few seasons, the Habs have experienced the worst of both worlds, setting man-games lost records to the point it seemed like captain Nick Suzuki was the only one to escape unscathed.
At the very least, there seem to be fewer Canadiens injuries in 2023-24, so far anyway. The season is still young, but it’s far along enough for most to realize the Habs don’t have the organizational depth they need to regularly compete against the NHL’s top-tier teams.
If the Canadiens were completely healthy? Maybe. However, having resorted to several significant call-ups up to now, they’re not the same team on paper they were to start the season, when hopes were high, perhaps unrealistically so, they could make a push for a playoff spot. With that, here are the injuries they’re facing right now (goalie Carey Price excluded), ranked in terms of their significance to the team:
6. Chris Wideman
Chris Wideman was injured to start the season and has yet to play a game. However, all due respect to the depth defenseman, had the Canadiens stayed healthy, there would have been no guarantees he would have gotten in the lineup anyway.
Two seasons after he had been considered for an All-Star Game spot (seriously, but unjustifiably), Wideman is little more than insurance policy. He was a regular healthy scratch last season, playing 46 games, while scoring just six assists. Ultimately, considering the logjam on defense heading out of training camp, he was a good bet to get cut to make room for a younger defenseman.
Wideman obviously has his use as a power-play specialist. However, it’s worth noting the Canadiens’ power play has been one of the league’s worst the first two seasons he was Hab. It’s not his fault mind you, but he hasn’t exactly been a difference-maker.
Maybe it’s just sheer coincidence, but that same power play has shown some improvement this season (18.0%) without Wideman. So, he’s still a good bet to get waived once he’s healthy enough to return.
5. Rafael Harvey-Pinard
It isn’t that Rafael Harvey-Pinard isn’t a valuable component or part of the team’s future. The fact he takes just the No. 5 spot here is more so a result of his usage this season, which has been underwhelming to say the least. In the 13 games he played, he’s averaged just 13:09, which is the same as fourth-line center Jake Evans.
Harvey-Pinard did start the season on the fourth line, so that does make sense to a degree. He also got promoted for a time to the first line with Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield, but without much consequence. In fact he scored two of his four assists on the season in the first two games, when he was still on that fourth line.
Ever since, Harvey-Pinard’s offense has hit a wall, as he tried to recapture the lightning in a bottle he rode last season when he scored 14 goals in just 34 games. All he did was get shelved for two months with a lower-body injury for his trouble.
4. David Savard
You could definitely argue defenseman David Savard belongs lower on this list. In contrast to Harvey-Pinard, he doesn’t project as being as much of a key part of the team past 2025, when his contract expires. In fact, it’s incredibly realistic he either gets traded before then or the Canadiens simply fail to re-sign him.
As alluded to earlier under the Wideman entry, there’s a logjam on defense. Both he and Savard are right-handed defensemen, where there’s less competition for ice time right now. However, prospects like Logan Mailloux and David Reinbacher are seemingly on their way.
That having been said, whereas Wideman is a depth defenseman, Savard leads the team in shorthanded time on ice per game by nearly two minutes (5:12). Granted, it’s a small sample size, with him having played just five games before breaking his hand, but the penalty kill in those five games? It was a mediocre 79.3%. On the season, it’s now just 73.5%.
Granted, Savard isn’t a miracle worker. However, as the team’s only real stay-at-home, purely defensive defenseman, the Canadiens, as they’re currently constructed, have a definite use for him.
3. Jordan Harris
Defenseman Jordan Harris is probably one of the most underappreciated players on the team, as someone who is more well-rounded than Savard, but doesn’t put up a whole lot points all the same. With the left side as packed as it is (Mike Matheson, Kaiden Guhle, etc.), Harris flies under the radar, but he is a steadying presence nevertheless.
Based on the above chart, Harris actually outperformed Matheson to start the season (if you look at the stats beyond goals and assists). He found himself almost perfectly between the two in terms of expected/actual goals for and against.
It’s true, Matheson is poised to rebound and arguably already has to a degree from his early-season swoon. However, so is Harris, based on his performance to date, dating back to his rookie season. Harris may never put up the same numbers as the former, but he is quietly impressive and deserving of a long-term spot on the left side, even if it’s far from a certainty the Canadiens keep him around.
2. Arber Xhekaj
To his credit, defenseman Arber Xhekaj has emerged as a potential mainstay for years to come (in contrast to Harris). The fan favorite has improved his game drastically over his first few seasons in the league, as the above chart would suggest, calling into question how he ever went undrafted.
The 6-foot-4, 240-pound defenseman is no longer seen as just a physical presence. In fact, he’s arguably more than just a well-rounded one too, in the sense that the confidence he seems to instill in his teammates is all-encompassing, which would actually lend more credence to him being nicknamed “Wi-Fi” than “Sheriff,” which he admittedly prefers (from ‘Arber Xhekaj likes to be called The Sheriff, but don’t call him a goon,’ Montreal Gazette, Oct. 22, 2023).
To that effect, the physicality in Xhekaj’s game certainly goes a long way. When he suffered a shoulder injury for the second straight season (other arm), the Canadiens called up Jayden Struble to replace him, seemingly with an eye on the edge with which the latter plays.
However, it’s patently obvious, as comfortable as Struble has looked in a Canadiens uniform, there is no replacing Xhekaj, at least regarding the role, as sheriff, he plays. With him in the lineup, the Canadiens are bigger, and not just because he gives a significant boost to their average size. He helps them play bigger.
1. Kirby Dach
Whether it was on offense or defense, Kirby Dach was positioned to play a huge part in the Canadiens’ success this season. It wasn’t out of the question they would find themselves competing for a playoff spot, at least up until the trade deadline. Now, all that progress in the standings many envisioned for them has come into question.
The Canadiens may only be three points out of a playoff spot, so on track for all intents and purposes. They’re also starting off one of their easiest parts of the schedule right now. It’s realistic by the time the holiday break hits they find themselves in an enviable position heading into 2024.
Related: Canadiens Face Crossroads in 2023-24 Schedule on Current Losing Streak
However, based on the way they’ve played, it’s clear there’s something (or someone) missing. It’s almost unimaginable they stay in the race far beyond that point, as up to now, when it comes to playing against playoff-caliber competition, it’s one step forward, two back.
Injuries may never be a legit excuse when it comes to a lack of performance, because good teams have contingency plans, but they do explain a lot. So, when your second-line center goes down the second game of the season (for the rest of the season), you can easily trace back the origins of the Canadiens’ troubles as a team with the worst goal differential in the East and a league-low three regulation wins.
When Dach got injured, Alex Newhook was played in his spot with less-than-stellar results. Since then, Christian Dvorak’s returned from an injury that kept him out of the lineup for the first month of the season and he’s admirably taken the reins, but, as has become obvious over the last few seasons, Dvorak is not a permanent solution in that spot. He’s earned good reviews, no doubt, but it’s hard to take them completely seriously when he’s only scored three points in 11 games.
There just is no (good) comparison between Dvorak relative to Dach, no offense intended to the former. Dach is just someone many had earmarked as having a first-line role to play, even at center, usurping Suzuki from that first-line pivot position, even if only eventually.
So, without him, the Canadiens are obviously at a significant loss, as the losses presumably begin to pile up. The fact the Habs are a quasi-respectable 9-10-2 shows they’ve banded together as well as possible, but that it hasn’t been enough. Dach may have scored only 38 points in 58 games last season, but he was definitely expected to take another significant step forward this season. Habs fans will seemingly have to wait for that to happen… and the team to take it with him.