Montreal Canadiens: Mike Hoffman Inching Closer to Habs Debut

The Montreal Canadiens had a very busy, and quite unusual offseason.

Much of the news was not the best for the team. Carey Price needed surgery. Shea Weber’s career is probably over. They drafted a player in the first round that had been charged and fined in Sweden and then asked not to be drafted at all. Jesperi Kotkaniemi jumped ship by signing an offer sheet. Various players were injured in training camp. Price entered the NHL/NHLPA player assistance program.

One of those injured players at the start of camp was Mike Hoffman, but it sounds like he is getting close to returning to action.

The veteran goal scoring winger who promises to make the Canadiens a far more dangerous offensive team, especially on the power play, was injured in his final training session before heading to Montreal for training camp. He failed his physical because of a knee injury and his timeline for a return was never really released.

Today, Hoffman was on the ice for the first time. He didn’t join the rest of his teammates at practice or look like he was at full speed, but it was a nice step in his recovery to see he is back on the ice.

Clearly, Hoffman is skating gingerly in that video clip so I would not expect a return to the lineup before the regular season begins.

However, it does show that he is at least trending in the right direction in his recovery from a knee injury.

The 31 year old sniper has been among the most dangerous goal scoring threats in the league with the man advantage in the past few years. The Canadiens could use some help in that area, so the sooner Hoffman gets healthy and into the lineup, the better it’ll be for the Habs.

It is still tough to decide where he will end up playing at even strength, but he will be a big part of the team’s top power play unit as soon as he is healthy.