Montreal Canadiens Injured List Approaching Salary Cap

The Montreal Canadiens season is not going according to plan. After making a run to the Stanley Cup Final just a few months ago, the team is sitting last in the Eastern Conference.

They did have an interesting offseason, but when the changes were added up, it didn’t look like they would be any worse than they were in last year’s regular season.

Gone were players like Phillip Danault and Tomas Tatar, but Christian Dvorak and Mike Hoffman were in their place. Plus, Cole Caufield was going to play a full season. Shea Weber was also gone but David Savard should have been able to fill his penalty killing role at least.

Of course, all of the offseason talk about the team still being a contender has proven to be incorrect. They are just nowhere near competitive enough to make the playoffs this season and likely will be near the bottom of the league standings when the dust settles on the 2021-22 season.

While there are plenty of reasons for this, injuries are definitely a big factor. In fact, the team’s injured list is going to have to start keeping a close eye on the salary cap.

The first player to be injured was Shea Weber and it was announced shortly after the postseason wrapped up. He is out for the year, and likely his career is over. Though no one else is dealing with a career ending injury, the list of injured players is becoming laughable.

Carey Price is yet to play a game this season after joining the NHL/NHLPA player assistance program and is still dealing with a knee injury. Joel Edmundson is also yet to play this season and he just had a setback in his recovery so he will be out for a few more weeks. Jeff Petry missed the team’s last game with an injury, meaning the team’s top three defenders and starting goaltender are all out of the lineup right now.

Another defenceman, Sami Niku is out of the lineup right now after testing positive for Covid-19. Brendan Gallagher also has the virus and is not eligible to suit up tonight. Chistian Dvorak fell awkwardly in the Habs loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday night and missed practice yesterday.

His usual limemate, Josh Anderson is already on injured reserve after being thrown into the boards from behind in a game last week. Joel Armia and Tyler Toffoli are also dealing with injuries that have kept them out of the lineup recently. Add in Paul Byron as well since the speedy winger is yet to play a game this season.

That is a total of six forwards, four defensemen and a star goaltender that are now out of the lineup. Combined, the 11 players have a cap hit of $56.4 million. That is just under 70% of the salary cap that is just unavailable to the Montreal Canadiens right now.

Usually, a struggling team pointing the finger at injuries is an excuse that they can use for poor play. In the Canadiens case, it is more than just a tired excuse. This team has battled an incredible amount of injuries this season and though it is not the only reason they are so bad, it certainly has not helped.