After enduring an injury plagued season in 2022-23, the Montreal Canadiens appear to be battling the injury bug once again this year.
The club announced Saturday that forward Alex Newhook would miss the next 10-12 weeks with a high ankle sprain believed to have been suffered in Thursday’s contest against Florida.
The 22 year old crashed awkwardly into the net early in the 3rd period vs. the Panthers, and was deemed to have sustained a lower body injury at the time. After additional testing, the team confirmed it was a high ankle sprain, which will sideline Newhook well into the new year.
After being selected 16th overall by the Colorado Avalanche in 2019, the St. John’s native was acquired by Montreal this past offseason, and promptly signed to a 4 year, $11.6M extension. Across 23 games this season Newhook had registered 13 points (7G, 6A) alongside 8 PIMs, and a -5 rating for the Habs. He’s currently tied with winger Cole Caufield for the team lead in goals, dealing a big blow to the Canadiens offence.
In a corresponding move, Montreal has recalled Mitchell Stephens from the Laval Rocket to replace Newhook.
The Habs have once again had a rash of injuries sweep through their locker room in recent weeks. In addition to losing Newhook, the club is also without Kirby Dach (out for the year with a torn ACL), Chris Wideman (back), David Savard (broken hand), Arber Xhekaj (upper body), Jordan Harris (lower body), and Rafael Harvey-Pinard (lower body).
Despite their growing ranks in the medical department, Montreal has nevertheless managed to hover around the .500 mark for most of the season. They currently sit tied for 6th in the Atlantic Division with a 10-11-2 record through 23 games.
Montreal is next in action Saturday vs. the Detroit Red Wings at 7pm ET.
-Kyle Skinner
Twitter: @JKyleSkinner
Photo: Ken Lund. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.