Montreal Canadiens: Kaiden Guhle Out of WHL Lineup Indefinitely
Montreal Canadiens prospect Kaiden Guhle has had an interesting season thus far.
The first round pick of the Habs in the 2020 NHL Draft was supposed to be playing for the Prince Albert Raiders of the Western Hockey League this season. That season would usually start in September, but the start of this season was postponed due to the global pandemic.
While waiting for his WHL team to start training camp, Guhle suited up for Canada at the World Juniors. He played a third pairing role but was solid defensively and added three points in seven games to help his country earn a silver medal.
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When the World Juniors ended in January, there was still no sign of a season beginning soon in Prince Albert. So, the Canadiens assigned their newest first round pick to their AHL affiliate. Guhle took part in training camp in late January with the Laval Rocket and played three games for the team before being reassigned to his Junior club.
He likely would have stayed in the AHL longer thanks to his strong play, but players are required to play in Junior instead of the AHL until they are in their 20 year old season. Guhle just turned 19 in January.
The Raiders season finally got underway last weekend and Guhle was terrific for the Raiders. He is now the team’s captain and a pillar of their defence. He played two games over the weekend, scoring a goal and adding an assist while playing a big role at five on five, quarterbacking the team’s power play and also being a huge piece of their penalty kill.
The 6’3″ and 205 pound left defenceman was never questioned on his defensive ability, and he was showing more offensive instincts than he had previously in his WHL career.
However, the Canadiens prospect will now be out of the lineup for a while. His Junior team announced on twitter that Guhle injured his hand in the team’s game on Sunday and he will be out indefinitely.
Raiders captain Kaiden Guhle will be out indefinitely after suffering a hand injury in Sunday's game against the Moose Jaw Warriors.
— Prince Albert Raiders (@PARaidersHockey) March 16, 2021
Obviously an injury at any time isn’t ideal, but this is particularly poor timing for Guhle. It is the middle of March and he has played only 12 games this season with three different teams at the World Junior, AHL and WHL levels.
It would have been great to have him play the full 24 game WHL schedule to get into more of a rhythm and see what he can offer offensively at the Junior level. Unfortunately, he won’t play every game as he already missed his team’s win last night.
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Hopefully his hand injury isn’t as bad as Ben Chiarot’s or we might not see much of Guhle until Prince Albert starts their 2021-22 season next fall.