The Montreal Canadiens, like every team in the National Hockey League, need to cut their rosters down today. Each team has until 5:00 PM EST to be salary cap compliant and at the limit of 23 players on their roster.
The Canadiens have some work to do as they still technically have 36 players on their roster, though a few of them are injured. Regardless, we are sure to see a plethora of moves later today to work things out.
The team announced their list of injuries, which may prove to be longer than the list of cuts they need to post today. It will help them get to that magic number of 23 though as a handful of players are going to start the season on injured reserve.
Canadiens announce lengthy list of injuries on eve of regular season
Joel Edmundson was on the ice this morning, skating at least, but he is not near a return. The team says he still has no timetable to return to action. This is starting to feel like deja vu all over again after he missed months last season with what initially seemed like a minor ache.
Joel Armia has an upper body injury and will be out one to two weeks. That means he will miss the first handful of regular season games, but it opens up a roster spot at forward for a young player.
Emil Heineman has a thumb injury and is going to be out for six weeks. That’s a pretty significant thumb injury and it will keep him on long term injured reserve for a while. He will likely head back to Sweden after rehabbing in Montreal from his injury.
Mike Matheson has a lower body injury and is listed as day-to-day. I shudder to think of what this team’s blue line looks like against the high powered offence of the Toronto Maple Leafs without Edmundson and Matheson in the lineup.
We could see the Habs dip back into the waiver wire today, especailly if they believe Matheson will be out for any length of time.
Finally, the good news! Nick Suzuki, Christian Dvorak and Mike Hoffman will all be back in the lineup for opening night and are participating in practice this morning.
So, Armia and Edmundson are sure to miss some time, and Matheson might miss a few games as well. That sure opens up some room on the back end for young guys to make their mark early in the season.
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