Montreal Canadiens: Juraj Slafkovsky Close To Returning From Injury

The Montreal Canadiens first overall pick from last summer’s NHL Draft has not played in their past two games. Though information was slow to leak out about the reason why he wasn’t playing, it sounds like he is inching closer to returning.

Slafkovsky’s best game at the NHL level came against the Arizona Coyotes last week. He looked more comfortable on the ice, more confident with the puck on his stick, and cocky enough to let a Coyotes defender know he had just scored his first career goal.

But then he was absent from practice and did not play in the Canadiens losses to the Dallas Stars and Minnesota Wild. It was later revealed he suffered an upper body injury, possibly on the hit he received just before scoring his first NHL goal.

Canadiens winger Juraj Slafkovky making road trip with team

It was announced by the team yesterday that Slafkovksy was not quite cleared by doctors to return to action just yet. But, the big winger is making the trip with the team as they head to Buffalo for tonight’s game.

This doesn’t mean he is going to play tonight, but he should be back in the lineup sometime during the team’s upcoming four game road trip. The Habs will travel to Buffalo, St. Louis, Minnesota and Winnipeg before returning to the Bell Centre on November 5th.

The team also announced that Joel Armia and Joel Edmundson are training with the team, but in no-contact jerseys. They will take the road trip with the team as well, which signals all three of Slafkovsky, Armia and Edmundson are inching closer to joining the lineup as the team gets closer to full health.

It will be interesting to see which players are taken out of the lineup to make room for these two veterans and their first overall pick.

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