The Montreal Canadiens have announced that they are placing forward Evgenii Dadonov on the Injured Reserve (IR). The veteran forward has been a healthy scratch the past few games, which have now been linked to this move.
The Montreal Canadiens placed him on the IR retroactively to Monday. It’s a move that brings Joel Edmundson back to the lineup for the organization, which is a nice addition to the defense core. But it’s still a problem for Dadonov.
Canadiens announce Evgenii Dadonov’s IR designation (illness) is retroactive to Monday. Earliest he would be eligible to play is Tuesday. Joel Edmundson’s officially been activated from IR.
— Arpon Basu (@ArponBasu) November 3, 2022
Montreal Canadiens send Evgenii Dadonov to Injured Reserve.
A piece I wrote was published earlier, discussing the idea of Dadonov being on his way out from the Habs organization. I suggested that the healthy scratches, lack of offense, and want to keep the youngsters around were going to drive Dadonov to be traded or waived.
Instead, he was sent to the IR to free up the chance for Joel Edmundson to join the team. It seems like there’s something at play here with Dadonov, but for now, he has been sent to the IR. According to Stu Cowan of the Montreal Gazette, things have evolved from where they were a few days ago.
Cowan noted the progression from being a healthy scratch to taking therapy days, to having a virus, to being placed on IR by the Habs organization. Dadonov’s performance this season has been lackluster, to say the least.
He has played in eight games for the Habs organization, where he has not registered a single point and has a minus-three plus-minus rating. Needless to say, things have not quite gone as anticipated.
The hopes do not seem to be high for Dadonov to get things back on track. Just taking to Twitter to see the reactions to Dadonov heading to the IR and the confusion about his status; there was not a lot of support. Granted, it’s Twitter, which can be a vile place in itself at times.
After trading for Dadonov during this summer when they moved Shea Weber’s contract off the books, there was some hope that he might be able to slot into the team’s forward core and bring some benefit.
At the end of things, that has not been the case. He has yet to do much of anything on the ice for the Habs offense.
For the time being, Dadonov will head to the IR with an “illness” designation, and the Habs will continue on with their season.