Montreal Canadiens: Habs Make More Changes to Medical Staff

On Friday, the Canadiens announced some significant changes to their medical staff, as well as the retirement of long-time team physician Dr. David Mulder. Mulder was with the Canadiens for the last 60 years and will still be with the team in some form of an advisory role.

Dr. Dan Deckelbaum will now take over as team physician, and Dr. Thierry Pauyo has been promoted to Head Orthopedic Surgeon. Deckelbaum had been with the Canadiens organization for 12 seasons prior to this promotion, previously serving as the Assistant to the Head Team Physician (Dr. Mulder).

The Canadiens also announced Matthew Moore was hired as a Massage Therapist, Daniel Chammas was promoted to Assistant Athletic Trainer, and Marie-Pierre Néron was brought in to replace Chammas in Laval as an Assistant Therapist with the Rocket.

This is the second major shakeup the Habs have made to their medical staff this off-season. The Canadiens hired Jim Ramsay to serve as the team’s Director of Sports Medicine, Performance and Head Athletic Therapist, in addition to the hiring of Maxime Gauthier to serve as the club’s Head Physiotherapist.

Typically, it wouldn’t be breaking news to see a team hire new medical personnel, nor would you often see such a shakeup. But, the organization is clearly prioritizing improvements in this area after historic levels of injury problems in each of the last two seasons.

It’s great to see the Canadiens have made improvement in this area a priority. Ramsay came over from the Rangers organization, where he previously worked with team president Jeff Gorton. The Rangers have been one of the healthiest teams in the NHL during Ramsay’s 28 years with the Rangers.

Gauthier has never worked directly with an NHL organization but has plenty of experience working with professional athletes, including NHL players. The Canadiens are hoping these new hires can change their fortune on the injury front.

Only time will tell, but the Canadiens have already ruled Chris Wideman out indefinitely with a back injury. Ideally, that’s the worst injury they have to deal with for the time being, with training camp just getting underway.