The Montreal Canadiens announced this morning that forward Kirby Dach will be out long-term with what the Canadiens are calling a significant injury that is not short-term. This news is not only unfortunate for the Habs but also for Dach, who struggled with injuries last season, which limited him to only 58 games in his first season with the Canadiens. Dach had a strong opening night performance, which saw him put up two assists in the shootout loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs. Montreal is now down two forwards, as Christian Dvorak is also out indefinitely. Micheal Pezzetta will likely slide his way into the Montreal Canadiens lineup now with the injury to Dach. Pezzetta doesn’t have the offensive spark that Dach brings to the Habs however, he does bring some more size and physicality to the lineup. In 63 games last season, Pezzetta put up seven goals and eight assists for 15 points.
The Habs will likely call someone up from Laval as Pezzetta was their only extra forward, but the Rocket have also been hit with the injury bug as they announced that Emil Heineman will be out indefinitely with an upper-body injury, so only time will tell on how the Habs will adjust to Dach being out. Heineman was entering his first full season in North America after spending 11 games with Laval at the end of last season, where he put up seven goals and two assists for nine points; he had an assist for the Rocket in their first game of the season.
Huh, guess last years injuries can’t all be blamed on the training staff that was fired. Really sorry to hear that Dach will be out for the long term, great young player.