Minimizing injuries: a strength the Habs will need to maintain in 2025-2026

Dose
Crédit: Kirby Dach skates during Montreal Canadiens' 2-1 overtime win over New York Islanders.

Injuries are a very important aspect of the sports world, as they can have a huge impact on a team’s season, turning it into either a success or a disaster. This is the case in hockey, and let’s just say that the Montreal Canadiens have been through hell at this level a few times in recent years.

It’s been such a big problem for the Habs that, in June 2023, they decided to make a big change, replacing Graham Rynbend with Jim Ramsay as the team’s chief therapist and director of sports medicine and development. And so far, it’s really helped the Canadiens solve their problem of recurring and persistent injuries.

In fact, this was especially noticeable last season, when the vast majority of players in the line-up stayed healthy to play in all or almost all of the team’s games.[content-ads] As you can see by looking at the HockeyDB.com chart, seven Habs players played in each of the 82 regular-season games, and then another six players played in 70 or more games.

We can even add Alexandre Carrier to this list, given that he played a total of 79 games last season if we take into account his games with the Nashville Predators. Jayden Struble could also make the list, having missed several games largely because he was left out as the 7th defenseman. In short, we can say that 17 Habs players (including the two goaltenders) stayed for the entire season.

Obviously, there were long-term injuries to Patrik Laine, Kaiden Guhle, Kirby Dach and Emil Heineman, but all four played more than 50 games.

[content-ads] So it was a season with a healthier line-up, and to no one’s surprise, this greatly benefited the team’s success, as they qualified for the playoffs for the first time in four years. What helped the team even more was that the most important players, such as Suzuki, Caufield, Hutson, Slafkovsky and Matheson, missed little or no games.

The Habs don’t have incredible depth, so Martin St-Louis will need everyone to stay healthy.

Ideally, we’d even like to see a progression in the club’s overall health, as we hope to see almost full seasons for Patrik Laine, but especially for Kirby Dach and Kaiden Guhle. If Dach ends up being the team’s second center, we’ll really need him to stay healthy. We’d also like to see an injury-free rookie season, and especially one without a long absence for Ivan Demidov. [spacer title=’Overtime’] – She’s too strong.

– Nice percentages for the Blue Jays.