Montreal Canadiens forward Cole Caufield will miss the remainder of the regular season as he undergoes surgery on his right shoulder.
The team announced this on Saturday morning and stated that the American should go under the knife “in the near future”. No deadline has been set for a return to the game.
Watch the reactions of CH coach Martin St-Louis in the main video.
The 22-year-old has been playing with this injury for a long time. That didn’t stop him from setting a career high with 26 goals. Caufield also led the CH in that column, adding 10 assists in 46 games for a total of 36 points.
“It’s a big loss for us,” defender David Savard told TVA Sports. He was a guy who brought a lot of passion with him. He loves to play, he loves to be in the bedroom, he loves everything about play. It will be difficult to replace him. It’s impossible to replace a man with such an infectious smile.
“He is a young man who likes to play. He didn’t want that to happen, he tried to keep going for as long as possible, hoping it would get better with time. I think he saw that there was only one negative to go on, that there was a possibility it would get worse,” added the Quebecer, who explained that the entire organization was aware of his health issues.
Press conferences by N. Suzuki, J. Harris, J. Anderson and D. Savard –
Belzile remembered
On Friday, it was Caufield’s contract negotiations that sparked the conversation and which the player himself commented on at a press conference.
“It’s everywhere, you hear about it. I want to get away from this. It will happen when it happens. But obviously I like playing here, I like this team and this group of players. I take it one step at a time. But yeah, I’m thinking about it,” he said, according to Le Journal de Montréal.
The Wisconsin native will become a restricted free agent at the end of this campaign. In his first 123 National League games, he had 84 points, including 53 goals.
To make up for the loss of the dynamic forward, the Canadian brought back forward Alex Belzile from Laval Rocket. The captain of the school club Habs has not yet played in the National Hockey League this season. He had 25 points in 29 AHL games.
Jonathan Drouin’s name was also put on the injured list retroactively to January 16. The Quebecer missed the team’s last two duels.
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