Since joining the Montreal Canadiens, Kaiden Guhle has missed a lot of games and sooner or later Kent Hughes will need to find a more viable option than replacing him with Jayden Struble.
While fans and media alike were eagerly awaiting an update on Alex Newhook’s health yesterday, the Montreal Canadiens served them a double dose of bad news. The team revealed that the forward suffered a broken ankle and had to undergo surgery, which would sideline him for four months and added that blueliner Kaiden Guhle also had to undergo surgery for a partially torn adductor muscle and would miss another eight to ten weeks.
The Guhle update was somewhat surprising since we had been told when he was initially injured that he would miss four to six weeks, and that was on October 16. He attempted to resume skating a few days ago, did so for two days, then stopped, which raised a few eyebrows.
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According to Renaud Lavoie, when the defenseman was first injured, the team opted for a conservative treatment plan to avoid surgery. Still, they were forced to reconsider after Guhle’s on-ice return didn’t go as planned.
In his young career, the 23-year-old has never played a full 82-game season. In his rookie season, 2022-23, he played in only 44 games; in his sophomore season, 70; and last year, 55. Of course, the appendix surgery contributed to last year’s low number of games and that could have happened to anyone, just like the lacerated quad muscle, but still, tonight’s game will be the 90th he’s missed in four seasons.
While he definitely has the talent to be part of the young core Kent Hughes is building on, it’s starting to look like the Canadiens must always have a contingency plan to fill in for the stay-at-home defenseman. Right now, Jayden Struble is filling in for him alongside Lane Hutson, but he’s definitely not in the right chair, so to speak, and he’s impacting his partner’s performance.
Guhle is too important a piece to be replaced by a fringe NHLer. Furthermore, right-shot defenseman David Reinbacher is having a rocky start to his career, being plagued by plenty of injuries. Having one blueliner who can’t stay healthy is already a headache, but having two would be a disaster.
Guhle is inked to a six-year deal with a $5.5 M cap hit, and he’s only in the first season of that pact. Wanting to keep the talented rearguard as part of the core is understandable, but Kent Hughes has to find a stronger contingency plan than replacing him with Struble on Hutson’s pairing.
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