Excerpt from 'Habs Hockey Report' of host Amy Johnson commenting on David Reinbacher's early-season injury.

The Montreal Canadiens announced on Saturday morning that forward Alex Newhook will miss 10 to 12 weeks due to a high ankle sprain.

The injury occurred on the first shift in the third period of Thursday’s game against the Florida Panthers when the forward hit the side of the net following contact with Sam Reinhart.

The situation immediately did not look good for Newhook as he was not able to put any weight on his left foot and needed the assistance of Mike Matheson and Brendan Gallagher to leave the ice.

Newhook was acquired on June 27th from the Colorado Avalanche for the 31st and 37th draft picks and defenceman Gianni Fairbrother. The Canadiens were hoping that they would help the underachieving forward reach his potential.

At the time of his acquisition, Martin St. Louis was not decided if the 16th overall pick in 2019 would be slotted on the wing or as a center. During the pre-season, he was used at both positions.

To kick off the regular season against the Toronto Maple Leafs, Newhook played to the left of Kirby Dach and Juraj Slafkovsky and scored twice in his Canadiens debut. In the second game of the season against the Chicago Blackhawks, Dach tore his ACL and MCL that sidelined him for the year.

St. Louis pivoted on his original plan and threw Newhook down the middle. Results did not follow with the change. The forward went 13 consecutive matches without a goal and totaled four assists.

Christian Dvorak’s return to the lineup moved Newhook back to the wing and was on a roll with six points in his last seven contests. At the time of his injury, the St. John’s, NFLD native co-led the team with seven goals tied with Cole Caufield.

Injury List Grows

The Canadiens recent trend of injuries continues this season as Newhook joins the list with Dach, David Savard, Jordan Harris, Rafael Harvey-Pinard and Arber Xhekaj with significant absences.

During the offseason, the organization made changes to the sports medicine department in hopes of reducing the number of man-games lost due to injury.

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Canadiens Forward Alex Newhook Out 10-12 Weeks With Ankle Injury