The bad news continues to come for the Montreal Canadiens, who today announced that physical forward Nicolas Deslauriers needed surgery to repair a facial fracture and is out indefinitely. The injury was the result of a fight with New Jersey Devils forward Brandon Braddock during a preseason game on Monday night.
Despite his offensive shortcomings, Deslauriers was a well-liked and effective forward for the Canadiens last season. Using his size and skating ability, the 27-year old pounded opposing defensemen to the tune of 238 hits in just 58 games, and even contributed 10 goals and 14 points. While he shouldn’t be expected to tally double digit goal totals every season, there is a real use for him in the bottom-six for Montreal this season given their questionable depth up front and likely reliance on young players.
Unfortunately, Deslauriers will now join the lengthy list of walking wounded for the Canadiens as the season approaches. It’s not clear if this injury will keep him from playing in any regular season games, though he may have to tone down the physical part of his game for at least a little while. The team is already without other physical players like Shea Weber and Andrew Shaw for the beginning of the season, but could get speedy forward Paul Byron back in time for the first game after a quick recovery this summer.