The Montreal Canadiens have had their fair share of injury woes already this offseason, but today have announced something more frightening than an injured shoulder or broken ankle. The team released an update on forward Jacob de La Rose, indicating that he had a cardiac episode and will not travel with the team to Toronto for their season opener. He is remaining in Montreal for “ongoing evaluation.” Arpon Basu of The Athletic relays that the move is “precautionary in nature” and that it is not a serious condition. Still, the team would not take the chance of sending him to Toronto and have placed him on injured reserve to start the season.
de La Rose will join Shea Weber and David Schlemko with that designation, while Nicolas Deslauriers is also out indefinitely with a facial fracture suffered earlier this preseason. The Canadiens dealt with several other surgeries this summer to key players but it looks as though they will head into the season with the rest of the roster more or less in tact. That’s important for a franchise that is looking to bounce back and ride the performances from young players like Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Victor Mete and Jonathan Drouin to better fortunes this season.
The incident occurred after Saturday’s game against the Ottawa Senators and is a tough break for de La Rose, who is a possible breakout candidate in Montreal this season. The 23-year old forward registered just 12 points in 55 games last year, but has shown signs of the potential that made him the 34th pick in 2013. Though there may not be a first line future for him at this point, Montreal can certainly use some reliable secondary scoring options that can also add physicality and some positional versatility—things that de La Rose does well. They’ll obviously monitor him extensively to make sure nothing is out of the ordinary before putting him back on the ice.