The Montreal Canadiens have announced that Jonathan Drouin will take an indefinite leave of absence for the team for personal reasons. The team has asked everyone to respect his privacy and placed him on long-term injured reserve. Drouin hasn’t played since April 21 against the Edmonton Oilers, missing the last three games. That means he could be placed on LTIR retroactive to his last appearance, and could potentially return before the end of the season after missing his mandated ten games.
It has been a difficult season performance-wise for Drouin, who has just two goals in 44 games this season. After the announcement, there was an immediate outpouring of support on social media from fans and media alike, wishing him the best as he deals with whatever is going on.
With Drouin on LTIR, the Canadiens shouldn’t run into any more cap issues in relation to Cole Caufield or Jake Evans and could use the two young forwards down the stretch. Both were on the ice at morning skate according to John Lu of TSN as the team prepares for a game against the Toronto Maple Leafs this evening.
Wish Drouin the best, but he has been a problem child since he was drafted by the Bolts. One has to wonder if substance abuse has been part of his issues. A great talent, but . . .
Agreed, hope for the best. Issues began far before being drafted.
Nothing like speculating using substances with zero evidence. You have zero idea what personal issues he’s working through. To speculate substance abuse is unfair.
Smearing a guy’s reputation is a funny way of wishing him the best.
Hoping this is a family matter that can be resolved, rather than the other possibilities…
Wish the guy the best with whatever the situation is. But how is he able to go on any type of IR if it’s not for physical reasons?
The CBA permits teams to place players on LTIR for paid, non-physical related personal leave with cap relief. Reason does not need to be made public to protect privacy.
If Drouin is mentally ill or needs rehab, that certainly would qualify.
If anyone here watched Robin Lehner’s talk about how the leagues isolation of players is causing many issues for them, you might get a better idea of how hard these past two seasons have been on players.
Usually when players take leaves of absence like this and ask for privacy it come out they have a serious illness. Trey Mancini of the Baltimore Orioles comes to mind as a recent one
Wow Sergachev trade is beyond lopsided now. Hope he figures it out. Best of luck kid!
Sergachev if not on the lightning is at best a 2nd pairing guy he is very weak in the dzone and who couldn’t get points on with the lightning forwards and hedman! Lol