Freshly acquired Montreal Canadiens center Sean Monahan was a bit of a question mark for the upcoming year after missing the last month of the 2021-22 season and the entire playoffs. Labelled as questionable for the start of the season a few weeks ago, things are looking up for Monahan as his recovery from hip surgery continues. Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said today that they are being cautious with Monahan, holding him out of scrimmages, but that he will play in preseason games at some point, boding well for his opening-night availability.
The Canadiens received a conditional 2025 first-round pick from the Calgary Flames for taking on the final season of his $6.375MM AAV contract, which was much too rich a price for a cap-strapped Calgary to pay given Monahan’s declining health and production. After Monahan had just eight goals and 23 points in 65 games last season, Montreal is hoping a return to consistent top-nine minutes will help them recoup serious offensive value in the final season of Monahan’s deal, and maybe even flip him at this year’s trade deadline with some salary retained.
Monahan told the media last month that “he’s ready to play hockey again at a high level.” It will take a lot of patience and conditioning for Monahan to sniff his previous 30-goal, 60-point-calibre play, but St. Louis seems to understand that. Monahan will be competing for time down the middle with Nick Suzuki, Christian Dvorak, Jake Evans, and Kirby Dach, who could likely shift to the wing.
Montreal opens their preseason on Monday at home against the New Jersey Devils.
Dude is Robocop except he doesn’t have a gun or anything else except the parts.
Poor guy. Was a stud in his prime
No he wasn’t.
2013-2019 he was pretty damn good….Not a banger, but 60 pts four seasons.
link to hockey-reference.com
Hope this works out for him. everything you about from Calgary he actually quality human being. Hockey culture needs more of these. less of the boys being boys crowd.
To quote Buckaroo Banzai: “Sooooo what. Biiiiig deal.”
You have to wonder why the bruins weren’t going after Monahan their centers are old and have really fallen a cliff with their play! Most around the league were saying sooooooooo what. Biiiiiig deal when krejci and Bergeron signed
Probably because they didn’t have the cap space to acquire Monahan.
So Montreal acquired a 2025 1st. I would have wanted a 2023 1st.