Injury Notes: Wideman, Kylington, Norris

The Montreal Canadiens announced that defenseman Chris Wideman will be out indefinitely with a back injury. No further details have been provided.

This news comes as Montreal opens up its training camp with plenty of question marks surrounding its blue line. Including David Reinbacher, the Canadiens have nine different defenders competing for an NHL role. With Wideman out, the competition opens up more to young defenders like Justin Barron, Kaiden Guhle, and Jordan Harris. But without details of what’s holding Wideman out, it’s unclear how long those roster spots will remain open. Wideman is on the second year of a two-year contract signed last summer, carrying a cap hit of $762.5K into the 2023-24 season.

Other injury notes:

• The Calgary Flames announced that the team’s medical and fitness testing determined that defender Oliver Kylington is unable to participate in the opening day of training camp. No further details were provided, in an effort to maintain Kylington’s privacy. The defender appeared in a career-high 73 games in 2021-22, recording nine goals and 31 points.
• Ottawa Senators forward Joshua Norris was seen wearing a non-contact jersey as the team opened camp. The forward has been rehabbing from shoulder surgery in January and reportedly “tweaked” something at a recent team practice. General manager Pierre Dorion said that Norris pushed off wanting to wear a non-contact jersey but the team wants to be extra cautious. However, Dorion also shared that if the regular season started tomorrow, Norris would be in the starting lineup. That’s encouraging to hear, as Norris was held out of all but eight games last season, after recording 35 goals and 55 points in 66 games during the 2021-22 campaign. Norris will likely slot into the Senators’ top-six when they open up the regular season, although continuing to see how he progresses from this shoulder injury will be worth monitoring.