Kent Hughes says he’s relieved for Patrik Laine and excited about Oliver Kapanen

“We were pretty sure his year was over. »

That’s the first thing that came out of Kent Hughes’ mouth when there was talk of Patrik Laine and his absence of two to three months that the Canadian had just announced.

What we saw of him on the ice, and with the physical exam that followed, we expected the worstcontinued the general manager of the Montreal Canadiens during an interview with Radio-Canada.

But sometimes, during the research and necessary verifications that we do by meeting specialists, we realize that there are other options.

Laine and the Canadian obtained three medical opinions before determining that the left winger would not need an operation to treat the sprained knee he suffered Saturday evening against the Maple Leafs from Toronto.

There was never really any concern that the anterior cruciate ligament would be affected, but the first opinion the Canadian obtained still pointed in the direction of an operation.

That said, avoiding the worst is not the same as saying the situation is ideal. The idea of ​​seeing Laine again around Christmas still pushes back the plans the Canadian had for him in training. This is without taking into account the fact that the team suffered another heavy loss at the very start of the season, exactly like last year with Kirby Dach.

We clearly saw against the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday that the Canadian now has a sensitive skin when it comes to this kind of thing.

In all this, however, Hughes does not lose sight of the relief that this diagnosis can provide.

For Patrik, this is really good news, he agreed. It’s not easy, what he went through last year; he gets here, he starts to feel comfortable and like a member of the team, and he gets injured again.

If he thought he would miss the entire season, he would have played only 18 games in two years. I imagine there must have been a lot of doubt in his head, so for him, we are really happy.

Laine joined the Canadian in an effort to help the team be in the race. He was going to score goals, but also give momentum to other players. These two objectives are therefore in airplane mode for now, but even if his absence will weaken the attack, Hughes does not intend to find a temporary solution to replace him.

It’s difficult to find a player who can replace Patrik for two months, argued the general manager. We have good young people internally. We’re going to want to see them play in every game between now and the start of the season and we’ll make decisions accordingly.

It’s one thing to say that we need a top 6 striker, but there were players available this summer that we didn’t go for, who corresponded to a certain caliber of player, and I don’t I’m not sure we’ll find one for two months.

In any case, the Canadian is not at a point in his cycle where it would be relevant for him to waste assets in order to obtain short-term help…

Keeping an eye on Reinbacher’s morale

If the Canadian escaped a little with Laine, he was not so lucky with young defender David Reinbacher, who had surgery on his left knee and who will miss between five and six months of activities.

The 19-year-old Austrian had a difficult season last year due to an inadequate environment in Switzerland. And now we can almost draw a line under the campaign which begins next week. But despite two seasons in a row where his progress has not had the expected curve, Hughes is hopeful about the development of his first round choice (5th overall) in 2023.

We will try to find ways to keep him with us, to keep him around the team, explained Hughes. He will work with the coaches and we don’t believe that it will be a completely wasted year in terms of development, because he will learn how we play and he will work a lot with Stéphane Robidas. The learning will take place off the ice, but I believe we will be able to help him and help him advance nonetheless.

It is especially on the mental level that there is a certain concern. Reinbacher will spend his first full year in North America rehabbing, feeling a little apart from the team and fighting the mundanity of his daily life.

Speaking to Hughes, we feel that the Canadian has had time to discover Reinbacher and see that his personality is that of a player whose confidence needs to be nourished. It’s not a tragedy: Martin St-Louis recently gave Hughes the example of Victor Hedman, whose confidence level at 19 did not suggest he would become the defenseman he later was.

But according to Hughes, if we saw the good and the bad of Reinbacher during training camp, it was above all because it was a question of confidence and adjustment.

A little later, Hughes spoke to us about the confidence that Finnish prospect Oliver Kapanen is currently displaying and, without being asked, he himself made the comparison between the two.

He’s so confident, Hughes said of Kapanen. David’s personality is different. First, the way he was received in Montreal was harder for him, since everyone wanted Matvei Michkov, while Kapanen arrived quietly.

Kapanen has a head start

Let’s talk about the Finnish center, which is intended to be in some ways the revelation of this training camp.

He didn’t steal the show in every game – Kapanen himself wasn’t excited about his Tuesday game against the Senators – but he still managed to capture management’s attention.

So much detail, so complete, Hughes emphasized. And he is confident. You see that he has already had a lot of experience among the professionals as well as at the World Championship. He came here to make the team.

Honestly, everything that is said about Kapanen these days suggests that he will start the season in Montreal. Fans are now aware that he cannot be transferred to the American League and that he will return to play in Timra, Sweden, if he does not keep his position with the Canadian.

But in the past, the organization has waited until December to send defenseman Mattias Norlinder back to Sweden, so it won’t be forced to make a decision on Kapanen’s place on the team for quite some time.

In the meantime, whether at center or right wing (where he played Tuesday alongside Christian Dvorak), Kapanen stands to benefit from an extended audition.

I think he can do a lot of things, St-Louis said after the loss to the Senators. He has an offensive game, he can obviously take faceoffs, and I think he’s a player who can also be good at taking penalties. He brings a lot and he is not one-dimensional.

In the perspective of a numerical inferiority unit which could change its face in the next year because of all its members who are in the last year of their contract, Kapanen is therefore seen as part of the solution. The Canadiens also tested Josh Anderson on the shorthand during camp, and there are discussions internally about giving Juraj Slafkovsky a similar role.

But it’s neither the needs nor the injury to Laine that will open the door for Kapanen; This is strictly what he will continue to demonstrate to the team, warns Hughes.

If Kapanen does indeed start the season in Montreal and Michael Pezzetta retains his position of 13^e attacking as expected, the Canadian will then have to determine whether he keeps 14 attackers or 8 defenders.

Even with the return of Kaiden Guhle, who should be ready for the first game of the season, the idea of ​​retaining eight defensemen could smile on Logan Mailloux, whose training camp the Canadian likes.

An additional position in attack, on the other hand, would favor Emil Heineman or Alex Barré-Boulet.