Montreal Canadiens forward Jonathan Drouin could sit out Saturday’s game after missing team meeting
Montreal Canadiens forward Jonathan Drouin could miss Saturday’s game against the Tampa Bay Lightning after failing to show up for a team meeting, Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis said Friday.
St. Louis called the situation a “non-negotiable” and also said Drouin was not allowed to practice with the team on Friday. The Canadiens and Lightning are set to play at 7:00 p.m. ET on Saturday at Amalie Arena in Tampa, FL.
Drouin, 27, has 26 points (one goal, 25 assists) in 46 games with the Canadiens this season. The five-foot-eleven forward is currently riding a three-game point streak and has eight points in nine games thus far in March.
Jonathan Drouin was late at the team meeting this morning. Martin St-Louis doesn’t want to say if he’ll play or not tomorrow. @CanadiensMTL
— Renaud Lavoie (@renlavoietva) March 17, 2023Coincidentally, it was Tampa Bay that originally selected Drouin in the first round (No. 3 overall) of the 2013 NHL Draft, right after Nathan MacKinnon and Aleksander Barkov respectively went at No. 1 and 2.
Drouin spent parts of three seasons with the Lightning before being traded to the Canadiens in 2017 as part of a deal that sent defenseman Mikhail Sergachev and a second-round pick to Tampa Bay.
While Sergachev went on to win two Stanley Cups with the Lightning, Drouin’s tenure in Montreal has been comparatively uneven. The Sainte-Agathe, Que. product topped out at 53 points in 81 games during his second season with the Canadiens but has missed significant time in the years since for a wide variety of reasons, including a leave of absence from the club during its run to the 2021 Stanley Cup Final.
Drouin is in the final season of the six-year, $5.5 million AAV contract he signed with the Canadiens upon his arrival in 2017. He’ll be eligible to become an unrestricted free agent this July.
Through 473 career games over parts of nine seasons with the Lightning and Canadiens, Drouin has collected 76 goals and 278 points. He’s added six goals and 21 points in 33 playoff contests.