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Montreal Canadiens News

The Canadiens have placed Paul Byron on the Long Term Injury Reserve with a Hip Injury

33-year-old veteran Left Winger Paul Byron will be placed on the LTI due to a hip injury steaming from last season. Byron has struggled to stay healthy the last few years playing only 102 games in the last three NHL seasons. He collected seven points in 27 games in 2021-22 as he found himself out of the lineup more often than in. By placing the 12-year veteran on the LTI, the Canadiens free up $900,000 in cap space.

Paul Byron
Blais left Saturday's pre-season game with an upper-body injury and did not return.

Blais opened training camp on a line with Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider but has since dropped down the depth chart and is now banged up. Blais shouldn't carry any fantasy value heading into the 2022-23 season. If he misses the Rangers' season opener, expect Vitaly Kravtsov to get into the lineup.

Sammy Blais
Kaapo Kahkonen will Start Saturday for San Jose vs Nashville.

Kahkonen will get the second of the back-to-back starts for the Global Series in Prague. The 26-year-old will get his first nod between the crease this season after posting a .916 SV% and 2.86 GAA across 16 games after getting dealt to the Sharks' at the trade deadline in 2021-22.

Kaapo Kahkonen
Suzuki (lower-body) returned to the ice in a non-contact jersey on Friday.

Suzuki has been battling a lower-body injury throughout training camp but returned to the ice on Friday. Suzuki told reporters that he would have played through the injury during the regular season but that they're being careful because it's training camp. This is positive news that Suzuki should be ready to go for the Canadiens' season opener.

Nick Suzuki
Suzuki will miss two weeks with a lower-body injury.

Suzuki suffered the injury during offseason training and is expected to be sidelined for a couple of weeks. It seems possible that the newly minted Canadiens' captain could be ready for the start of the season, which is just over two weeks away for Montreal.

Nick Suzuki
Texier will not join the Blue Jackets for the 2022-23 season.

The Blue Jackets released a statement that read "per the advice and recommendation of the NHL/NHLPA Substance Abuse and Behavioral Health Program, will not join the club for the 2022-23 NHL season." In the statement, Texier said "During the past year, I have experienced some personal issues and challenges and I feel I need to be close to my family at this time." His $1.525M cap hit will come off of the Blue Jackets' books this season.

Alexandre Texier
The Canadiens have acquired Mike Matheson and a 2023 4th round pick from the Penguins for Jeff Petry and Ryan Poehling.

Matheson is coming off of a career-year, posting career-bests in goals (11), assists (20) and points (31) in 74 games with the Penguins. Matheson averaged 18:44 TOI/gm in two years with the Penguins butu could take on a larger role in Montreal, where there is not many experienced NHL defensemen.

Mike Matheson