Kaiden Guhle’s start to the season has hit a snag before training camp even gets rolling.
The Montreal Canadiens announced that the defenseman will be sidelined for the next four to five weeks after undergoing minor adductor surgery. If that recovery window holds, he should be back around mid-October, though the timetable still means he could miss only four or five games once the season begins. The bigger issue is that he’ll be away from camp, which delays his ramp-up and pushes back the point when he can get back to full speed.
For Montreal, it’s another frustrating pause for a player whose body has already forced him off the ice too often. Last season, Guhle was limited to two goals and 11 points in 39 games because of multiple lower-body injuries.
The year before, a hand laceration cut his season to 55 games. Across his four-year career, he has reached the 70-game mark just once.
That matters because the Canadiens are expected to open the 2026-27 season without one of their most important blue-liners. Guhle has become arguably Montreal’s top defensive defenseman, and last season he posted a 92.5% on-ice SV% at even strength while starting 62.4% of his shifts in the defensive zone. He can move the puck from the back end, too, but health has kept him from putting up the kind of point totals his skill set suggests are there.
Montreal has generally done a strong job in recent years of securing its core on team-friendly deals, and Guhle is part of that group. He’s entering the second season of a six-year, $33.3MM contract he signed in 2024.
With the salary cap’s Upper Limit continuing to rise, that deal should become easier to absorb. But if Guhle can’t stay available, it becomes a much tougher contract for the Canadiens to manage.
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