The Montreal Canadiens are counting on Kaiden Guhle to put the injury stretch behind him and give them a full season of the hard, physical game that made them commit long term.
That commitment came in the summer of 2024, when GM Kent Hughes signed the former 16th overall pick from the 2020 draft to a six-year contract carrying a $5.55 million cap hit, a deal that arrived a year before his ELC expired. It was an easy call at the time.
Guhle had already shown enough with his steady play and heavy hits, coming off a 22-point season and 56 penalty minutes. Since then, though, the Canadiens haven’t gotten the kind of availability they need from a player they’ve clearly invested in.
The numbers tell the story. Guhle played only 55 games in the 2024-25 season after missing the start of training camp following appendix surgery and then suffering a freak on-ice injury that left his quadriceps lacerated.
Last year brought another setback, this time a partially torn adductor muscle that required surgery and limited him to 39 games. Across two seasons, that adds up to just 94 games, far too little for a core defender on a long-term deal.
His return from the adductor surgery wasn’t seamless, either. Guhle said he had trouble finding his rhythm, and that made sense given the circumstances.
Catching up in January against players who had been going full tilt since mid-October was never going to be easy. Later in the season, he was plainly dealing with something, sitting out three of the final five regular-season games.
A few weeks after that, he was visibly laboring against the Carolina Hurricanes.
The Canadiens still know what he can be when he’s right. Cole Caufield once described what Guhle brings by saying that he “buried people,” and that fits.
At full health and in sync, Guhle can tilt a game with his impact. If Montreal wants to make noise in the playoffs, it needs that version of him.
Now he heads into the second year of his six-year contract with one simple challenge: stay on the ice. He’ll have spent the summer getting his body ready for the grind of an 84-game season, but the biggest variable is the one he can’t control.
Lady Luck has been the obstacle so far. The Canadiens have seen the upside.
What they need next is consistency.
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Kent Hughes May Be Ending The Canadiens Quiet Summer Soon
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The exact nature of the news remains unclear, with no confirmations yet from the club. Still, sources indicate something could break early in the week, giving Canadiens fans a fresh point of attention before the calendar turns fully toward the next phase of team business. [Read more 🡒]