Kaiden Guhle out indefinitely after undergoing surgery
The Habs lost Tuesday’s game against Winnipeg along with defenceman Kaiden Guhle who exited with a lower-body injury. He underwent successful surgery to repair a lacerated quadriceps muscle and is out indefinitely.
Guhle has once again been a key part of Montreal’s back end this season. Offensively, he has been a bit quieter with 14 points in 44 games but with Lane Hutson and Mike Matheson in the mix, that was to be expected. Instead, Guhle has been the primary shutdown defender for the majority of the 2024-25 campaign and spent some time playing on his off-side.
The 23-year-old is averaging a career-best 21:14 of playing time this season while sitting second on the team in blocked shots with 100, nine behind David Savard. He’s also taking a regular turn on the penalty kill.
It’s always difficult when a top blueliner goes down and Guhle’s absence will especially be felt with the limited options behind him. In the short term, Savard will likely move up into the top four (with Alexandre Carrier being the other righty in the mix) but at 34, that’s not an ideal role for him at this point of his career.
Going that way will allow Arber Xhekaj to remain in the more sheltered role that he has, one that he has had some success in after a bit of a tough start to the season. He’ll be joined by Jayden Struble whose conditioning stint has come to an end probably a bit earlier than the Habs would have liked as he was recalled to the roster.
While the Canadiens haven’t announced this transaction, Emil Heineman was placed on injured reserve today. In doing so, they’ve opened up a roster spot. Speculatively, that should be used on an extra defender.
But unless the plan is to play whoever is recalled, it might make more sense for someone like Gustav Lindstrom to get the call to be the seventh option rather than have Logan Mailloux or Adam Engstrom come up and primarily be scratched. It wouldn’t be shocking to see that spot filled in the near future but no matter who comes up, that player won’t be anywhere near as impactful as Guhle has been this season.