Montreal Canadiens forward Jonathan Drouin will miss four-to-six weeks with an upper-body injury

Following the Montreal Canadiens, 5-1 loss to the New Jersey Devils Tuesday evening, the Canadiens announced that forward Jonathan Drouin will miss four-to-six weeks due to an upper-body injury sustained in Nov.5 game against the Vegas Golden Knights.

The former Memorial Cup champion and CHL/QMJHL Player of the Year is in his sixth season with the Habs. Last season, Drouin registered six goals and 20 points in 34 games. So far this season the 27-year-old has four assists in 12 games.

Drouin came to the Habs organization in the summer of 2017 after a big trade that involved former 2016 ninth-overall pick and now two-time Stanley Cup champion Mikhail Sergachev being shipped off to the Tampa Bay Lightning in exchange for Drouin. The Ste-Agathe-des-Monts Quebec native made his debut with the Habs in 2017 and recorded 46 points. In the 2018-19 campaign, Drouin matched his career high of 53 points that he set in the 2016-17 season with the Lightning. That year, he recorded 18 goals and 35 assists in 81 games in what was just his second season wearing the Canadiens jersey.

This is not the first trip around the injury block for Drouin. Last season he underwent wrist surgery which sidelined him for the remainder of the 2021-22 season. He also had an ankle injury which he dealt with in the 2019-20 season. Then, in 2020-21, Drouin and the Canadiens hit a rift, after not playing in three games due to non-COVID-related issues, the Canadiens placed Drouin on Long-Term Injury Reserve (LTIR) to deal with personal issues. While their relationship has seem to have been rekindled, Drouin now hits another roadblock in what has been a rocky five seasons.