Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Habs lose blueliners Petry, Gilbert to season-ending surgeries

Montreal Canadiens v Tampa Bay Lightning - Game Three

Montreal Canadiens v Tampa Bay Lightning - Game Three

Scott Audette

Montreal’s nightmare campaign continued on Thursday, as the club announced defensemen Jeff Petry and Tom Gilbert are done for the year due to sports hernia and left knee surgery, respectively.

Petry, in the first of a five-year, $33 million deal, was a key cog on the blueline this season. He had 16 points through 51 games and was averaging over 21 minutes a night.

Gilbert, 33, wasn’t as big of a loss but still contributed regularly, averaging just under 17 minutes TOI in 45 games. It’s worth pointing out that Gilbert’s future is very uncertain in the wake of his surgery -- performed by Dr. James Andrews, the procedure will require six months of recovery, and Gilbert is without a contract for next season.

With these two gone for the year, Montreal will likely ice a blueline largely similar to the one from Wednesday’s 4-3 win over the Caps: P.K. Subban, Andrei Markov, Alexei Emelin, Mark Barberio, Greg Pateryn and Victor Bartley.

Nathan Beaulieu is also in the mix, but currently injured.