Injuries can be common during the NHL preseason, but 2024 has seen numerous stars across the league get hurt in increasingly meaningless hockey games. The Los Angeles Kings will be without veteran defenseman Drew Doughty for a majority of the season, the Toronto Maple Leafs listed John Tavares as day-to-day, and took William Nylander out of the lineup as a precaution after taking and accidental knee to the head.
The Montreal Canadiens just lost two players themselves in defenseman David Reinbacher and star forward Patrik Laine. The Canadiens just acquired Laine over the offseason after he made it through the NHL’s player assistance program.
Between his time in the player assistance program and other injuries, Laine was sidelined for all but 18 games in 2023-24. Laine’s 2024-25 season could be in jeopardy after a nasty looking knee injury against the Maple Leafs.
With so many stars getting hurt in games they don’t even get paid to play in, multiple insiders are calling for a change to the preseason standards.
TSN’s Pierre LeBrun pondered why so many preseason games still take place in this era of hockey, and also stated the NHL and the players association need to consider changes.
Josh Yohe of the Athletic piggybacked on LeBrun’s point saying coaches can evaluate all they need to during training camp and he would never put a star on the ice in preseason.
After Doughty’s injury, TSN’s Craig Button talked about how he would like to see the NHL alleviate the risk of injuries by shortening the preseason.
“I know that there’s some economics to this with the preseason,” Button said. “But at the same time, I’d like to see a reduction in the preseason games.”
6 Comments
I didn’t realize there were so many injuries
Crazy amount of injuries this season so far.
There should be 2 preseasons, 1 of prospects trying to get a contract (willing to do anything to make the NHL) vs the same from the other teams. They can evaluate which ones look to be ready to make the jump while players already holding NHL contacts and are only playing to warm up for the regular season play their counterparts
So far reinbacher is 5-6 months with a knee surgery 😢
😂😂 nhl the laughing stock of pro sports.
Only pro sport with 2 sets of rules.
Season and playoffs.
Fck them, all cry babies.
Injuries because the NHL is filled with ballerinas and not men.