Much like the end of any Stanley Cup playoffs, both the Eastern and Western Conference finalists are now updating the public on the laundry list of injuries that affected their players throughout.
As news already broke about both Matthew Tkachuk and Aaron Ekblad of the Florida Panthers dealing with severe injuries, Brandon Montour will now join that list.
Kevin Weekes of ESPN reports that Montour is dealing with a torn labrum, and will require surgery that will keep him out for at least three months. With a reasonable timeline pointing towards a return in September, Montour should be ready to go for the start of training camp.
It is bad news any time a player gets dealt a debilitating injury such as a torn labrum, but the fact that Montour should not miss the start of next season is a positive for Florida, to say the least. This past season, Montour took his game to a different level, becoming one of, if not the best overall defenseman on the Panthers.
In 80 games played this year, Montour scored an impressive 16 goals and 57 assists, all while averaging just over 24 minutes a night. Approaching the final year of his three-year, $10.5M contract, Montour has become quite the defenseman to build around in Florida, considering they only acquired him for a third-round pick in 2021 from the Buffalo Sabres.
In this year’s playoffs, Montour continued where he left off from the regular season, scoring five goals in seven games against the Boston Bruins in the first round of the playoffs. However, his scoring seemed to dry up against the Toronto Maple Leafs and Carolina Hurricanes, for unknown reasons at the time.
Obviously, Florida ended up winning both series, but Montour did have a 10-game span where he was kept completely off the scoreboard. Now with injuries finally being released, the torn labrum was likely the reasoning behind much of Montour’s lack of offensive prowess throughout that span of games.
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