Canadiens' Guhle progressing, but won't be rushed back to game action

BROSSARD, Que. — There was Kaiden Guhle, unchained, a full participant in Montreal Canadiens practice for the first time since lacerating his quadricep muscle in the third period of their 4-1 loss to the Winnipeg Jets on Jan. 28.

Guhle was ruled out indefinitely after surgery a day later, and we still don’t know if he’ll return before the end of the regular season — even if he’s travelling with the Canadiens for their four-game trip through St. Louis, Philadelphia, Carolina and Florida.

Guhle wasn’t on a regular pairing at Canadiens practice Monday, and general manager Kent Hughes told us last week he likely won’t be on one at any point over the remaining 13 games if the team suddenly falls out of playoff contention.

“As I indicated at the trade deadline,” said Hughes, “if we thought our chances of making the playoffs diminished significantly, we’d have to have a pretty serious conversation with the training staff about there being zero added risk before we’d let him play a hockey game.”

It was the day of the trade deadline (March 7) that Guhle first returned to the ice following his injury, and he’d have not been on the ice then — or several times since — if he hadn’t fully healed from surgery.

But as Canadiens defenceman Mike Matheson said after Monday’s practice, “You kind of get to a point where you’ve technically recovered, but there’s a big difference between being recovered and being ready to play, where you can not only generate the force but do it game after game after game and not completely break down and lead to something compensating and breaking down.”

This is the part that needs to be managed particularly carefully in Guhle’s case, and the Canadiens know.

Gabriel Landeskog knows, too. The Colorado Avalanche captain had the muscle running alongside his quadricep (the vastus lateralis) cut by teammate Cale Makar’s skate in the 2020 playoffs and, despite having a long time to heal from surgery, he felt, in retrospect, he returned too early and ended up doing damage to his knee as a result.

For Landeskog, too early was ultimately four months after suffering the cut to the muscle, and the damage he did to his knee in compensating for not having sufficient strength in his quad hasn’t permitted him to play since June of 2022.

Now, we’re not referencing Landeskog’s 2020 injury to compare it specifically to the one Guhle just suffered. No two injuries are ever exactly the same, and even if these two were assumed to be similar, we don’t know exactly what part of Guhle’s quad was cut, how extensive the damage was, or how long it would reasonably take him to rebuild sufficient strength in the muscle to not be compensating with other muscles and joints through his return to play.

We’re only bringing Landeskog’s situation up because the Canadiens have wisely considered it as a cautionary tale. That’s what Hughes said they were doing when we asked him about it.

It’s why Guhle’s first uninhibited practice with the team came a full three weeks after he first returned to the ice. It’s also why his first game back with them might not come on this trip and why Hughes doubled down last week on his trade deadline statement that Guhle likely wouldn’t return if the Canadiens fell out of playoff contention down the stretch of the regular season.

There’d be only one valid reason for Guhle to come back versus 33 million reasons for him not to and, even still, the Canadiens won’t risk compromising the six-year deal that’ll start next season and pay him $5.5 million per.

With the way Guhle looked on Monday, it would be tempting to throw him into Tuesday’s game against St. Louis, which offers the Canadiens a chance to further strengthen their hold on a playoff spot. But they will instead give him more time to build up strength in the affected area and continue to monitor his progress before greenlighting his return to play.

The 23-year-old made some progress Monday. He took two key steps — first joining his teammates in a regular jersey on the ice and then joining them on their flight to St. Louis — and Arber Xhekaj said the Canadiens have already taken a boost from those.

“Just to see him back on the ice and back on the road is exciting,” said Xhekaj. “It’s awesome. We love him as a guy. He’s one of my better friends on the team. So, it’s great to have him back with the group.”

Xhekaj knows it’ll be great to have Guhle back in games when he’s ready, even if Guhle’s return potentially pushes him to the sidelines for some of them.

But as Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis intimated on Monday, we’re not there yet.

He was asked if Guhle might play on the trip but couldn’t answer.

“This was just his first (contact) practice with the team,” said St. Louis. “So we’ll just take it one day at a time.”

The hope is that Guhle will get stronger and stronger with each passing day, eventually regaining the strength needed to return to game action. But the Canadiens won’t rush Guhle back no matter how much they want or need him.