Montreal Canadiens Expected to Scratch Forward

According to Patrick Lortie, "all signs indicate" that Jonathan Drouin will be a healthy scratch for the Montreal Canadiens' season opener against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday.

Unless an unexpected turn of events, all signs indicate Jonathan Drouin will in fact be a healthy scratch on #GoHabsGo opening night against #LeafsForever

One #NHL exec straight up told me he's not surprised "Looks like his mind is elsewhere."
— Patrick Lortie (@patrick_lortie) October 11, 2022

Drouin is coming off of a season that saw him score six goals and record 20 points in 34 games. Overall, it wasn't a bad season for him offensively, but clearly, Canadiens management wants to see what their other players can do.

With the team adding Juraj Slafovsky, Kirby Dach, Sean Monahan, and Evgenii Dadonov to their forward group this season, it has effectively pushed Drouin out of the lineup. We will need to see if he can get back into the lineup from here.