Breaking: Habs officially cut ties with long time veteran Plekanec

The end of an era in Montreal

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 5 years ago
Breaking: Habs officially cut ties with long time veteran Plekanec
Zuma Press

This will come as a shocking news to many fans across the National Hockey League, especially the ones in Montreal. 

Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin announced on Friday that veteran forward Tomas Plekanec will be placed on unconditional waivers at 12 p.m. for the purpose of terminating his contract. 


"With the progression of our players at center, I owed Tomas an explanation. We met, and it was a mutual separation." - Marc Bergevin

Plekanec says he wants to continue playing one or two years and will look for opportunities in the Czech Republic. His NHL playing days are over. He officially retires from the NHL. 



Plekanec has played a total of 1,001 career regular season games in the NHL, including 984 games in a Canadiens uniform. On October 15, Plekanec suited up for his 1,000th NHL game against the Detroit Red Wings, scoring his lone goal of the season. He was then celebrated in a moving ceremony at the Bell Centre along with his mother and his sons.  



The veteran forward has 608 career points, including 233 goals and 375 assists. Plekanec also played in 94 career playoff games, and registered 18 goals and 53 points in all. 

He was selected in the third round, 71st round, by the Canadiens at the 2001 NHL Draft. He had been acting as an assistant captain from the 2010-11 season through the 2017-18 campaign.

At the trade deadline this past year, the Canadiens traded Plekanec, along with prospect Kyle Baun to the Toronto Maple Leafs for defenceman Rinat Valiev, forward Kerby Rychel and a 2018 second-round draft pick.

"It’s 15 years of my life, it’s my home," Plekanec said of his Canadiens career that began in 2003 at the time of the trade. "My kids go to school here. Their first language basically is French."

Once his 1000th game was in the books, Plekanec suffered an injury that has sidelined him in the past few weeks. Plekanec had since been placed on the injured-reserve list with lower-back injury. 

“Last game, at some point during the game he felt some back pains,” coach Claude Julien said not long after the injury was revealed to the public. “Yesterday was a therapy day for him and then he ended up getting an MRI. So we were told this morning he’s going to be more than likely at least a couple of weeks before he can get better and from there we’ll see. It will be day-by-day.”


We wish Plekanec all the best in his future endeavours. Good luck, Pleky!

Source: NHL.com