Jonathan Drouin leaks that Shea Weber has retired

Fans have known this for months now, it may be a very long time before they see Shea Weber suit up in an NHL game again. Last week, Montreal Canadiens GM Marc Bergevin delivered an update on his captain’s injury status, revealing that he thinks it would be a “long shot” for Weber to ever play again.

It was confirmed before the season even started that Weber would miss the entire 2021-22 season.

However on Tuesday ahead of the Habs’ game against the Kraken in Seattle, Weber was around to speak to his teammates and observe practice. After the skate, forward Jonathan Drouin leaked the information that Weber had indeed retired.

The issue is that Weber has not announced his retirement and we bet he’d prefer to be the one making that statement.

Not long after Drouin’s leak, the Canadiens maintained that Weber was still on the team’s long-term injured reserve and had not retired. Drouin said about Shea Weber were “dans le fond”, as in he’s basically retired. Or he’s for all intents and purposes retired.

He also said that Weber was already working in scouting with Marc Bergevin. 

But we all get what Drouin said. We will never see Weber play again. This is why the technicality is important: 

"By retiring now, the Predators would be hit with a big recapture penalty while Weber would be giving up $12M. "

The tweets on this issue came out in French by journalists from the Journal de Montreal, and TVA Sports: