Jonathan Drouin sounds off on injury and Habs coach Martin St. Louis

Montreal Canadiens forward Jonathan Drouin hasn't been able to play a full NHL Season since the 2018-19 campaign due to various injuries as well as having taken a leave of absence to deal with anxiety issues. While he made his return to the lineup last season, he would eventually once again be absent from action after undergoing wrist surgery.

Drouin, who is entering the final season of his six-year, $5.5 million deal, participated in a ball hockey tournament at IGA Stadium this weekend, and he had good news regarding his wrist rehabilitation process.  

“It’s all over", he explained. I started skating again, I started playing hockey again. It feels good to play hockey for real, not just skating left and right for 2-3 months."

“The rehabilitation has been great. Unfortunately, it happened to me on my other wrist, so I kinda knew what to expect. I think I owe a lot to the Canadian medical team.”

However, Drouin admitted that it will take a while to get used to his different feeling in his wrist. 

“Yes, you have to change things, he admitted. "I think my wrist will never be the way it was, that’s part of the business, it’s part of the sport we do. I would tell you that there are times that it’s a little more stiff that others.”

Of course, he'll also be looking forward to (hopefully) getting a full season of play under head coach Martin St. Louis, who replaced the terminated Dominique Ducharme midway through last year and was subsequently extended for three seasons by Habs management. 

“It’s playing with Martin that excites me the most going into the season. I hardly played with Martin. Everyone talks about the big change we had with the coach, but I think I played a game and a half under Martin St-Louis! I can’t wait for training and matches to resume to get into all of this.”