{"id":234260,"date":"2025-10-23T11:23:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T11:23:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/234260\/"},"modified":"2025-10-23T11:23:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T11:23:11","slug":"laine-ristolainen-hill-barron-khaira","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/234260\/","title":{"rendered":"Laine, Ristolainen, Hill, Barron, Khaira"},"content":{"rendered":"

Montreal Canadiens forward Patrik Laine<\/a> has struggled with injury issues throughout his NHL career, and unfortunately 2025-26 has been no different. The Canadiens announced on Saturday that Laine would be out with a lower-body injury on a day-to-day basis, and given that day-to-day designation, it appeared this Laine absence would be relatively straightforward. But today, Sportsnet\u2019s Eric Engels reported<\/a> that Laine \u201chas gone for a second opinion on his lower-body injury,\u201d and although he\u2019s still listed as day-to-day, the report raises questions about whether he could be looking at a more extended absence.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an important time for Laine and the future of his career as he nears the expiry of his $8.7MM AAV deal. Laine is set to hit unrestricted free agency in the summer, and there were times during his debut campaign where he looked like he\u2019d found a long-term place to play with the Canadiens. He scored 20 goals and 33 points, and was particularly lethal on the power play, but injuries limited him to just 52 games. With Ivan Demidov<\/a> almost certain to command a first-unit power play spot at some point down the line, and Zachary Bolduc<\/a>\u2019s addition already moving Laine down to the second unit, it\u2019s fair to question if the Canadiens have a place for Laine going into the future. He has gotten off to a slow start this season with just one point in five games, and a potentially longer-term absence could further complicate things. For a player who has at times looked like, and performed like, a star in the NHL, today\u2019s report is an undoubtedly discouraging development.<\/p>\n

Other notes from across the NHL:<\/p>\n

Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen<\/a> has not made his 2025-26 debut yet as he recovers from the season-ending surgery he underwent earlier this year, and today DailyFaceoff\u2019s Anthony Di Marco reported<\/a> that the player is targeting a return at some point in December. Ristolainen was the Flyers\u2019 No. 2 defenseman by ice time last season, playing in 20:31 per night including a role on both special teams units. So far this season, right-shot blueliner Jamie Drysdale<\/a> is playing nearly two additional minutes per night compared to what he played last season, likely in part due to Ristolainen\u2019s absence. The Flyers have gotten off to a decent 3-2-1 start, and getting Ristolainen back in December should only boost their competitive chances.
\nThe Vegas Golden Knights recalled<\/a> netminder Carl Lindbom today as part of their response to the injury suffered by starting goalie Adin Hill<\/a>, and it was confirmed today by head coach Bruce Cassidy that Hill would be out on a week-to-week basis. (Report via Danny Webster of the Las Vegas Review-Journal<\/a>) Cassidy added that Hill won\u2019t travel with the team on its road trip to Florida and North Carolina, a trip that concludes Oct. 31 with Vegas\u2019 home game against the Colorado Avalanche. It\u2019s an unfortunate development for Hill, who has played in five games so far this season to a .888 save percentage and 2.73 goals-against average.
\nOne of the breakout players of this early portion of the 2025-26 Winnipeg Jets season, Morgan Barron<\/a>, will be out day-to-day with an undisclosed injury, according to The Athletic\u2019s Murat Ates<\/a>. Barron, as mentioned, has been one of the Jets\u2019 more productive players so far this season. The hefty 6\u20194\u2033 forward has scored three goals and five points in six games, which already puts him one-third of the way to his scoring total from 2024-25, one he managed across 74 games. With Barron injured, Parker Ford<\/a> is likely to draw into the lineup in Barron\u2019s vacated fourth-line role.
\n337-game NHL veteran Jujhar Khaira<\/a> played out 2024-25 on an AHL contract, and a mid-season trade<\/a> to the Abbotsford Canucks allowed Khaira to help the Canucks to a Calder Cup championship. Khaira hasn\u2019t found a team for 2025-26, but today Rick Dhaliwal of CHEK TV reported<\/a> that the Canucks \u201care talking\u201d with Khaira \u201cabout re-joining the team.\u201d Assuming they\u2019re talking about a potential AHL contract, it\u2019s unlikely Khaira would be a cheap addition to the AHL payroll as a player with so much NHL experience and a Calder Cup championship on his r\u00e9sum\u00e9.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Montreal Canadiens forward Patrik Laine has struggled with injury issues throughout his NHL career, and unfortunately 2025-26 has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":234261,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[110963,49,48,110964,743,14113,1531,752,110965,7587,82,452,767,449],"class_list":["post-234260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-adin-hill","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-jujhar-khaira","tag-montreal-canadiens","tag-morgan-barron","tag-patrik-laine","tag-philadelphia-flyers","tag-rasmus-ristolainen","tag-snapshots","tag-sports","tag-vancouver-canucks","tag-vegas-golden-knights","tag-winnipeg-jets"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234260\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}