Canadiens forward Christian Dvorak to miss rest of season

Montreal Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes announced Wednesday that forward Christian Dvorak will miss the rest of the season after undergoing knee surgery.

The surgery was performed at the New York based Hospital for Special Surgery and he is expected to make a full recovery in time for training camp next year.

Dvorak last played during the March 7 game against the Carolina Hurricanes. He has played 64 games for the Canadiens this year, scoring 10 goals and 28 points with a -12 rating.

The 27-year-old winger is in the fourth year of the six-year contract he originally signed with the Arizona Coyotes prior to the 2019-20 season. The contract pays him an AAV of $4.45M per season. This season, he hasn’t quite lived up to the expectations in Montreal.

Dvorak’s 10 goals ranks sixth on the struggling Canadiens and he is on pace for only 12 goals and 35 points over an 82 game season. He has two years remaining on his contract and his team needs him to find another gear to ease the transition from rebuilding to playoff hopefuls.

Dvorak was a second-round selection of the Coyotes in the 2014 NHL Draft. He played 302 games in Arizona, scoring 67 goals and 146 points. He solidified his role as an effective middle-six center there. 

Two years into his current contract, the Coyotes decided to liquidate this asset and ended up trading him to Montreal for a first-round pick and a second-round pick.

Since coming over to Montreal, Dvorak has 21 goals and 61 points in 120 games over two seasons. He has shown to be taking strides in the little details of his game. 

An example of this is his faceoff acumen. As a young NHLer playing in Arizona, he won 51.5% of draws. However, in Montreal he’s won 54.4%, a marked increase.