A scary injury for one of the important pieces in Montreal.
During a game against the Dallas Stars on Thursday night, Montreal Canadiens forward Alex Newhook suffered an apparent lower-body injury and didn’t return to the game.
The incident occurred minutes into the second period. Newhook was chasing a loose puck into the Stars’ zone and became entangled with Dallas defenseman Ilya Lybushkin. Newhook lost his footing and ended up sliding hard into the endboards, with his right leg awkwardly getting bent underneath him.
Newhook had to be helped off the ice by his teammates, putting no weight on that leg. He was ruled out for the rest of the game by the Canadiens shortly thereafter.
The 24-year-old registered just under six minutes of ice time across eight shifts in the game. The Habs ended up getting hammered by the Stars, losing on home ice by a final score of 7-0.
It’s an unfortunate injury for a young center that has had a great start to the 2025-26 season. In the first 17 games of the season, Newhook has scored six goals and six assists for 12 points, good for fifth on the team in scoring. He has been a key part of Montreal’s hot start to the campaign, as the team is up near the top of the Atlantic Division.
Newhook is two years removed from scoring a career-high 34 points in his first season with the Habs in 2023-24, despite playing in just 55 games, as an ankle injury kept him out of action for over two months. Even though he played the full 82-game season last year, the St. John’s, N.L. native notched just 15 goals and 26 points. Yet, his efforts helped Montreal advance to the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time in four seasons. Newhook scored a goal and an assist in the team’s opening-round series against the Washington Capitals.
Newhook is in the third season of his four-year contract with Montreal. The deal has a cap hit of $2.9 million through next season.
The Canadiens (10-5-2) return to action on Saturday night against the rival Boston Bruins.
