Montreal Canadiens and Zack Kassian have joined forces to make headlines once again.
On December 26th, it was reported that Kassian was asked not to report to the St. John’s IceCaps, the American Hockey League affiliate club for the Canadiens.
After being involved in a car crash early in the morning of October 4th, just days before the Canadiens season opener, Kassian was placed in Stage Two of the Substance Abuse Program of the NHL and NHLPA.
Nearly six weeks later, on December 15th, Zack Kassian was reinstated and set to rejoin the Canadiens. Montreal’s general manager, Marc Bergevin, placed Kassian on waivers with hopes that the gritty winger would clear and be sent to the IceCaps.
Fast forward 11 days, and Canadiens management have had a controversial change of mind – asking Kassian not to report to the IceCaps until further notice.
#Habs say that after speaking with Zack Kassian’s agent he has been asked by the team to not report to the AHL IceCaps until further notice.
— John Lu (@JohnLuTSNMtl) December 26, 2015
This could be for two reasons, seemingly.
Kassian might have taken a bad turn, and fallen off the wagon. Hopefully, this is not in fact what happened.
Or, he could have possibly been traded in the last couple of days. The trade would only be able pass once the NHL roster freeze has ended, on Dec. 27th.
Remember their is a roster freeze in the NHL. A trade involving Zack Kassian is still possible. We’ll know more in the next few days.
— Renaud Lavoie (@renlavoietva) December 26, 2015
Michel Therrien, Montreal’s head coach, had some interesting comments on the situation.
“There’s information I can’t divulge right now” – as reported by Joey Alfieri of TSN 690.
It is still very much a mystery as to what that information could be, we should have more light on the situation in the coming days.
