Canadiens’ Shea Weber Dealing with Potential Career Threatening Injury

News started to make the rounds on Wednesday evening that there was something going on with defenseman Shea Weber. Renaud Lavoie posted: “I’m hearing the @CanadiensMTL won’t protect Shea Weber for the expansion draft. Following the latest medical evaluations, he could miss all of next season. If not more.”

Essentially, the news was that Weber was dealing with a potentially career threatening injury and there is no timetable on just how long he’ll be out of action.

I’m hearing the @CanadiensMTL won't protect Shea Weber for the expansion draft. Following the latest medical evaluations, he could miss all of next season. If not more.

— Renaud Lavoie (@renlavoietva) July 14, 2021

As Elliotte Friedman writes in a column following up on the report:

He’s been plagued with a left foot/ankle problem that has threatened his career. Weber missed two weeks with an injury there in February 2020 (true to form, he returned much sooner than expected). In March 2018, he had surgery to repair tendons in the area. There’s been a worry for some time this problem would become too much to handle.

As many fans also know, Weber played this post-season with an injured thumb. There were questions about whether or not he’d be in the lineup to open the postseason as he was barely practicing and was shooting with the opposite hand. He played as though his injury wasn’t greatly affecting him, but it is believed that the injury was significant.

If Weber can’t return, it’s a massive blow for the Canadiens. It’s also a massive hit for the Nashville Predators who would be stuck with a huge recapture penalty. Weber has five seasons remaining, at an average annual value of $7,857,143. If he retires, the Preds will be stuck with a penalty of slightly more than $4.9M per season through 2025-26.

The NHL is already apparently looking at this situation. Can the Canadiens put him on LTIR? Or, if he’s not coming back, will the league require the Canadiens and the player to say he’s retiring?

The Habs haven’t made any final decisions on expansion draft yet. They’ll certainly want to know where things stand after he visits the doctor on Wednesday. It is assumed Montreal will protect Jeff Petry, Ben Chiarot and Joel Edmundson.

Makes Sense Weber Was Emotional

Most fans assumed Webers tears at the end of the Stanley Cup Final series were tears of disappointment. He had played for so long to come so close. Hearing the news today, perhaps he knew that he was in rough shape and that it was possibly the last time he was going to be taking the ice.

If so, this will be a big loss for the NHL. We can only hope that he’s able to return at some point.

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