Drouin Releases Update on His Injuries and Mental Health

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S. Harper
August 11, 2022 (8:59)

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There's no secret Canadiens forward hasn't lived up to the expectations placed on him when the Canadiens aquired him in a trade with the Tampa Bay Lightning for Mikhail Sergachev, a trade in hindsight the Canadiens would take back.

Unfortunately for hockey teams there's no do overs so the Canadiens are hoping Drouin who hasn't played a full seaon since the 2018-19 season, due to various injuries as well as having taken a leave of absence to deal with anxiety issues.

Drouin has alot to prove heading into his final year of his current contract a that pays him $5,500,000 million dollars. Drouin would speak with the media during a charity ball hockey tournament he played in this weekend.

Drouin also battled mental health issues, which also kept him out for quite some time within the past few seasons.

"It's all over", he explained. I started skating again, I started playing hockey again. It feels good to play hockey for real, not just skating left and right for 2-3 months."

"The rehabilitation has been great. Unfortunately, it happened to me on my other wrist, so I kinda knew what to expect. I think I owe a lot to the Canadiens medical team."

However, Drouin admitted that it will take a while to get used to his different feeling in his wrist after having surgery back in April to repair it.

"Yes, you have to change things, he admitted. "I think my wrist will never be the way it was, that's part of the�business, it's part of the sport we do. I would tell you that there are times that it's a little more�stiff�that others."

Drouin admitted he's excited to play under the Canadiens new head coach Martin St Louis who replaced Dominique Ducharme late last season.

"It's playing with Martin that excites me the most going into the season. I hardly played with Martin. Everyone talks about the big change we had with the coach, but I think I played a game and a half under Martin St-Louis! I can't wait for training and matches to resume to get into all of this."