NHL teams accuse Habs of illegal move ahead of draft

The news was a tough blow on the Montreal Canadiens earlier this week when they announced that captain Shea Weber was dealing with lingering health issues on his thumb, ankle and knee, which could be career-threatening. This prompted the Habs to make it known that they would not protect Weber ahead of the expansion draft for the Seattle Kraken. 

However, insider Elliotte Friedman has reported that now some teams across the NHL are accusing the Canadiens of lying about their captain’s status. They claim it is “total BS” and only an attempt by the Canadiens to get around the expansion draft. 

While Weber is said to be seeking a second medical, no one knows, including the Habs themselves, if he’s going to play again or that he’s not going to play again.

Darren Dreger gave some details in regards to what the Habs can and cannot do with this Weber situation on the latest edition of Insider Trading on TSN: 

“What makes it different is the timing and all that’s going on in this offseason starting with the upcoming expansion process so there’s no guarantee that the NHL is going to grant the Montreal Canadiens and Weber full LTIR but there’s no guarantee they won’t either.”

His colleague Pierre LeBrun also explained what it means for the expansion draft. 

“In the aftermath of this, of course, it impacts the Expansion Draft. I think they were going to protect four defensemen, going the eight-skater route. Now they’ll go 7-3-1, protecting seven forwards, three defensemen, and a goalie.”

Apparently this does not sit well with other teams, who might think the Habs might be trying to pull a move like … let’s say the Tampa Bay Lightning. You know, placing Nikita Kucherov on LTIR and getting him back in time for the postseason…

However, we all saw how Weber was watching the Bolts celebrate their champ tearfully, and several Canadiens made a point of skating over to personally console him. It certainly felt more emotional than normal, and is easy to believe he might have known then his career was coming to an end. 

Not sure this is part of a scheme by the Habs…