Juraj Slafkovsky, Joel Armia and Jake Evans were each placed on injured reserve by the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday.
Slafkovsky, the No. 1 pick in the 2022 NHL Draft, has a lower-body injury. The forward played 9:04 in a 2-1 win against the New York Rangers on Sunday and has 10 points (four goals, six assists) in 39 games this season.
Armia, a forward, has an upper-body injury. He had an assist in 18:25 of ice time Sunday and has seven points (three goals, four assists) in 32 games.
Evans, who has a lower-body injury, left a 2-1 loss at the New York Islanders on Saturday at the end of the first period. The forward has 11 points (two goals, nine assists) in 43 games.
Montreal also placed Sean Monahan on long-term injured reserve. The forward has not played since Dec. 5 because of a lower-body injury.
“That’s the league,” Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said. “You control the things that you can, and we’re going to manage this. We’ll see what we have tonight and we’re going to try to put together the best lineup to put our best foot forward to play a game and give ourselves a chance to win.”
Defenseman Mike Matheson Montreal won 4-1 against the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday. He hadn’t played since Dec. 17 because of a lower-body injury.
The Canadiens recalled forwards Rafael Harvey-Pinard and Rem Pitlick from Laval of the American Hockey League. Harvey-Pinard has 25 points (15 goals, 10 assists) in 37 AHL games, and Pitlick has 22 points (five goals, 17 assists) in 18 AHL games. Pitlick has one goal in 15 games with Montreal this season.
“So, I feel like those guys have an opportunity to come in here and have an impact and maybe they can steal a chair, so to speak,” St. Louis said. “But you never get to steal a chair if you don’t have the opportunity, and sometimes the opportunity gets created just by misfortune from somebody else.”
NHL.com independent correspondent Sean Farrell contributed to this report
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