The hum of skates carving fresh ice, the sharp crack of a puck hitting a stick—these are the familiar sounds of an NHL training camp, a symphony of renewed hope. For the Montreal Canadiens, no returning player embodies that hope, and the profound anxiety that accompanies it, more than Kirby Dach. Slated to start camp as the team’s second-line center, the 24-year-old is not just returning from an injury; he’s returning from a nightmare that played out twice, armed with a new body, a new mindset, and the weight of a franchise’s aspirations on his surgically repaired right knee.
Déjà Vu All Over Again: The Injury That Nearly Derailed a Career
To understand the magnitude of Dach’s return, one must first appreciate the depths from which he has climbed. This isn’t a comeback from a single, unfortunate event. It’s a battle against a recurring trauma. The initial devastating blow came in October 2023, when a collision during a game against his former team, the Chicago Blackhawks, resulted in a torn MCL and ACL in his right knee, wiping out his season.
Hockey is a brutal sport, and catastrophic injuries are a known risk. But what happened on February 22, 2025, in a game against the Ottawa Senators, was the kind of cruel twist of fate that can break a player’s spirit. Dach recently confirmed what many had feared: the injury was a re-tear of the same reconstructed ACL. In a moment of chilling clarity on the ice, he knew. The searing pain, the sickening instability—it was an instant, horrifying replay. The road to recovery, a path he had just painstakingly walked for nearly a year, had crumbled beneath him, forcing him back to square one.
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A New Blueprint for Recovery
Faced with a second major surgery on February 28, 2025, Dach could have succumbed to despair. Instead, informed by the hard-won and painful lessons of his first rehabilitation, he engineered a completely different approach. This comeback would be built on a foundation of patience and intelligence, not just brute force.
Dach admitted that during his first recovery, he didn’t fully grasp the nuance of the process. He pushed, as athletes are conditioned to do, without fully respecting the science. He specifically pointed to the critical 8-to-14-week post-surgery period, a vulnerable window when the new ligament graft is at its weakest. This time, he embraced a “less is more” philosophy during that phase, allowing his body the time it truly needed to heal.
His off-season was a testament to this new commitment. It was a meticulously coordinated campaign involving his athletic therapist, strength coach, and the Canadiens’ head of performance. The summer days were long and grueling—three-and-a-half-hour sessions at the gym that included painstaking rehab exercises, strength workouts, and cardio, all before he was even cleared to touch the ice. This was a complete professionalization of his life. Social activities were swapped for recovery sessions. His diet and sleep schedule became regimented. As Dach himself noted, he made a significant investment in his career by prioritizing his body and mind above all else. The effort did not go unnoticed. Teammate Kaiden Guhle expressed his deep admiration for Dach’s relentless work ethic over the summer, a sign that his dedication has resonated within the locker room.
Sharpening the Mind: Rediscovering the ‘F-U’ Mindset
The physical reconstruction was only half the battle. The mental scars of two major injuries can be far more difficult to repair than any ligament. Dach’s work on the mental side of the game was just as rigorous as his physical training. He dove into game footage from every stage of his career, from his junior days to his brief but promising stints with the Habs, in an effort to re-center himself and rediscover the player he was and can be.
Through that process, he reconnected with a crucial part of his identity, something he termed his “F-U mindset.” It’s the swagger, the defiant confidence that powered his game in junior hockey. It’s not about arrogance, but an unwavering self-belief that allows a player to dictate the terms of engagement on the ice, to drive to the net without hesitation, and to control the play rather than react to it. It’s the mindset of a difference-maker. Combined with his renewed physical health, it’s why Dach arrived in Montreal this August feeling, in his own words, “way better than I have in any of the previous years.”
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Pumping the Brakes: The Canadiens’ Calculated Return-to-Play
Head Coach Martin St. Louis has given Dach a significant vote of confidence, penciling him in between dynamic offensive talents Patrik Laine and Ivan Demidov. The message is clear: the organization believes he can be the elite, two-way center he aims to be, a player trusted in all situations.
However, that confidence is tempered with a healthy dose of caution. St. Louis has been clear that the team will manage Dach’s return on a daily basis, employing a “calculated” approach to his workload. While he looked fast and fluid in player-run drills, there’s a world of difference between informal skates and the grind of an NHL preseason. He will need exhibition games to find his timing and test the knee in uncontrolled, chaotic game situations.
This is where a degree of concern creeps in. Returning for the first game of the season would put Dach at less than eight months post-op. After his first surgery, his surgeon explicitly forbade him from playing for a full eight months. The question hangs in the air: is this timeline, for a knee that is now inherently more fragile, pushing the envelope too far?
The stakes have also changed. The last time Dach was healthy, the Canadiens were a rebuilding team where individual development was the primary goal. Now, with key additions and the maturation of their young core, the Habs are expected to contend for a playoff spot. The patience from the coaching staff, while present, may not be as boundless if he struggles to find his form. Expectations for his initial performance will be lower, but the team’s need for him to become an impact player is higher than ever before. For Kirby Dach, the long, arduous journey back to the ice is complete. The even harder journey—to prove the nightmare is truly behind him—is just beginning.
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