Montreal Canadiens centre Christian Dvorak is out for the season with a torn pectoral muscle, the team announced Thursday.
The Canadiens say he will undergo surgery on Friday.
“His left-handed faceoffs, he’s a guy who plays on the penalty kill, he’s capable of playing on the power play, he does a bit of everything,” head coach Martin St. Louis said of what the Canadiens will need to replace. “D-vo is a guy who does more than one thing, we need to replace that collectively.”
With Dvorak out, the Canadiens have Nick Suzuki, Sean Monahan, Jake Evans and Mitchell Stephens playing down the middle.
Dvorak last played Dec. 30 in a 4-1 loss to the Florida Panthers. The 27-year-old American had three goals and four assists in 25 games this season.
It’s the second consecutive season that ends early for Dvorak after he played 64 games in 2022-23 before undergoing season-ending knee surgery. He also missed the first 10 games of this season.