Once upon a time, in a little town in Alberta, Kirby Dach was born on a freezing January day. The hockey gods looked fondly upon him and bequeathed to him three gifts. The first was the gift of size. As he grew to his full mass at 6'4" and 220lbs, he developed the frame he'd need to withstand the physicality of the NHL. The second was the gift of hands. The Chicago Blackhawks drafted him third overall because he proved in junior he can put the puck in the net, and set up his teammates effectively. The third gift was the gift of speed. NHL EDGE has him in the 95th percentile for maximum skating speed reaching 23.42 MPH in November of this season.
Though the gifts of the gods were generous and rich, they came with a curse. The ghosts of Maple Leafs past conspired to thwart the young player by giving him a glass skeleton. At first there were concussions. Then a broken ankle or wrist, and these weren't exactly breaks from crushing hits. Eventually it became apparent Dach could hurt himself buttering toast. The Blackhawks had enough of gluing him back together and Kent Hughes took him on as a reclamation project.
In Montreal, Dach's woes have continued. The Glass Bone Curse has followed him and he's yet to play more than 70 games in a season at any level. With the Canadiens, his best season saw him lace up for only 58 games in 2022-23. The following season, he played just two.
When he's in the lineup, Dach is noticeable for his gifts, but by the time he gets up to speed and starts to feel the game once more, the Curse strikes again.
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It's not easy for a body to absorb the punishment dished out over 82 games in an NHL season, plus preseason and playoffs. It's normal to sustain injuries and a lot of it in Dach's case is pure bad luck. He's not the first gifted Canadiens player to stand on the brink of "written off" because of injuries. Before Rocket Richard even reached the NHL he'd gained a reputation for being injury-prone.
In his first game with the Montreal Senior Canadiens (a team in the QSHL) in 1941, Richard crashed into the boards and suffered a broken ankle, missing the majority of the season. While still in the QSHL, he broke his wrist in 1942, which limited his play and hindered his progress. In his NHL rookie season with the Canadiens in 1943, he scored 5 goals in his first 16 games before suffering a broken leg that ended his debut season early. Even his own general manager, Tommy Gorman, thought Richard would never cut it as a pro hockey player because of his "brittle bones."
In the early years of Serge Savard's career, he was beleaguered by broken bones too. In March of 1970, he crashed into the goalpost and shattered his left leg in five places. He spent months in a cast and underwent several surgeries. Ten months later, he broke the same leg again. And during practice for the 1972 Canada-Russia Summit Series, he broke his right ankle, which kept him out of games four and five.
Like Richard before him, observers were skeptical Savard would last very long in the NHL. Seven Stanley Cups, a Hall-of-Fame career and a retired sweater proved them all wrong.
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Both Savard and Richard eventually overcame the perception of their fragility. In Richard's case, after his disastrous rookie season, he devoted time in the summer to intense training to build up his muscle strength and help support his joints and bones. He had a breakout second season and was never overly sidelined again.
Savard ended up changing his game entirely. His early impressive skating ability was hampered by the recurring leg injuries, so he turned his attention to becoming a stay-at-home defenceman. When paired with Larry Robinson or Guy Lapointe, Savard's play allowed them to join the rush. They owe him a lot for their own stellar careers.
As for Dach, perhaps he's just unfortunate. Perhaps his bad luck is now in the past and he'll come back stronger from his latest upper-body injury. Or maybe he really is cursed. The thing is, if he doesn't follow the example of guys like Savard and Richard, he's soon going to run out of road in Montreal. Like his predecessors, he needs to work with the experts to find out why this keeps happening to him and how he can change his approach to prevent it.
Michael Hage is coming soon. The Habs' lineup is already flush when everyone is healthy and there soon won't be a place for a guy who spends more time on the training table than on the ice. It was a great attempt by Hughes to give Dach a new start. Now the player will have to find a way to adapt and stay healthy.
If he can't, all the gifts of the hockey gods don't matter. If he can't...the Curse will win.
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