Montreal Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin announced on Wednesday that forward Rene Bourque underwent successful abdominal surgery earlier in the day and will be sidelined for 8-12 weeks.
Bourque suffered an "abdominal wall tear" during his offseason training. If it turns out to be a 12-week recovery he would be looking at a possible return sometime around the end of November (hey, maybe he won't miss any games at all!).
The Canadiens acquired Bourque last season as part of the trade that sent Mike Cammalleri to the Calgary Flames.
In 38 games after the trade he scored five goals and 13 assists with Montreal and finished the season with 18 goals between the two teams. It was the first time since 2007-08 that he didn't score at least 20 goals in a season.
He still has four years remaining on a contract that pays him an average salary of $3.3 million per season.
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