Jim Montgomery pushes back on Taylor Hall report

Boston Bruins bench boss Jim Montgomery is pushing back on a report from SportsNet Canada’s Darren Dreger, who said that forward Taylor Hall is healthy enough to return to action but is being held out due to salary cap restraints. 

For those of you who may not have seen Dreger's initial comments, you can view them below: 

“While we were at the general managers’ meetings in Florida earlier this month, there was some discussions about the salary cap and how it related to players that are on long-term injured reserve; is that a key topic of discussion right now with the Boston Bruins, Darren?” host Gino Reda asked Dreger during the latest episode of 'TSN Insider Trading' during Tuesday night's game against the Nashville Predators. 

“Yes it is, specific to one player and maybe two – Taylor Hall and Nick Foligno of the Bruins,” Dreger replied. “We know, according to reports and video, that Hall has been skating with the Bruins for several days now. Sources say that he feels he is ready. The problem is the Bruins don’t have the cap space to activate Hall. Now the NHL playoffs are less than three weeks away so it’s going to be interesting to see how the Bruins manage this situation or, if like the Tampa Bay Lightning a few years ago, they try and stretch it out until the start of the postseason so it’s something that I’m sure other clubs are paying attention to as well.”

Hall was placed on Long Term Injured Reserve by the Bruins after suffering a lower body injury in early March, but has made recent appearances at Bruins practice sessions while wearing a non-contact jersey. And according to Montgomery, Dreger's report isn't true. 

“The only thing I can say is that I know he is not cleared. That’s what I know so that report to me is false,” Montgomery said.

Hall has scored 16 goals with 20 assists in the 58 games that he's appeared in this season with Boston.

The Bruins are back in action later tonight against the visiting Columbus Blue Jackets.