Despite battling various ailments all season, the 23-year-old centre still finished with a career high 64 points (31G, 33A).
"It sucks," Monahan said Monday. "You never want to be injured, especially during the end of the regular season. I was able to battle through all year with other injuries but once we got to 30 games left on the schedule it was a real grind and I had to take a step back.
"It's going to be a big summer for the group, as a whole, and myself to come back feeling 100% and ready to go for when the season starts."
With the year ending sooner than he had hoped, Monahan said the team needs to take time now to reflect on what went wrong to avoid the same shortcomings next campaign.
"We had the group to do special something this year and it's on us as players," he said. "We underachieved and didn't perform during stretches that were important for us and, at the end, it came back to bite us."
"There were key games where we handed out points when we needed them. People would constantly say we outshot teams every night, but at the end of the day the only thing you want to is to get the two points and we didn't do that."
Monahan said he and his teammates are already eager to get back on the ice next fall to atone for this unexpected ending.
"We have a good core and a lot of great guys in the dressing room," he said. "When things don't go the way they should in the season, you have to be professional knowing that change could be coming and whatever happens we need to come back with the mindset that we have to be hungrier and push each other to be better on a daily basis."
