The Canadiens announced they’ve reassigned forward Joshua Roy to AHL Laval. With no IR activations expected soon, the Habs are set to operate with an open roster spot for the foreseeable future.
Roy, 22, appears to have hit something of a plateau in his development. The 2021 fifth-round pick showed out much better than expected in his first pro season, earning 13 goals and 32 points in 41 games with Laval back in 2023-24. That came on the heels of Roy posting back-to-back First All-Star Team campaigns in the QMJHL following his draft year, so his stock had been on the rise for some time.
Since then, though, Roy has been virtually the same player he was as a rookie. He still hasn’t gotten as long a leash as he did in his first pro season, when multiple call-ups resulted in him notching four goals and nine points in 23 games for the Habs. His usage and production slipped to two goals in 12 games last year, and he’s now only played in three of the nine games he’s been rostered for this season.
During that time, Roy’s AHL production has remained stagnant. After producing 0.78 points per game in 2023-24, that number dropped slightly to 0.74 last year and is at 0.70 through 10 games this season. With Roy failing to carve out consistent minutes at the NHL level despite Kirby Dach, Patrik Laine, and Alex Newhook all dealing with long-term injuries, there’s an increasing risk of him topping out as something of a tweener.
Nonetheless, he’s still only four years out from his draft date and, as a late-round pick, a longer development track should have been expected. He’s still got a couple of years of runway before the Habs could decide to cut ties, although they’ll have their first opportunity to do so this summer as he’s in the final season of his entry-level contract. A non-tender is unlikely considering how he burst onto the scene, but the Quebec native needs to keep up his current scoring in the minors – hopefully inching closer to a point per game – in order to avoid one.