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Canadiens Reassign David Reinbacher To AHL

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The Canadiens reassigned 2023 fifth-overall pick David Reinbacher to the AHL’s Laval Rocket on Monday, per the minor league’s transactions log. The organization’s highest-drafted defense prospect will get his first taste of North American pro hockey to close out the 2023-24 season.

Reinbacher spent this season on loan to EHC Kloten of the Swiss National League, where he’s played since making his professional debut in 2021-22. The 19-year-old logged major minutes on one of the worst teams in the league, finishing second among Kloten defensemen with a goal and 11 points in 35 games with a -15 rating. It was a downturn in production compared to last season from the Austrian defender, although it’s excusable given the state of Kloten, which cycled through multiple head coaches and posted a -69 goal differential in 56 games. Once one of the best teams in the country before the turn of the century, Kloten was relegated to the second-tier Swiss League in 2018 before gaining promotion back to the NL in 2022.

The right-shot blueliner inked a lucrative three-year entry-level contract which could pay him up to $6.35MM shortly after last summer’s draft, but his European Assignment Clause meant he needed to return to his Swiss club after not making the Montreal roster out of training camp. However, by all accounts, that was the plan as early as draft day. If Reinbacher doesn’t get a recall to the Canadiens and remains under 10 NHL games played on the season, his ELC will not go into effect this year and will slide to 2024-25. If that occurs, he will be an RFA in 2027.

Laval is in a fight for a playoff berth in the North Division, trailing the Toronto Marlies by three points with two more games played for the final berth. The Canadiens hope Reinbacher can slot into a defense that’s allowed a division-worst 209 goals this year and play major minutes during their 12 remaining regular-season games in preparation for a battle for a roster spot during next season’s training camp.

Martin St. Louis Takes Leave Of Absence

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Today in a press release, the Montreal Canadiens announced that head coach Martin St. Louis would be taking an indefinite leave of absence from the team. In the report, the Canadiens indicated that the leave of absence was due to family reasons, and that assistant coach Trevor Letowski would be taking over the reins for the time being.

In now his third season as the head coach of the winningest franchise in NHL history, St. Louis has guided the Canadiens to a 70-94-21 record in his 185 games behind the bench. Originally, St.Louis was brought in to take over behind the bench halfway through the 2021-22 NHL season after Montreal parted ways with former head coach, Dominique Ducharme.

With the leave of absence being indefinite, it is difficult to speculate as to when St. Louis will return to the Canadiens. Currently, on their longest road trip of the year, Montreal will not return to the Bell Centre until March 28th when they take on the Philadelphia Flyers.

Much like St. Louis when he originally joined the Canadiens, Letowski does not have any former experience being the head coach of an NHL team. In his third season as an assistant coach with the club, Letowski is the former head coach of the Windsor Spitfires and the Sarnia Sting of the Ontario Hockey League.

Teams Showed Interest In Pearson And Armia At Trade Deadline

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The Canadiens were relatively quiet on trade deadline day with their only move coming late in the day when they moved Jake Allen to New Jersey.  However, ESPN’s Kristen Shilton notes that Montreal did have interest in wingers Tanner Pearson and Joel Armia but not to the point where GM Kent Hughes was compelled to make a move.  The Canadiens only had one available retention slot which was used on Allen which likely limited the market for Pearson, a pending unrestricted free agent.  Meanwhile, Armia has rebounded relatively well after clearing waivers at the beginning of the season and has 11 goals in 48 games so far.  However, he also has another season left at $3.4MM so teams likely would have been asking Montreal to retain salary or take back another contract to help facilitate a deal.

Devils Acquire Nathan Légaré From Canadiens

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The Devils swapped out minor-league forwards on Monday, acquiring Nathan Légaré from the Canadiens in exchange for Arnaud Durandeau. In the one-for-one deal, Legare will report to AHL Utica, and Durandeau will report to AHL Laval.

This is the second time both wingers have been traded in the last year. Légaré, a 2019 third-round pick of the Penguins, was sent to Montreal to balance out contracts in last summer’s three-team swap revolving around Norris Trophy winner Erik Karlsson. Durandeau, a 2017 sixth-round pick of the Islanders, was acquired by New Jersey in November for minor-league forward Tyce Thompson.

Neither player lived up to expectations with their previous organization. Légaré, 23, carries intrigue as a 6-foot, 205-lb power winger who scored over a point per game in three straight QMJHL seasons with the Baie-Comeau Drakkar and Val-d’Or Foreurs between 2019 and 2021. He hasn’t been able to elevate himself out of a bottom-six role in the minors, however, and is having the worst offensive season of his AHL tenure with six goals and nine points in 39 games with Laval, along with a -10 rating.

Durandeau is older at 25 but has shown much more offensive promise at the professional level. The Montreal native broke out for 24 goals and 55 points in 68 games with AHL Bridgeport last season but got off to a rough start in 2023-24, scoring once through his first 12 games. Things improved in Utica, but not by much, scoring three goals and 14 points in 26 games. He’ll look to give himself a fresh start closer to his hometown.

Since this trade was executed past the March 8 deadline, neither player is eligible to suit up for their new NHL club down the stretch. However, they’ll both be able to play for their new farm teams down the stretch and participate in the Calder Cup Playoffs.

Both players are pending RFAs and will remain under team control if they receive qualifying offers. Légaré is nearing completion of his three-year, entry-level contract and currently earns $70K in the minors, while Durandeau is completing a two-year, two-way deal that pays him a minors salary of $100K with a $125K guarantee. As such, the Devils save a minor amount of actual cash in this transaction.

Devils Acquire Jake Allen

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2:30 p.m.: The trade is now official, per a team announcement. The condition on the pick has been clarified to mean if Allen plays more than 40 games next season en route to a Devils playoff berth.

12:38 p.m.: The Devils are “gaining traction” on acquiring goaltender Jake Allen from the Canadiens, per Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. The Canadiens will receive a third-round pick in return, Emily Kaplan of ESPN reports. The third-round pick is conditional and can upgrade to a second-rounder if Allen hits a certain games-played benchmark, per Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff. Per TSN’s Darren Dreger, it’s a 2025 third-rounder with 40 games played as the condition cutoff. Montreal is retaining 50% of Allen’s $3.85MM cap hit that runs through next season, Chris Johnston of TSN and The Athletic says.

Allen was always the most logical option to ship out of Montreal if the Habs opted to move out one of their three NHL-rostered goaltenders. The 33-year-old has been the worst out of his trio with Sam Montembeault and Cayden Primeau this year in what’s been a second straight season significantly below average, averaging a .892 SV% in 62 starts and one relief appearance since 2022.

Signed to a two-year, $7.7MM extension in October 2022 that kicked in this season, Allen regressed sharply before his new deal kicked in. He was decent in his first two seasons in Montreal, though, posting a .906 SV% and 20-32-9 record in 64 games between 2020 and 2022 while backing up Carey Price and platooning with Montembault after the former played through a career-ending knee injury in the Habs’ run to the 2021 Stanley Cup Final. With the younger Primeau surpassing Allen on the depth chart as of late, the veteran has only played four games since the beginning of February.

This year, Allen has made 21 starts, posting a 6-12-3 record. His .892 SV% and 3.65 GAA are both far below the league average. While his -2.8 goals saved above expected (MoneyPuck) is the worst on the team, it does demonstrate that his poor base-level stats are exacerbated by playing behind a rebuilding team. He immediately becomes the best-performing goalie on the Devils relative to expectations, who have had absolutely no sustainable success in the crease with Vítek Vaněček (-11.2 GSAx), Nico Daws (-4.5 GSAx), and Akira Schmid (-3.0 GSAx) all performing at a below-replacement level. Allen brings in Stanley Cup pedigree, having won with the St. Louis Blues in 2019, as well as over 400 games of NHL experience.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Increased Trade Interest In David Savard

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With some of the bigger names on the defensive trade market off the board, the attention has now turned to the secondary market leading up to tomorrow’s trade deadline. One of those defenseman, David Savard of the Montreal Canadiens, has seen an increase of interest over the last 24 hours according to David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period.

Carrying only one more year on his contract after this one, the Canadiens could be talked into retaining some money on Savard’s deal, but the return will have to be enticing enough. Fortunately, even though the organization as a whole has been disappointing this season, Montreal does have the internal infrastructure available to them on the blue line making the idea of parting with Savard logical.

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Canadiens Sign Assistant GM John Sedgwick to Multi-Year Extension

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  • The Montreal Canadiens have signed assistant general manager John Sedgwick to a multi-year extension, also promoting him to general manager of the AHL’s Laval Rocket. This is a big step for Sedgwick, who’s been with the Canadiens since 2013, serving in a variety of roles that included Director of Hockey Operations, Director of Legal Affairs, and now Assistant General Manager. Sedgwick worked in the NHL’s head office for seven years, prior to joining Montreal.

Canadiens, Ducks Swap Jan Mysak For Jacob Perreault

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The Canadiens and Ducks have exchanged forward prospects Jan Mysak and Jacob Perreault, both teams announced. It’s a one-for-one swap of U-22 prospects whose development has stalled with their respective minor-league clubs.

Perreault, 21, is a Montreal native and was a first-round pick of the Ducks in 2020 after scoring 39 goals and 70 points in 59 games with the OHL’s Sarnia Sting. Concerningly, his production has declined after a strong rookie season with AHL San Diego in 2020-21 (17 points in 27 games), and he’s tallied seven goals and 18 points in 31 games this season with a -3 rating. He made his NHL debut in January 2022 but has not seen major league action since.

The son of former Canadien Yanic Perreault and the older brother of Rangers prospect Gabe Perreault, Jacob is a natural right-winger. He still has one season remaining on his entry-level contract with a cap hit of $863.3K, so he won’t be a restricted free agent until the summer of 2025.

Unlike Perreault, Mysak can shift to center. The 21-year-old Czech forward was a second-round pick by Montreal in 2020 and had the rare experience of immediately playing pro hockey. Despite being drafted out of a Canadian junior league, he was permitted to suit up for the AHL’s Laval Rocket in 2020-21 because the OHL had paused game action due to COVID. There, he notched two goals in 22 games before returning to the OHL the following year, where he tallied 34 goals and 64 points in 61 games with the Hamilton Bulldogs en route to a Memorial Cup appearance. He’s on an opposite trajectory to Perreault – slowly heating up in the minors with 20 points in 48 games for AHL Laval this year after recording just nine in 40 games last season.

Mysak is also in the second season of his entry-level deal and will be an RFA in 2025. His cap hit is slightly lower at $828.3K, but as both players are assigned to the minors at the time of the trade, the swap has no salary cap impact for either team.

Canadiens Place Colin White On IR, Activate Rafael Harvey-Pinard

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Eric Engels of Sportsnet is reporting that the Montreal Canadiens have placed forward Colin White on the injured reserve, and have activated forward Rafael Harvey-Pinard from it. Earlier reporting suggested that White suffered an upper-body injury in practice, and is only considered day-to-day.

White originally joined the Canadiens organization via waiver claim on February 22nd, coming over from the Pittsburgh Penguins. In 16 games this season, five of which have been in Montreal, White has been unable to register any points so far. He has received more ice time with the Canadiens but is still receiving playing time in the bottom six nonetheless.

Harvey-Pinard, on the other hand, has had his season mired by injuries. With injury concerns limiting him to 24 games on the year, Harvey-Pinard has scored one goal and seven points for the Canadiens this season. Hoping for health moving forward, Montreal will be waiting to see if they can get back last year’s version of Harvey-Pinard, who scored 14 goals and 20 points in 36 games.

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Canadiens Shopping Multiple Depth Wingers

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The Canadiens’ offense hasn’t done much this year outside of their top line of Cole Caufield, Juraj Slafkovsky and Nick Suzuki, ranking 27th in the league. As such, Montreal GM Kent Hughes is open to moving out multiple wingers – a group highlighted by two-time 20-goal scorer Josh Anderson – ahead of the March 8 trade deadline, reports David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period.

According to Pagnotta, Hughes is also shopping solid shutdown winger Joel Armia and pending UFA Tanner Pearson. It’s not like the Canadiens have a bunch of youngsters chomping at the bit to take their spots—prospects like Sean Farrell and Emil Heineman need some more minor-league development time—but it does behoove them to free up some roster space and gain some assets as they continue their rebuild.

The Canadiens still need de facto retired goaltender Carey Price’s $10.5MM LTIR relief to remain cap-compliant, although their cap hit has been exacerbated by some injuries this season. Still, contracts like Anderson’s (a $5.5MM cap hit through 2027) aren’t ideal for a rebuilding squad, especially for his level of dwindling production.

Once a highly sought-after developing power forward, the 6-foot-3 Anderson has tanked this season with eight goals and 17 points in 57 games despite still seeing some top-six minutes, averaging 16:05 per game. He is shooting far below his career average at 7.1%, but his possession metrics are also among the worst on the team – no Canadien has a worse expected rating than Anderson’s -9.7.

Given his low shooting percentage, though, there is hope for some positive goal-scoring regression, which was always one of the more attractive aspects of his game. Anderson may still have some trade value if the Habs are willing to slash his cap hit down to $2.75MM by retaining 50% of the remainder of his deal. That’s much closer to what he would earn on the free-agent market if he were a UFA this summer.

While Montreal would also likely need to retain some of Armia’s $3.4MM cap hit through 2025, he probably has the highest trade value out of their three forward assets. After being buried in the minors to start the year, injuries re-opened an NHL opportunity, and he’s responded well. His 11 goals on the campaign make him the only active non-first-line player with double-digits on the year, and he’s managed a 48.2 CF% at even strength (sixth among full-time Habs forwards) while logging first-unit minutes on their penalty kill. Add in his solid postseason performance with Montreal on their run to the 2021 Stanley Cup Final, and he appears a solid pickup for any contender looking to add some defensive acumen to their fourth line.

Theoretically, Pearson’s expiring deal makes him the easiest to move, but it’s hard to imagine much interest in the 31-year-old’s services. Now relegated to a fourth-line role with the Canadiens, he has five goals and 11 points in 42 games with a -11 rating. Hughes would again need to retain some of his $3.25MM cap hit to move him out.

Those retention caveats highlight a crucial problem with the Canadiens’ deadline plans. They’re still retaining salary on the contracts of Joel Edmundson and Jeff Petry, meaning they only have one slot left for an additional retained salary transaction. With none of these players likely to get moved at full price in-season, the Habs will likely only be able to move one or enlist a third party to retain 50% of a contract on another.

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