- Goalie Jake Allen will return to the Montreal Canadiens crease tomorrow night after welcoming the birth of his third daughter. Allen is expected to get his third start of the season against the Arizona Coyotes, who are coming off an impressive 4-2 win in Toronto. The 32-year-old Canadian has a sparkling .943 save percentage through two games this season, his third as a Canadien.
Canadiens Rumors
Canadian Notes: Price, Dermott, Wideman
Rumors have swirled over the future of Carey Price’s career ever since the severity of his knee injury became apparent. Those rumors intensified today when Sportnet’s Eric Engels said Price was scheduled to speak with the media on October 24. However, Engels notes that this is not a retirement announcement as many people first thought when his media availability was reported.
Price and his $10.5MM cap hit remain on long-term injured reserve, and he’s not expected to play at all this season as he continues his recovery from his knee injury. Price played just five games last season after missing nearly the entire year, and he certainly won’t top that number in 2022-23. The future Hall of Fame goaltender still wants to resume his playing career if he can, and he does have four years remaining on his deal to make an improbable recovery.
- Things are looking up for the Vancouver Canucks defense as they continue to get healthier. After Tyler Myers was activated from injured reserve today, CHEK’s Rick Dhaliwal reported that Travis Dermott was skating today. Dermott has yet to play this season and remains on injured reserve, classified as day-to-day with a concussion.
- Engels also notes that Montreal Canadiens defenseman Chris Wideman suffered a fractured nose in last night’s game, but isn’t expected to miss any time. Wideman sustained the injury in a collision with Pittsburgh Penguins forward Josh Archibald. Wideman, 32, does not have a point in four games this season.
Montreal Canadiens Send Cayden Primeau To AHL
Oct 18: The Canadiens have now swapped them back, recalling Schueneman and sending Primeau to the AHL.
Oct 17: The Montreal Canadiens won’t have Jake Allen available for tonight’s game as he is away from the team on parental leave, meaning it’s Sam Montembeault’s net against the Pittsburgh Penguins. His backup will be Cayden Primeau, recalled from the minor leagues today. Corey Schueneman has been sent down to make room.
Montembeault allowed three goals on 29 shots in his first appearance of the season on Saturday night, losing to the Washington Capitals in the process. The 25-year-old netminder appeared 38 times for the Canadiens last season and is still looking for his first season with a save percentage over .900. He’s at .892 for his career, not quite what Montreal is looking for as Martin St. Louis and the rest of the squad tries to remain competitive.
In fact, Allen’s absence will shine a light on the position for the Canadiens, which remains quite thin with Carey Price out due to injury. Montembeault’s .892 is actually higher than Primeau’s .874 to this point in the NHL, though the latter’s is in just 18 appearances. The young netminder hasn’t been able to quite replicate the dominance he had at Northeastern, and was shelled for six goals on 38 shots in his AHL debut this season.
Primeau represents the only other goaltender in the organization signed to an NHL contract, meaning if someone suffers an injury, the team will have to scramble to find another option.
Canadiens Send Filip Mesar To Junior
10/16/22: Sportsnet’s Jeff Marek has issued an update on Mesar’s situation. As things currently stand, Mesar is sorting out IIHF transfer issues and is not expected to be available for selection to the Rangers’ lineup until Friday, when the team takes on the Sudbury Wolves.
10/15/22: It’s not very often that players drafted in the previous summer start the season in the minors as an 18-year-old. For those drafted out of the major junior ranks in Canada, it’s not even an option. But there are a handful of international players who were picked in July that have started this season in the AHL. That list shrunk by one today as the Canadiens announced (Twitter link) that they’ve loaned Filip Mesar to Kitchener of the OHL.
The 18-year-old was the 26th pick this summer after a decent showing in the Slovak Extraliga where he had eight goals and eight assists in 37 games while adding four more points in six playoff contests. Having played at a professional level the last two years, Mesar’s camp had indicated that his preference was to spend the year in the minors and not go to junior.
However, after seeing limited action on the fourth line with AHL Laval last night, Montreal has decided that the best opportunity for Mesar’s development will be to have him play big minutes in the OHL. As a result of the assignment, his three-year, entry-level deal will slide a season and still have three years left on it leading up to the 2023-24 campaign. His contract will also be credited off the Canadiens’ 50-contract limit which now stands at 45.
Montreal Canadiens Sign William Trudeau
The Montreal Canadiens have inked one of their prospects to a entry-level deal today, signing defenseman William Trudeau to a three-year contract. Per the team announcement, the contract carries a $857K AAV, and an $80K minors salary.
Trudeau was a fourth-round pick of the Canadiens at the 2021 draft, getting selected just outside the top 100 at 113. Trudeau has spent the past three seasons with the QMJHL’s Charlottetown Islanders and has really stepped up his overall game in the past two seasons.
In his draft year, Trudeau scored 31 points in 40 games, and this past season he had a healthy 44 points in 68 games to go along with 11 points in 14 playoff games as the Islanders went on a run to the QMJHL Finals.
Now 20, Trudeau will have the chance to get his first taste of professional action with the Canadiens’ AHL affiliate, the Laval Rocket. Trudeau will join a Rocket blueline that’s looking a bit crowded, as he’ll be competing for prime ice time with Canadiens prospects such as Justin Barron and Mattias Norlinder, as well as veterans such as Madison Bowey and Otto Leskinen.
But with yesterday’s news that prospect Gianni Fairbrother would be out for the season with a knee injury, perhaps Trudeau’s path to a bigger role as an AHL rookie has gotten a bit clearer.
Minor Transactions: 10/13/22
The NHL season is fully underway, and quite a few teams are skating in their first games of the season tonight. As exciting as the action is around the NHL tonight, there’s still plenty going on around the hockey world and we’ll keep track of all those transactions here.
- The Montreal Canadiens were expected to assign 2021 first-round pick, Logan Mailloux, to his OHL club, the London Knights, when he recovered from injury. Today, the team did just that, sending Mailloux to the Knights. Mailloux hasn’t spent an extensive amount of time on the ice in the OHL, so this season will be important as he looks to establish himself as one of the Canadiens’ better options on what looks at the moment to be a crowded defensive pipeline.
- The New York Rangers’ AHL affiliate, the Hartford Wolf Pack, have signed defenseman Ben Harpur to a PTO, per a team announcement. Harpur, 27, is a veteran of over 150 NHL games and joins the Wolf Pack after signing a PTO with the Columbus Blue Jackets, a deal that did not result in a contract offer. The Rangers recently lost physical depth defenseman Jarred Tinordi on waivers to the Chicago Blackhawks, so perhaps this PTO is a chance for Harpur to prove he can fill Tinordi’s vacated role on the Rangers’ organizational depth chart.
Mike Matheson Placed On Injured Reserve
6:55 PM: The Canadiens have added some more detail on the nature of Matheson’s injury. Per a team announcement, Matheson will be out for eight weeks due to an abdominal muscle strain.
10:01 AM: The Montreal Canadiens have moved Mike Matheson to injured reserve, recalling Corey Schueneman in the process. Given that he had previously been listed as day-to-day but had an MRI yesterday to further evaluate a lower-body injury, his placement on IR is ominous, to say the least.
Matheson did appear at the Canadiens game last night, introduced to the crowd along with the other injured players (including Carey Price, who received a standing ovation) but does not appear close to getting back in the lineup. His absence, along with that of Joel Edmundson and others, left an incredibly inexperienced defensive group to try and slow down their rival Toronto Maple Leafs.
The kids were alright, with Montreal winning on a late third-period goal by Josh Anderson, but it is going to be a long season if players like Matheson can’t get healthy. Acquired in the trade that sent Jeff Petry to the Pittsburgh Penguins, the 28-year-old was expected to bring some stability to the back end after a strong season in 2021-22.
Schueneman, 27, played 24 games for the Canadiens last season, making his NHL debut after working through years in the minor leagues. The undrafted defenseman had six points in those games and represents a nice depth piece for the team to lean on in Matheson’s absence. What it might mean, though, is that the team relies on their young group even more over the next little while, and continues to try and develop them at the NHL level.
Latest On Jonathan Drouin
- The Montreal Canadiens were without forward Jonathan Drouin for last night’s season-opening game against the Toronto Maple Leafs, but they may not be without him for much longer. On the Insider Trading program, TSN’s Darren Dreger reported that Drouin is at “90%” health and getting ready to return to action in the near future. The Canadiens are currently running Cole Caufield, Sean Monahan, Juraj Slafkovsky, and Rem Pitlick as their four left wingers, meaning it’s not immediately clear where Drouin fits into their lineup. But regardless of where he ultimately finds himself on the ice, getting him back to full health is undoubtedly good news for Montreal.
Gianni Fairbrother Suffers Knee Injury, Out For Regular Season
The Montreal Canadiens’ AHL affiliate, the Laval Rocket, announced today that defenseman Gianni Fairbrother will be out for the entirety of the 2022-23 AHL season due to a knee injury. Fairbrother suffered that knee injury in a preseason contest against the Belleville Senators, and now faces a long road to recovery just as his season was about to begin.
Fairbrother, 22, was a third-round pick of the Canadiens at the 2019 draft, getting selected 77th overall. Fairbrother made a name for himself in his draft season as one of the more physical, intimidating defensemen in the WHL. The hard-hitting Fairbrother signed a three-year entry-level deal with the Canadiens last year and played in 25 games for the Rocket, scoring seven points to go along with 46 penalty minutes. This is unfortunate news for Fairbrother, but the hope will be that he can respond well to his recovery process and return in the fall of 2023 ready to have a competitive preseason and training camp.
Carey Price Discusses Injury Status
When Montreal Canadiens goaltender Carey Price was announced at tonight’s home opener, the standing ovation he received from the crowd was about the least surprising bit of news this evening. Price, who is one of, if not the best goaltender of his generation, has been a staple in the Canadiens lineup since his debut in 2007-08. His recent injury woes have forced him to take a step back from the game in order to try to return to full health not only on the ice, but off of it. Whether he is able to come back and play in the NHL again remains to be seen, but for now Montreal will have to proceed with Price on the sidelines.