Sunday: The Montreal Canadiens announced that Alzner has cleared waivers and the team has reassigned the defenseman to the Laval Rocket of the AHL.
Saturday: Following their acquisition of Christian Folin earlier today, the Canadiens needed to free up a roster spot. They’ve done just that as TVA Sports’ Renaud Lavoie reports (Twitter link) that they’ve placed defenseman Karl Alzner on waivers.
Alzner saw his ironman streak end at 622 regular season games in the season opener against Toronto and it was a sign of things to come. He has played in just nine games with Montreal this year and has not been injured at any time. The 30-year-old cleared waivers back in November and has played in 11 games with their AHL affiliate in Laval.
Alzner is in the second season of a five-year, $23.125MM contract that he signed back in the 2017 offseason. Considering the $4.625MM AAV and the term remaining on his contract, it’s a guarantee that he’ll pass through unclaimed once again and will be assigned back to Laval on Sunday. He’ll continue to serve as injury depth down there for the time being but it wouldn’t be surprising to see him recalled following the trade deadline when the 23-man roster limit is eliminated.