Canadiens Reassign David Reinbacher, William Trudeau
Oct. 31: Trudeau has cleared waivers and was assigned to Laval, the team announced.
Oct. 30: The Canadiens have made a pair of activations from season-opening injured reserve. Top defense prospect David Reinbacher has been cleared to play and will report to AHL Laval, the club announced. In a separate transaction, they placed defender William Trudeau on waivers for the purposes of assignment to Laval.
Reinbacher, still waiver-exempt, has been out since the early parts of the preseason after he fractured a metacarpal bone in his hand. He was initially expected to miss four weeks, and today’s news comes a few days after that initial timeline.
An opening-night job wasn’t entirely out of the question for Reinbacher, but it was a long shot after the Habs’ big summer splash brought Noah Dobson to Montreal via a sign-and-trade. The injury put the nail in the coffin for his chances. It was the second year in a row that the 2023 No. 5 overall pick sustained a significant injury in training camp. Last year brought surgery on his left knee that delayed his season debut with Laval until February. He managed two goals, three assists, and five points with a +5 rating in 10 games after his return.
He’ll be looking to keep that production up and then some as he eyes his longest stint of hockey in North America yet. Reinbacher spent most of his post-draft year on loan to EHC Kloten of Switzerland’s National League before spending the final few weeks of the campaign with Laval. Accordingly, he only has 21 games of professional experience on this side of the Atlantic. He still has plenty of runway left at age 21, but staying healthy for the rest of the season will be crucial for his chances to make the jump to the NHL as hoped and expected for 2026-27.
As for Trudeau, the 23-year-old is entering his fourth professional season and has now lost his waiver-exempt status. He was held out of training camp with a pectoral muscle injury after re-signing with the Habs on a two-way deal over the summer. Drafted in the fourth round in 2021, the 6’1″ lefty has a 20-50–70 scoring line in 198 career games for Laval with a +16 rating. He’s not more than a depth call-up option at this stage and will be a restricted free agent with arbitration rights next summer.
Canadiens Re-Sign William Trudeau To Two-Way Deal
After playing out the final season of his entry-level contract in 2024-25, RFA defenseman William Trudeau has re-upped with the Canadiens for another season, the team announced. His two-way deal is worth $775K in the NHL and $90K in the AHL with a $110K guarantee, per PuckPedia.
Trudeau, who was a fourth-round pick by Montreal in 2021, turned pro following his post-draft season with the QMJHL’s Charlottetown Islanders. The 6’1″, 205-lb lefty played out his three-year entry-level contract exclusively with the AHL’s Laval Rocket.
He’s yet to make his NHL debut, and that’s unlikely to change over the course of his fresh two-way commitment. He has 20 goals, 50 assists, and 70 points with a +16 rating in 198 career games for the Rocket, but his 19 points last year were a career low. While a fine two-way threat at the minor-league level, it remains to be seen if he can excel in any given area well enough to make an impact worthy of an NHL call-up.
Like Sean Farrell before him, Trudeau takes a deal that carries a lower NHL salary but a higher guarantee than his qualifying offer would have provided. The 22-year-old will be a restricted free agent again next summer.
With Trudeau signed, only Jakub Dobes and Jayden Struble remain among the unsigned RFAs in Montreal. The club has 40 of the maximum 50 contracts on their books for 2025-26.
Canadiens Reassign Three Players
Oct. 7: The Habs returned Condotta, Gignac, and Trudeau to Laval last night, the team announced Monday morning.
Oct. 5: Several teams today have promoted players from the AHL in advance of their final preseason game tonight. Montreal is the latest to do so as they’ve recalled forwards Brandon Gignac and Lucas Condotta along with defenseman William Trudeau from AHL Laval per the NHL’s Media Portal.
Gignac spent most of last season in the minors but saw his AHL contract converted to a two-year, two-way NHL deal in February. He got into seven games with Montreal last season, scoring his first NHL goal. Meanwhile, in Laval, he had 19 goals and 36 assists in 61 games.
Condotta, meanwhile, has now been recalled for the second time since clearing waivers less than a week ago. The 26-year-old was held off the scoresheet in three appearances with the Canadiens last season while adding 19 points in 65 contests for the Rocket. Condotta, a full-time forward, wound up taking some shifts as a defenseman last weekend when the Canadiens were down to just four available to them early in a preseason game against Toronto.
As for Trudeau, the 21-year-old has yet to see NHL action in his first two professional seasons. Instead, he has played exclusively with Laval and put up eight goals and 16 assists in 70 games in 2023-24.
Meanwhile, the team revealed earlier today (Twitter link) that blueliner Kaiden Guhle will play his first preseason game after undergoing an appendectomy last month, causing him to miss their first five contests.
As for the other three, they will likely be returned to Laval before Monday’s deadline to submit season-opening cap-compliant rosters to the NHL.