(Minneapolis) The sun is shining brightly on the economic metropolis of Minnesota this Tuesday. Canadiens players who thought they would take advantage of their time off to ride the roller coaster at the Mall of America will be faced with quite a dilemma.
The Habs are in fact excused from training on Tuesday, the day after their 3-2 overtime victory in Winnipeg. The team will practice on Wednesday, before facing the Wild on Thursday and the Chicago Blackhawks on Friday, to complete the first part of its seven-game road streak during the Holidays.
If Jake Allen or Cayden Primeau fear that this trip will be their last with their Canadiens teammates, they will have at least a week of peace from Tuesday evening. This is in fact where the training freeze comes into force, the roster freeze in the terms of the collective agreement.
Under Section 16.5(d), between December 19 at 11:59 p.m. (local time) and December 28 at 12:01 a.m., no player may be traded, placed on waivers or assigned to the American League. There are a few exceptions to this rule, which would, for example, allow the Canadian to send back Emil Heineman, freshly recalled, to Laval, but none of these exceptions apply to Habs goalkeepers.
This means that the menage a trois in front of the net will last at least another week. Then, nothing prevents a transaction from being concluded during the moratorium; only, it will only become official on the 28th. This is what happened in 2015, when the Canadian obtained Ben Scrivens, from the Edmonton Oilers. The news had leaked a few days earlier, so Scrivens was already in Tampa with the Canadian when the transaction was confirmed.
So far, Samuel Montembeault leads the way with 13 starts, compared to 12 for Jake Allen and 6 for Cayden Primeau. After Monday’s victory, Allen implied that this was his last game before Christmas, so in theory, Montembeault and Primeau will be entitled to the last two starts.
For what it’s worth, in this regime which is not necessarily popular, the three have so far presented an efficiency rate higher than what they had displayed since their arrival in Montreal.
In addition, according to Sportlogiq data, the Canadiens’ three goaltenders rank among the five leaders in the NHL for the rate of “stolen” victories, a calculation made based on their performance in relation to the number of expected goals.
The moratorium on transactions comes at a very strange time. Goalies are indeed dropping like flies, and depending on the severity of the cases, some general managers may have to evaluate their options.
– The most recent cripple is a certain Jake Oettinger. The Dallas Stars announced a lower body injury and weekly evaluation. “It’s not long, long term,” assured the team’s head coach, Pete DeBoer. The Stars are in the heart of a three-way fight for 1st place in the Central Division, but they are nine points ahead of the St. Louis Blues, the first team currently excluded from the playoff picture. Scott Wedgewood and Matthew Murray (not to be confused with Matt Murray) share the work in the meantime.
– At the same time, Ville Husso also fell in action in Detroit. Red Wings head coach Derek Lalonde told Detroit media on Tuesday that the Finn would be out “for a while.” The Wings were already without Alex Lyon, who will be missing at least until Christmas, Lalonde said. In the meantime, Detroit has reached an agreement with veteran Michael Hutchinson, author of a 4.29 average last season… Hutchinson wore the colors of the farm club, in Grand Rapids, but under a League contract American. With this one-year contract signed, Hutchinson will be eligible for a recall. The Wings are at the heart of the fight for the last places giving access to the playoffs.
– The Seattle Kraken has just lost the services of Philipp Grubauer, also re-evaluated on a weekly basis. The youngest team in the NHL relies on the duo of Joey Daccord and Chris Driedger. Seattle was just three points out of the final playoff spot as of Dec. 19, but has played more games than any other team in the fight.
– In Toronto, Joseph Woll suffers from a sprained ankle. He too is re-evaluated from week to week. His loss comes on top of the fact that veteran Ilya Samsonov is having a very difficult season so far.
– In the absence of Frederik Andersen, the Carolina Hurricanes are not closing any doors. They have just given Aaron Dell a trial, after trying the same approach with Jaroslav Halak.
– Adin Hill (Vegas) and Pheonix Copley (Los Angeles) are also on the sidelines.
There is therefore no shortage of teams caught in imperfect situations in front of the net. But how many are desperate enough to negotiate with a team that has a surplus of masked men? Add in the fact that many teams are stuck under the cap, trading a veteran like Allen becomes even more complicated.
In addition, the Canadian is far from being the only club with three goalkeepers on its roster.
The Columbus Blue Jackets, whose games were closely watched by the Oilers, are counting on a trio now that goaltender Daniil Tarasov is healed. For very different reasons, the Calgary Flames and the Florida Panthers have interesting prospects in the American League in Dustin Wolf and Spencer Knight, although these teams do not have to deal with the pressure of waivers. The Buffalo Sabers also have to divide the pie into three.
In short, teams looking for solutions are spoiled for choice.
