With five forwards, four defensemen and two goalies, the Canadian now has 11 of his players on the NHL’s COVID-19 surveillance protocol.
The last two in contention, Paul Byron and Cayden Primeau, were added on Wednesday.
Byron was completing his rehabilitation from hip surgery and, after months of absence, was finally approaching a return to play. He will have to wait a little longer.
As for Primeau, he was one of the Canadiens’ two main goaltenders until Wednesday, and could be expected to face the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday, if not the Florida Panthers on Saturday.
In his absence, we can deduce that goaltender Michael McNiven, who has never played a game in the NHL, will be recalled from the reserve squad and promoted to the title of assistant to Samuel Montembeault.
Under the circumstances, the Habs are left with a thorny problem in their hands, that of having only these two goalkeepers at their disposal. With Primeau and Jake Allen being on COVID-19 protocol, there are no other masked men currently under contract with the team.
The organization owns rights to Joe Vrbetic, 19, who plays in the Ontario Junior League, and Frederik Dichow, 20, who plays in Sweden, but neither are close to the NHL.
We can therefore expect that the CH will offer a contract to a guard over the next few hours to report to the reserve squad.
Other players on the COVID-19 protocol are attackers Artturi Lehkonen, Mike Hoffman, Tyler Toffoli and Laurent Dauphin, as well as defenders Joel Edmundson, Ben Chiarot, Jeff Petry and Chris Wideman.