Analysis | Against all odds, the CH recalls Owen Beck

After so many twists and turns, the Canadian decided on the epithet that would now qualify his season: experimental. Logical heir to the ordinary Grand Cirque and Carbone 14, the Habs thus recalled Owen Beck from the junior ranks on Friday evening.

The 18-year-old center player, selected in the second round (33^e in total) from the most recent draft, will rejoin the team in Ottawa in time for Saturday night’s game against the Senators. He will obviously be making his NHL debut.

Repatriating a junior player is an extremely rare maneuver. Unless I’m mistaken, the CH hasn’t used it for more than 20 years, since goalkeeper Olivier Michaud swapped his Shawinigan Cataractes uniform for that of the Flanelle in October 2001.

Beck plays for the Peterborough Petes in the Ontario Junior League. The city of 75,000 people is just over three hours by car from Ottawa. The detail is anything but trivial in the universe of the Canadiens of 2022-2023.

While the fingers of two hands are no longer enough to count injured Montreal players, the Laval Rocket school club, in the American League, played Friday night in Cleveland. The air connections between this city of Ohio and the Canadian capital being complex, it would have been practically impossible for a player to join the Habs in time this Saturday.

While the organization has yet to provide details on Beck’s recall, one can assume a series of triggering events preceded this singular decision.

First, and most importantly, the health of center players. Nick Suzuki, Kirby Dach and Christian Dvorak made the trip to Ottawa, but all three skipped Friday morning practice. Nothing suggests that Suzuki is injured, although surprises are no longer rare these days. Without missing a game, Dach has skipped all regular practices for the past week since stopping a slap shot for no reason from Radko Gudas of the Florida Panthers with his knee. His intense use of the last meetings – from 22 to 24 minutes – however suggests that he is still standing.

However, little is known about Christian Dvorak, who had to return to the locker room for several minutes Thursday night against the Detroit Red Wings. He only made four appearances in the second period, but was able to finish the game.

In short, if one of the three main centers were to forfeit, while Sean Monahan, Jake Evans and Jonathan Drouin are already on the injured list, there are not many internal replacement options left.

Other avenues

Even if they are able to play, the management of the workforce is not easy. With Joel Edmundson injured Thursday, head coach Martin St-Louis finds himself with just seven defenders and 11 forwards, a minimum roster of 18 skaters to play a game. It is rare for a team to go on the road, even for a short trip, without a safety cushion. Will we put the 11-7 formation of the last matches on hold in favor of a traditional 12-6? We will know more this Saturday morning.

We mentioned it: since the Rocket was in Cleveland on Friday, it would have been necessary to carry out a recall relatively early on Friday so that the lucky winner could return in time north of the border. But we didn’t. Is it because the situation of presumably healthy players changed at the end of the day? Or was it rather by choice that we decided to turn to Beck?

You should know that the Rocket is also devastated by injuries. The most natural candidate for a recall would have been Anthony Richard, who played with CH earlier this season. However, for various regulatory reasons, he should go through waivers when returning to the American League. Has anyone looked up to him on this pretext? Or did we prefer a pure center player, which the Habs no longer have at the Rocket?

Finally, there is another scenario, which certainly should not be dismissed too quickly. The one where the team management really wanted to see what Owen Beck has in his stomach. He had, after all, made a very good impression at training camp, from which he left with a contract in hand. In 37 games this season, he has already accumulated 44 points, and he received a late invitation from the Canadian team to the World Juniors a few weeks ago.

The criteria for recalling a junior player are quite specific, our friends at CapFriendly reminded us. His stay must not last more than five games, he must not miss more than one meeting at the junior level and the NHL team must have already used two emergency recalls. In the current situation, all the boxes are easily checked, since the Petes only play on Sunday and the Canadiens have only two games left before enjoying a long 10-day break. So the window opened.

Whether due to an amalgam of logistical pitfalls or simply to give Beck a chance, the Canadian no longer hides his game. The 34 games remaining in the season are likely to become the scene of all possible experiences. . There are virtually no performance requirements anymore. And every day a new soldier falls in battle.

“Because the form is constraining, the idea springs more intense,” Baudelaire once wrote in his correspondence. The Habs’ latest idea is ridiculously intriguing.