Analysis | Nothing exciting for Cayden Primeau

(St. Louis) It’s hard to imagine a worse situation for Cayden Primeau right now.

Too good in the eyes of his bosses to be subject to waivers. Not enough to be entrusted with an interesting volume of departures. And completely blocked in its development.

All goalkeeper coaches say it: a young goalkeeper must play, play and play again to progress in the professional ranks and show what he has in his stomach.

The Press has listed the 32 goalies born from 1998 to 2000 – Primeau was born in 1999 – who have played at least one game in the NHL to date. The top eight positions, among those who have played the most professional games, are occupied by goalkeepers who occupy a full-time position on an NHL duo this season.

Among them are natural talents, like Carter Hart and Jake Oettinger, who reached the major leagues at a very young age. But there are also those who have been patient. Lukáš Dostál is making a splash in Anaheim this season, but despite his 23 years of age, he has already played more than 200 games in other circuits – 98 in the American League (AHL) and 111 in Europe. Arvid Söderblom, assistant in Chicago, has a similar background. Stuart Skinner even played 44 games in the ECHL, in addition to 113 in the AHL.

And Primeau? Here he is at 145 professional games, which is not so bad, but he is, at 24 years old, in his fifth season. And his match counter is essentially stopped.

Goalkeepers his age, like Pyotr Kochetkov or Ivan Prosvetov, are accumulating starts. Primeau was granted a favor during his team’s recent trip: twice, he was in uniform as an assistant rather than watching the game from the stands. Nothing exciting here.

Waiting

Every morning, therefore, Cayden Primeau appears on the ice rink, without complaining.

On match days, when training is often optional, it allows reserves to take shots against a goalkeeper. On full practice days, he watches the majority of drills from the corner of the box. Or he works with specialist coach Éric Raymond on the sidelines, near the boards, since the two goals are mainly defended by Samuel Montembeault and Jake Allen.

He certainly benefits from overtime with Raymond, one on one. But his role is clear: he is the third wheel of a bicycle that does not need him to roll.

We can imagine that the young man is fed up. Guardian trios are like love triangles: there’s a good chance that someone will end up feeling sad.

Primeau watches, helplessly, as three phenomena work against him. First, given his age and professional experience, he must go through waivers to be transferred to the minor leagues. Management fears losing him to another club without getting anything in return. We are therefore keeping it “up” until further notice.

Then, Allen and Montembeault, whipped or not by this internal competition, both had good starts to the season. It was even mainly them who allowed the Habs to conclude the month of October with a winning record.

Finally, there is the calendar, surprisingly light at the start of the season.

Before Primeau’s only departure, Martin St-Louis had been succinct enough to justify his decision to send him against the New Jersey Devils: his team was playing a second game in two evenings. “That’s not bad,” he added.

Over the past week, the head coach answered several questions about goaltending management. We sense a weariness in him regarding this issue. On the one hand, he often repeats that he is not a goaltending expert. On the other hand, he didn’t choose this threesome.

On Friday, St-Louis again admitted that Primeau found himself in a situation that is “not easy.” “We hoped to give him more starts, but circumstances have slowed him down. He will see the goal again,” he promised.

But when ? It’s a good question.

A new fact has added to the intrigue. Already St-Louis justified the successes of Allen and Montembeault to explain the lack of action entrusted to Primeau, he also suggested that accumulating points in the ranking was more important to him than before.

“The points in October are as important as at the end of the season,” he said last Thursday. We take them seriously. »

Moral

Despite everything, his morale is good, assured Samuel Montembeault and Christian Dvorak in recent days. “He keeps his head high and he works hard,” said Dvorak, who spent a lot of time with his younger colleague while he recovered from knee surgery.

“He has a good attitude, he is always smiling,” added Montembeault, who also praised the solidarity that unites the three goalkeepers. Our request to speak with Primeau was declined by the club on Saturday morning.

About all the young man can do is wait. If one of the two starters gets injured or if the club falls in the standings, this would put the imperative of collecting points into perspective. Without being bad, Allen and Montembeault were unable to save their team in the last two games. Will the door open?

Primeau can also hope that a transaction involving a goalie, him or another, is concluded.

With the return to form of Christian Dvorak, Primeau’s place in the 23-player roster is suddenly a pebble in management’s shoe. Will we take the opportunity to change course with Primeau? We wish him that. Because for the moment, no one benefits from seeing this situation continue. Especially not him.