The Canadian | Is Cayden Primeau worth a logistical nightmare?

What would a start to the season be in Montreal without a bit of controversy about goaltenders?

Simon Olivier Lorange
The Press

With Carey Price out of action until further notice, it seemed certain that the duo of Jake Allen and Samuel Montembeault were gearing up to kick off the 2022-23 campaign. Martin St-Louis, however, uttered a mysterious phrase after his club’s narrow loss Monday night at the hands of the New Jersey Devils.

After Cayden Primeau put on a pretty solid performance, the Habs head coach said the identity of Allen’s assistant wasn’t set in stone. Primeau and Montembeault will be “evaluated” and will have “their chance”, he added.

Coaches don’t like opening their game so early in training camp. We want to provoke as much internal competition as possible so that all players, rookies and veterans, show what they are capable of without resting on their laurels. That is.

We can still ask ourselves: is there a chance that Cayden Primeau will pull the rug out from under Samuel Montembeault?

Anything is obviously possible. The Quebecer, it is true, has not yet proven that he is a reliable and lasting solution in the NHL. In interview at Montreal Journal, last week, general manager Kent Hughes said he had declined trade offers involving Jake Allen during the summer, in particular because he did not see himself facing next season with a Montembeault-Primeau tandem. It’s not a compliment to either of them.

On the payroll, the decision would not have a considerable effect. However, it is on the administrative and logistical levels that the consequences would potentially be the most significant.

Excluding goaltenders whose names are on the long-term injured list (Carey Price, Robin Lehner or Ben Bishop), the Canadiens are the only team on the circuit to have only three masked men with an NHL contract. . Eight formations have four, while the overwhelming majority of clubs have five or six.

So what about Kevin Poulin, Philippe Desrosiers and Joe Vrbetic, who are currently at the camp of the big club? They all have American League contracts, not National League ones. Logically, Poulin will line up with the Laval Rocket, and the other two with the Trois-Rivières Lions, in the ECHL.

Tossing

The decision to keep Primeau in Montreal could lead to a cascade of twists and turns. The 23-year-old American can indeed be sold to the Rocket without going through waivers. This is not the case with Montembeault.

Thus, if we wanted to demote the Bécancour native, we would have to run the risk of losing him to another team without getting anything in return. This scenario would be an obvious problem, because the Canadian would then have no room for maneuver in the event of an injury to one of its two main goalkeepers.

Replacement options are slim at best. We could offer an NHL contract to Poulin, who has already tasted this level of competition. However, the organization had 100 opportunities to do so last season, especially during the carnage that hit the Canadiens’ goalkeepers at a certain point. This ship, sadly for Poulin, seems to have sunk. As for Desrosiers, 27, he has never played a game in the NHL.

Many goalkeepers will find themselves on waivers a few days before the start of the season. The Seattle Kraken, for example, could submit up to three names. But would Joey Daccord be a real improvement over Samuel Montembeault? Probably not. What about veterans like Keith Kinkaid (Boston) or Louis Domingue (New York Rangers)? The answer is the same. The free agent market, for its part, is almost empty.

And anyway, if we were to decide to claim or hire a veteran, we would have to put him on waivers again to send him to Laval. It’s not very productive.

We could also decide to keep three goalkeepers in Montreal, although this option is to be classified among the most improbable. The disadvantages of losing Montembeault are decidedly far greater than the advantages of keeping Primeau “up”.

Even if Primeau would know the best camp for a goalkeeper since the creation of the league, his fate will be sealed by a philosophical and strategic posture. Will he be better served by a large number of starts in the American League – playoffs included, he has not yet played 100 games – or by a relief role within a bottom line team? ranking in the NHL?

The answer seems obvious. Although in Montreal, when it comes to a goalkeeper, she never really is.