When the Habs entered training camp last September, four goaltenders showed up with an NHL contract in their pocket: Carey Price, Jake Allen, Cayden Primeau and Michael McNiven.
When it was learned that Price would be away for a long time, Samuel Montembeault joined the group.
Normally, a team can go through a season with four or five goalies perfectly. But let us insist: in normal times.
With Allen and Primeau falling in turn under the NHL’s COVID-19 surveillance protocol, and with Price’s absence stretching out, Montembeault and McNiven are suddenly the only two goalies available in the entire league. organization of the Canadian. This includes the reserve squad.
PHOTO BERNARD BRAULT, PRESS ARCHIVES
Michael mcniven
The CH 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.
This season, Kevin Poulin played with the Laval Rocket and the Trois-Rivières Lions, subsidiaries of the CH in the American League (AHL) and the ECHL, but it was with the Rocket that he came to an understanding. ‘last summer. Not with the Canadian. To repatriate him, management would have to offer him an NHL contract that would bind him to the team until the end of this campaign.
Head coach Dominique Ducharme has confirmed that Montembeault will secure his team’s next start this Thursday in Raleigh. McNiven will be seated at the end of the bench. Moreover, “for the moment, we will not recall anyone”. Obviously, “if something happens, we will adjust”.
Adjustments
The adjustment possibilities are not endless, however. One of them, the most obvious, would be to make a transaction or hire a minor league veteran on the spot who could finish the season in the reserve squad, in Laval or Trois-Rivières. . But we still have to find it.
Another would be to find, in Raleigh and then in Sunrise, an emergency guard – for example of university caliber – who could be called upon to take over at short notice by signing a one-day contract. Much like David Ayres, who went from being a Zamboni driver to savior of the Carolina Hurricanes in February 2020.
Before going there, the CH decided to roll the dice and bet on the duo Montembeault-McNiven without additional safety net. Needless to say, this option is far from ideal, and not just because of the specter of COVID-19 looming across the league.
McNiven, 24, has never played in the NHL before. He divided his first five professional years between the AHL and the ECHL, playing just over a hundred games. In Laval, this season, he presented roaring statistics, within a team deprived of his best elements, it is true.
In November 2020, while he was the Canadiens goaltender coach, Stéphane Waite described the Ontarian as a “competitor”, a player he “adores[ait] “, But which gave” a good depth to the school club “. In other words: not like a goalie knocking on the door of the NHL.
Two days after being recalled from the Rocket to the CH reserve squad, he is now propelled into the role of deputy for the first time in his career.
Maybe it was because of the events rushing for him or because of a natural calm, but the principal concerned had the celebration oddly sober on Wednesday.
“I’m just here to work hard and be better every day. We’ll see where it takes me, ”he told members of the media during a videoconference.
Without trainer
McNiven has yet to receive an indication of what workload is expected of him – or not. One of the possible reasons for this state of affairs is the absence of a goalkeeper coach during the six-day trip.
Eric Raymond, who occupies this position with the Habs, was unable to accompany the team, he who falls under the COVID-19 protocol, and we have not replaced him.
His counterpart at the Laval Rocket, Marco Marciano, had acted for a few weeks last season after the dismissal of Stéphane Waite; this time, he was not called in for backup. And Sean Burke, the organization’s director of goalkeepers, hasn’t joined the squad either. Our request for clarification on this subject from the Canadian has not received a response.
In the absence of specialists, it is the rest of the coaching staff who take over from the goalkeepers. “We try to help them as much as possible, but there is a side so specific to this position that we do not go into great details, admitted Dominique Ducharme. We’re talking more about the basics to make sure our goalie who comes in in front of the net comes up with a plan. ”
Ducharme also said that communications between Eric Raymond and his flock could always be done “at a distance”; McNiven said, however, that this had not yet been possible.
In the circumstances, Montembeault, Primeau and he “found work”. It must be said that they know each other well: he and Primeau have been playing together in Laval for three years, and he crossed paths with Montembeault at the end of their junior internship.
Together, they “push each other forward every day,” he says. “We have to make each other better and be ready for the next game. ”