Laval Rocket Players Who Can Help Montreal Canadiens – Hockey Writers – Montreal Canadiens

There are two important facts that must be acknowledged: The Montreal Canadiens are stuck in a miasma of mediocrity with a 5-9-2 record and a lease on the bottom of the Atlantic Division; the second is that their American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate, Laval Rocket, is having a good season with a 10-2-0 record, good for first place in the North Division. This begs the question: is there anyone in Laval who can give the Habs a spark?

Laval rockets to the top

What a difference a season can make. On second thought, I should proceed with caution when writing such statements. The AHL season started a few weeks ago. Laval looks good at 10-2-0, but it's still early in a 72-game campaign. The club missed the 2023-24 season, despite having a perfect record of 33-31-6. OK, overtime loss aside, the Rockets were over .500 in regulation but were on the outside looking in when the Calder Cup playoffs began.

All of this means that the jury is still out on where the chips will land when the regular season ends. However, head coach Pascal Vincent – who previously sat on the bench with the Columbus Blue Jackets – is doing a great job this season.

Related: Montreal Canadiens Scapegoat Search for 2024-25

The team's stats speak for themselves. Laval has scored 40 goals, ranking ninth in the AHL. In contrast, they only conceded 27. No opponents other than the Milwaukee Admirals (24) and Chicago Wolves (26) have allowed fewer. In addition, Laval has four players who have achieved double digits in points. Although the season is still young, there are plenty of reasons for fans to be excited about the Rockets.

Canadians Need Help

The flip side is that the Canadiens don't deserve as much praise as the Rockets. Things are so bad at the Bell Center that, despite all pleas for patience, fans are worried. Montreal's dire situation inspired a chilling discussion on a recent episode of the 32 Thoughts podcast. Should the Canadiens tank? Should they make a trade? Is this a franchise that would even consider tanking? Listen. It's quite interesting.

Only General Manager (GM) Kent Hughes knows what's going through his mind. How much patience he do you have None of this changes the fact that the team has played very poorly in their 16 games. Some might say that, even if it was expected, the quality of play has been worse more often than not.

Christian Dvorak, Josh Anderson, Arber Xhekaj, Jake Evans, Alex Newhook, and Joel Armia have all received their share of criticism. To varying degrees, each has been worth it. Sometimes it's hard to see what Dvorak is doing to earn his $4.45 million per season contract. Even this writer feels silly for including Newhook in the “best case scenario” section of the Habs' season preview article published in early October. Four points in 16 games and a minus-12 average is not what we thought.

If those who preach patience want supporters to stop thinking about commerce, what alternatives are there? First, there is sticking with the current system. It didn't go well, but a major injury to Patrik Laine early in the season derailed their plans, to say nothing of the fact that even with Laine healthy, no one in the organization was predicting a major playoff run. The plan may be to see who becomes an NHL stud and next summer make big decisions based on results.

Another option is to send a player or two down to the AHL in favor of the other Rockets.

Joshua Roy, Owen Beck, and Connor Hughes are the options

It's easy to sit behind a computer and yell proverbially, using an all-caps font, that some Canadians need to take the orange line up to Laval and the rest of the Rockets to come here. Who should be demoted? Why? Who should be called up to the AHL? Why? Those answers are very complex.

Dropping Dvorak sounds like the easy option, but should a guy making $4.45 million be far from the club? That's a lot of money to screw up in the AHL. Even Newhook earns $2.9 million per season. But some messages need to be sent. There are also many reasons why such temporary changes may occur. Some players just need to find their game. Doing so in limited minutes against the NHL's most competitive opposition can make that more of a challenge than it needs to be for a tough enough job to begin with.

Who is playing well for Laval this season? A few words come to mind. Joshua Roy is an excellent host. Through 12 games, the Quebec native has 13 points with seven goals and six assists. He even scored a hat trick on Nov. 2 against the Providence Bruins. Lest we forget, Roy wore a Canadian uniform 23 times in 2023-24, contributing four goals and five assists. That bit of NHL-level experience could make this decision go down well.

Owen Beck is another name that has been mentioned recently. A 2022 second-round draft pick by the Canadiens, the center has 11 points (three goals, eight assists) and a plus-9 rating. He hasn't left the Canadien just yet, but judging by his play, the 20-year-old is another head coach Martin St. Louis might want to miss him. He has also qualified for Team Canada at two IIHF World Junior Championships (2023 and 2024), so tough competition is no stranger to him.

Undoubtedly, the most pressing choice is a backup for Samuel Montembeault. Cayden Primeau is not cutting it this season. In seven games he has a goals-against average (GAA) of 4.68 and a save percentage (SV%) of .845. No one ever said being an NHL-caliber netminder was easy, but those are bad numbers. It's to the point where if Montembeault doesn't work at night, people start to worry before the puck drops.

Laval has a duo of strong crease keepers. Connor Hughes and Jakub Dobes played six games each. Hughes, 28 years old, has a 1.99 GAA and a .931 SV%. Dobes, 23 years old, doesn't blow the competition out of the water, but his GAA (2.32) and SV% (.914) do. they are respected. Who knows, maybe Hughes could be the Canadiens' Joey Daccord, the Seattle Kraken netminder who made it big in his late 20s.

There are other potential candidates to earn ice time in the NHL. Adam Engström, Alex Barré-Boulet (who played two games at the start of the season), and Luka Tuch. Considering any of those players as possible additions to the Canadiens' lineup for a few games doesn't push the panic button. That's why the Rocket exists: to help Canadiens.

When all is said and done in 2024-25, there will be some unhappy campers. Many will not be happy because Montreal was not much better than last season, if at all. They will be disappointed because the club did not trade after Laine. They will not be happy if St. Louis and Hughes continue what this article suggests because the list should try to jell as it is. Any way you slice it, someone is not going to be happy next spring or summer. That said, there are some excellent AHL prospects who can and should give the Canadiens a boost, even if it's only for a week or two.