Habs Sign NCAA Free Agent G Charlie Lindgren

The Habs have added another NCAA Free Agent as they have inked goalie Charlie Lindgren to a contract.

Habs general manager Marc Bergevin has continued his insertion of young talent today as the team announced the signing of NCAA goalie Charlie Lindgren to a two year/two-way contract.

“Lindgren was, in our mind, the best free-agent goaltender available coming out of the U.S. college level,” Bergevin said Wednesday in a release “Lindgren is a top goaltender coming out of college and becomes an excellent prospect for our organization, bringing some depth at this position.”

Lindgren, a Lakeville, Minnesota native, just finished up his 3rd year at St. Cloud State, putting up a stellar season with a 30-9-1 record with 5 shutouts, a 2.13 GAA and a .925 save percentage. He also has good size at 6’2″ and 190 lbs and is a right-handed catching goalie.

In an interesting twist, Bergevin also announced that Lindgren would play out the rest of this season with the Habs. This would set Lindgren up to burn the first year off his deal and allow him to enter restricted free agency after the 2016-17 season.

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Marc Bergevin stated a few weeks ago that despite the injuries to the roster this year, he was disappointed in the play of the team as a whole and that we should expect changes in the off-season. Combining what he said with the fact Lindgren is playing the rest of this season on the NHL roster means that Mike Condon‘s job could be in jeopardy.

If Lindgren does not usurp Condon as Carey Price‘s backup next year, he will join Habs top prospect Zachary Fucale in St. John’s to form a tantalizing goalie tandem.

In the grand scheme, this is a very good signing by the Habs as they add more depth to the organization in an area that has largely been neglected since Carey Price was drafted in 2005.

Lindgren’s Future

As mentioned above, Lindgren will be with the Habs for their remaining 5 games this season. It’s hard to say how many games Lindgren will play but with 2 games remaining against both Tampa Bay and Florida, two play-off bound teams, it could be a good test to give Lindgren a single start against both teams in order to give him a small trial by fire. Their would be zero pressure or expectations for him and he would be able to face some elite opposition to give him a solid idea of what it will take to succeed at the NHL level.

Going into the 2016-17 season, the picture isn’t really clear. Mike Condon showed some promise this year in Price’s absence but at the same time he was not nearly as reliable as the team needed him to be. This leaves the Habs backup goalie position open for competition which means Lindgren could easily force himself onto the team with a positive showing in any starts this year as well as a good training camp in September.

It’ll be very interesting to see how Lindgren responds to Habs goalie coach Stephane Waite’s instruction. Waite has been instrumental in Price’s development and Condon would not have been able to beat out Dustin Tokarski for a job this year without Waite’s teachings.

Ben Scrivens on Waivers

In a corresponding move to make room on the NHL roster, the Habs also announced that veteran Ben Scrivens would be placed on waivers at noon today.

Scrivens was brought over in a trade with Edmonton for Zach Kassian earlier this season in an ill-fated attempt to fill the void left by Carey Price’s injury.

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Scrivens did show some signs of life in his tenure with the Habs but for the most part, his inconsistent play cost him any chance at more playing time in Montreal. All told, in 15 games with the Habs, Scrivens posted a subpar 5-8-0 record with a 3.06 GAA and a .906 save percentage.