Montreal Canadiens: What Happens When David Schlemko Returns
David Schlemko may return to the line-up on Saturday for the Montreal Canadiens. If that happens, there has to be some kind of change to the roster.
Most of the players on the Montreal Canadiens roster have played in at least one regular season game. Only two have yet to see some action being Joe Morrow and David Schlemko.
Morrow was given a lot of opportunities to earn a spot during the preseason. That would’ve happened if he was more responsible in the defensive zone. The 24-year-old had a lot of turnovers that directly led to goals. It would be best for him to be in the AHL right now with the Laval Rocket, but he’s still with the Habs. Perhaps management thinks that they’d lose him to waivers considering he’s a former first round pick.
The Habs acquired Schlemko in a trade over the offseason with the Vegas Golden Knights for a 5th rounder in 2019. There were some who thought he could play as high as the top pairing. Unfortunately he wasn’t able to play with the team because of a hand injury.
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Cluade Julien updated media saying that Schlemko is progressing well. Additionally, the 30-year-old said that he expects to play on Saturday. That could be a good addition to the Montreal Canadiens blue-line.
There’s one small problem. The only way the team could find room to fit everyone was to place the veteran on IR. Once Schlemko is deemed healthy, the Habs roster size will be over the limit at 24.
How to Make Things Work
The decision is going to come down to Victor Mete, Brandon Davidson, Mark Streit, and Morrow. Montreal could easily send Mete back to junior to play with the London Knights. That’s probably one of the least likely options since he’s been one of the team’s better defencemen and Julien already said that the plan was the keep him for the entire season,
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Davidson also hasn’t looked too bad since returning to the line-up. His status is slightly similar to Morrow’s. He has instances of playing well and others of being a massive headache, but could perfect his game in time. Additionally, there’s a chance that he’d get picked up off of waivers.
With the latest trade rumors out, it looks like Streit is the odd man out. Marc Bergevin is going to try to trade him, but considering how horrible he’s looked, it’ll be really difficult to get a return. Waiving would be the fastest and simplest option and that’s probably what’s going to happen. Bergevin is probably just seeing if he can actually get anything for him before exposing him to the rest of the league.
Making room for Schlemko is one thing, but how does he fit into the line-up? Jordie Benn may have to take a seat for a bit. He’s had a really tough start to the season and looks very different from the defencemen the Montreal Canadiens had last year. Again it doesn’t make sense to take Davidson out because he hasn’t been a problem.
It’ll be interesting to see what the Canadiens do here. If the plan really is to have him play against the Leafs, they’ll have to get something done sooner rather than later.
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What do you think will happen? Let us know what you think in the comments.