Montreal Canadiens: Brett Lernout is looking for a shot at redemption
The Montreal Canadiens got hit by another injury during last night’s 5-0 loss, and Brett Lernout gets another chance to prove his worth in the organization.
The Montreal Canadiens injury bug will never stop. It decided to take another run at Phillip Danault keeping him out of last night’s match against the Florida Panthers with neck stiffness then made it’s way to Rinat Valiev. The 22-year-old suffered a lower-body injury and was forced to leave the game. The Habs chose to recall Brett Lernout from the Laval Rocket in response to the injury, and it looks like he’ll step into the lineup in place of Valiev.
This will mark Lernout’s third stint with the Habs this season. The first didn’t go too well for the young defenceman which had him on the wrong end of a Connor McDavid rush and several equipment issues. He was sent down right after that game but called up two weeks later to play games against the Carolina Hurricanes and Tampa Bay Lightning. Lernout played much better than the mess that was the Oilers game, but not enough to stay in the NHL.
With the injury to Valiev, Lernout has a chance to show what he’s got on the team. The doors are wide open for the 22-year-old. The team itself has nothing to play for save for their dignity and looking at some of their young players. Lernout is a player that has a lot of upside and who could be a valuable option on the blue line in the future. However, he has to show what he’s got.
There was a time in the preseason where Lernout looked incredible. He was using his size and physicality to make smart plays along the boards and showed great awareness in finding other players for stretch passes in the neutral zone. That hasn’t been displayed as much throughout the regular season. Even with the Laval Rocket, there have been signs of that side of his game, but it hasn’t been there on a regular basis.
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There’s no better time than now to bring it out. Seeing as how it is an emergency recall that has Lernout with the Habs at the moment, he’ll be sent back down as soon as Valiev is ready to go again. That being said, depending on the severity of the injury, the 2014 third-round pick could get a nice stretch of games here, be it on the third pair with Jordie Benn, and show the Habs what they can expect from him next season at training camp.
Lernout may not be a player the organization feels they need to pay attention to right now as he has another year on his contract. But there is an area of a team’s system where no prospect wants to be, and that’s the question mark zone. Once a player gets there, they become more expendable and who knows what Marc Bergevin will do in the offseason to improve the team.
No one will be asking Lernout to steal the game or anything, but showing that level of play he had in training camp would be sold step in the right direction for the young defenceman.