Montreal Canadiens: The Laval Rocket have a new divisional rival

By Omar L | May 12, 2018

TORONTO, ON - MARCH 12: Tom Parisi #5, Kirby Rachel #18, Matt Taormina #40 and teammates of the Laval Rocket celebrate a goal against the of the Toronto Marlies during AHL game action on March 12, 2018 at Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Graig Abel/Getty Images) /

Thanks to some realignment in the league, the Montreal Canadiens AHL club in the Laval Rocket have a new divisional rival to contend with.

Change happens at the end of every season. Whether it’s in terms of player personnel or management depends on what went on over the course of the year. However, sometimes league-wide changes come into play, and one of them involves the Montreal Canadiens, but more specifically, the Laval Rocket.

The story behind their disaster of a year is in stone already. There were expectations that the new team in Laval could build off the previous season’s playoff-clinching year as the St. Johns Ice Caps. Winning a round would’ve been nice seeing as how short the 2017 run was, but making it was the goal. That didn’t happen, and it’s back to the old whiteboard as to how to improve the team and set them up for more success in 2018.

Laval’s conquest to do that is going to look a little different though. The AHL’s North Division had seven teams including the Laval Rocket, Toronto Marlies, Utica Comets, Syracuse Crunch, Rochester Americans, Binghamton Devils, and Belleville Senators. Thanks to the addition of the league’s 31st team, the Colorado Eagles (Colorado Avalanche AHL affiliate), some adjustments had to be made.

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One which has the Cleaveland Monsters becoming the eighth North Division team. The Columbus Blue Jacket affiliate had a similarly disappointing regular season. They finished with 60 points at the end of their 76-game campaign (25-41-10 record).

The 2015-16 season was the last time they made the playoffs when they were referred to as the Lake Erie Monsters. They managed to turn a 97-point season into a Calder Cup Championship sweeping the Hershey Bears. Fun fact, Kerby Rychel was on that team. The 23-year-old didn’t put up the kind of numbers he has been recently, but he was still a part of the victory.

Cleaveland isn’t a direct threat at the moment, but things in the AHL change fairly quickly. Some of those bottom teams in the North could very well be contending for a playoff spot next April. Laval definitely wants to be one of those teams doing that, and it’ll take the implementation and execution of their younger players.

It’s going to be even harder unfortunately. Now there’s going to be one more team competing for the same number of playoff spots.

Next: Drafting Zadina Could Force a Pacioretty Trade

No one has ever said that making the post-season is easy, and the Laval Rocket will have their work cut out for them. But with Will Bitten, Michael Pezzetta, Alexandre Alain, and possibly Jake Evans joining the season, there’s a good reason to have a safe layer of optimism ahead of next year.