The Montreal Canadiens place Karl Alzner on waivers
The rocky 2018/19 season for Karl Alzner continues as the Montreal Canadiens have chosen to place the defenceman on waivers.
The Karl Alzner saga with the Montreal Canadiens has had a two-faced representation. There was a lot of optimism behind it at first considering he was one of the top free agents available during the summer of 2017. However, there were others who preached caution towards signing Alzner to a massive deal.
Marc Bergevin was on the more positive end of the narrative and signed the defenceman to a five-year contract seeing him make $4.625 million per season.
Alzner was expected to be a shutdown workhorse for the Habs. Some even believed he could be an appropriate partner for Shea Weber on the top pair. However, the season played out entirely on the negative end seeing Alzner commit a multitude of turnovers and mental errors that contributed to the team’s defensive breakdowns and goals against.
The 30-year-old hoped to change things for himself this season but instead found himself in the press box. This was in large because of the growth of Noah Juulsen, but also due to Mike Reilly and Xavier Ouellet who had no aspirations to give up their spot in the roster. And now with Weber on the verge of a return, something had to give. And that something was Alzner.
Signs floated at that conclusion as the team took to practice with eight defencemen, not including Alzner. The news was made official at noon, and now the former big free agent is available to the rest of the league.
#Habs official just told the media to “expect something at noon”. Alzner likely to be placed on waivers.
— John Lu (@JohnLuTSNWpg) November 26, 2018
Alzner played in only 8 of the Montreal Canadiens 24 games this season and has a single assist to show for it. The question is where this moves on from here.
Will Alzner get claimed by another team similarly to how Jacob de La Rose was scooped up by the Detroit Red Wings? Is this a move to get him some ice time and place him in a position to be an important piece with the Laval Rocket? Or, is this the beginning of Alzner’s eventual departure from Montreal.
dark. Next. Brook and his offensive warpath
It’ll be interesting to see how this all plays out but for now, it’s disappointing to see that it’s gotten to this point. Especially considering Alzner is still set to make $4.625 million for another three seasons after this one wraps up.