Do the Montreal Canadiens have a plan for Karl Alzner?
The Montreal Canadiens have given Karl Alzner one game since recalling him up from the AHL, and it’s hard to gauge what the future holds for the veteran.
The Montreal Canadiens walked away from the Bell Centre Tuesday night with a win but also a loss (depending on how you think of it). Karl Alzner, who the team called up two weeks ago from the Laval Rocket, was sent back down after the win.
The 30-year-old has only seen a single game since the recall, and unfortunately, it was a bad one for the team as a whole. Alzner didn’t play too poorly, but that’s hard to overlook when he was replacing Mike Reilly who is a better skater and offensive generator. It also didn’t help that the Habs were beaten 4-1 to an underperforming St. Louis Blues team.
However, Alzner wasn’t the best-looking player out there on the fourth goal against. Samuel Blais blew past both Alzner and Jeff Petry ahead of a neutral zone pass which isn’t a good look considering how many times that’s happened in his tenure with the Montreal Canadiens. Claude Julien went back to his usual Reilly-Petry duo, and it’s looked like a safe bet so far as the team has won three games in-a-row.
According to Renaud Lavoie, the plan is for Alzner to play Wednesday in Laval against the Belleville Senators and rejoin the Habs on their way travels to Columbus (It helps having the farm team be close, doesn’t it?). Now Alzner will get a chance to get some minutes underneath his belt before awaiting his next opportunity to suit up for Montreal.
And that’s the topic of today: when is the next opportunity, or more specifically, what does the future hold for Karl Alzner?
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Andrew Zadarnowski of Habs Eyes on the Prize made a good observation on Twitter. Not only is sending Alzner down a chance for him to actually play, but it’s managing his waiver status as well. Alzner has another ten days left before he’ll need waivers to be sent to the Laval Rocket again, assuming it leads to that. Loaning him now extends that window giving the Montreal Canadiens more time before having to make a decision.
That still doesn’t answer the question at hand though. There isn’t room for Alzner on the blueline, and he’s not boosting himself up by staying in the press box. His play in the AHL isn’t too much of an evidence pool either given the difference in competition. Teams want to know that Alzner still has what it takes to compete in the NHL and the Montreal Canadiens can’t give him that leash with every point being crucial.
It would be a lot easier if Alzner had a better contract to deal with. A team could easily take a hail merry claim on the veteran and see what they could do get out of him, but the contract is the bitter portion of the pill. Especially with the trade deadline coming up, every dollar in cap space matters.
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The Montreal Canadiens may have to keep Alzner in this limbo state for the rest of the season or leave him with the Laval Rocket. Perhaps a trade can be worked on over the offseason when general managers are more flexible with their money. A case can be made that Alzner only needs a fresh start to turn things around and a team with the space may be willing to take it on. Otherwise, Marc Bergevin is going to have another issue to work through.