Montreal Canadiens Made Right Call Sending Down Ryan Poehling
The Montreal Canadiens made their final cut yesterday afternoon, deciding to send Ryan Poehling to the Laval Rocket. He played well during training camp, but it was the right decision to send him down.
The Montreal Canadiens have to be pleasantly surprised by what they have seen from Ryan Poehling since drafting him. The American center was taken in the first round of the 2017 NHL Draft and appears to get better every time he touches the ice.
He had just 13 points in 35 games for the St. Cloud State Huskies before being drafted, but was the youngest player in college hockey at that time. He stepped up after being taken with the 25th overall pick. Poehling jumped from 13 points to 14 goals and 31 points in 36 games. He followed that up with another 31 point campaign last season.
The 20 year old center was impressive when playing for the Huskies, but looked even better when playing in situations with more pressure than a college hockey game on a Friday night in Minnesota.
Poehling starred for USA at the World Juniors last winter, scoring five goals and eight points in seven games, playing a tremendous two-way game and helping the Americans earn a silver medal. He was named the MVP of the tournament.
When the Huskies season ended, Poehling signed his entry-level contract with the Montreal Canadiens in time for the final game of the regular season. Suiting up in the Habs-Leafs rivalry on a Saturday night for the first time, Poehling stole the show scoring a hat trick and also sniping the game’s winning goal in the shootout.
Poehling could not have done anything more to prove he belongs in the National Hockey League. However, the Canadiens made the right move sending him down to the Laval Rocket to start the season.
The Lakeville, Minnesota native played well in training camp, but was only able to suit up in two preseason games. He looked great in his first outing against the Florida Panthers, playing well defensively and making a beautiful toe-drag around Aaron Ekblad before firing a perfect pass across the crease that led to the game winning goal.
Unfortunately, Poehling also absorbed a huge body check early in the game that resulted in a concussion, though the symptoms did not present themselves until the next morning. That was the second game of the preseason and Poehling did not play again until the final tuneup on Saturday night.
Once again, he played well and showed he is capable of playing in the NHL right now. But, having played just two preseason games it is the right decision to let him start the year with the Rocket. Also, the Canadiens actually have center depth for the first time in a long, long time so there is no need to rush Poehling into the lineup.
Without Poehling, the Habs will have Max Domi, Phillip Danault, Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Nate Thompson down the middle of the ice. Poehling is a better player than Thompson in all facets of the game, but sending Poehling down avoids having to put a player like Mike Reilly or Nick Cousins on waivers.
Poehling has done everything right thus far in his young career. He is going to make an impact on the Habs for a very long time. It just makes sense to let him start the year this weekend with a few games against the Cleveland Monsters to make sure he feels well after suffering a concussion.
There is no question that Poehling will be the first callup to the Habs when an injury occurs. Actually, if he plays as well as he did in training camp this weekend in a pair of AHL games, he might get called up whether a Habs player is injured or not.
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It was definitely the right move to send down Poehling since it doesn’t expose anyone to waivers and keeps the maximum amount of depth in the organization and it allows him to slowly come back from his injury. I just don’t expect Poehling to spend much time with the Laval Rocket before he proves he is too valuable to miss any more games at the NHL level.