It looks like Marc Bergevin is going to try to change some things up as the Montreal Canadiens place Keith Kinkaid on waivers.
In all honesty, who saw this coming. The Montreal Canadiens haven’t been getting the best results from either of their goaltenders in Carey Price or Keith Kinkaid as they both have save percentages under .900. Both goaltenders have played games and drawn the losses in the team’s eight-game losing streak, and it looks as if Marc Bergevin chose to make a change in net.
Kinkaid has found himself on the waiver wire after playing a total of six games with the Habs. As mentioned earlier, his numbers haven’t been the greatest sporting a 1-1-3 record with a .875 save percentage. Diving in further, Kinkaid has allowed on average four goals in Montreal this season while he as a Goals Saved Above Average (GSAA) of -6.53. This means about six goals allowed so far by Kinkaid has been specifically his fault.
It’s not as if Price is blowing him out of the water. The starting goaltender also has a bad GSAA (-7.21) and has had five starts so far this year, which has resulted in a save percentage below .850.
However, Marc Bergevin chose to make a change at the backup position making Kinkaid available to the rest of the league.
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According to Pierre Lebrun, the point of the demotion is to go to the AHL and play some games to regain his confidence. Some may wonder why it couldn’t just be a conditioning stint similar to what Christian Folin has done, but it wouldn’t be possible considering Kinkaid played Saturday night against the Philadelphia Flyers.
As for who will be brought up to replace Kinkaid in the meantime, it’ll be a choice between Cayden Primeau and Charlie Lindgren.
Lindgren has NHL experience having been brought up to play for the Montreal Canadiens several times over the last three seasons. His standout performance was the 2017-18 season, where he and Antti Niemi tried to hold things down while Price battled injuries. On the other hand, Primeau has been the better of the two netminders with a 7-4-1 record, and .910 save percentage vs. Lindgren’s 5-5-2 and .893.
It’s important to keep in mind that this is Primeau’s first professional season, and rushing goaltenders never works out. Lindgren is the safe bet at this point, and he’ll likely play this weekend as the Montreal Canadiens have a back-to-back against the Colorado Avalanche and New York Rangers.
For now, Kinkaid will go down, if he clears, and try to regain that confidence. But if Bergevin thinks goaltending is the only issue here, it’ll be a very long season.