Canadiens: Jake Allen Extension Buys Time For Cayden Primeau

The Montreal Canadiens signed Jake Allen to an extension that will give Cayden Primeau lots of time to develop.

The Montreal Canadiens made a somewhat surprising trade when they acquired Jake Allen from the St. Louis Blues. They handed over a third round pick to acquire a veteran who is capable of playing second fiddle behind Carey Price.

While acquiring Allen was a bit surprising because there were so many free agent goaltenders available, re-signing him yesterday was a much bigger surprise.

Allen hasn’t even set foot on the ice at the Bell Centre yet, but he will count for $4.35 million against the salary cap in the upcoming season and then will drop to a $2.875 million cap hit for the following two seasons, thanks to the extension he inked yesterday.

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This will finally ensure Price has a steady backup behind him for a while, after suffering through stints with Keith Kinkaid, Antti Niemi and Charlie Lindgren as the team’s unreliable number two option. A rested Carey Price in crunch time is the key to any Habs postseason success in the next few years, and having Allen play 30 or so regular season games will ensure that is the case.

It will also ensure the Canadiens goaltender of the future is more than ready for prime time when he arrives in Montreal.

Cayden Primeau was drafted in the 7th round of the 2017 NHL Draft. After two fantastic seasons at Northeastern University, he turned pro last season and dealt with a few ups and downs with the Laval Rocket. Once he as trusted with the majority of the team’s starts, he looked great, but it didn’t last long before the season was cancelled.

The 21 year old netminder is ready to take on the starter’s role full time in the AHL, but how soon will he be ready to handle 30 starts for the Canadiens? Sometimes young goalies can make that jump quickly, like Carter Hart recently did, but usually a few years of seasoning in the minors is just fine for a young goaltender.

Jacob Markstrom just signed a $36 million contract with the Calgary Flames. He was a high end prospect for a long time, but spent five years primarily in the AHL before becoming a regular NHL goaltender.

Tuukka Rask played over 100 games in the AHL before the Boston Bruins trusted him with a full time roster spot in the NHL.

Corey Crawford played five full seasons in the AHL before taking over the crease in Chicago and winning two Stanley Cups.

Ben Bishop and Cory Schneider posted excellent numbers in the AHL for three seasons before getting a real chance at the NHL level.

Many of the game’s best goaltenders have played a number of years in the AHL before getting a shot at the NHL level. Not everyone can play a dozen or so games in the AHL before making the jump to the tougehst league in the world like Carter Hart and Carey Price did.

Thanks to the Allen extension, Cayden Primeau won’t be asked to make that leap before he is ready. If Primeau stops every shot he faces next season, I’m sure the Habs will make room for him, but in the likely scenario that he has his ups and downs after started just 33 games in the AHL last season, there will be no rush for Primeau to make his mark with the Canadiens.

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Primeau now has three seasons to work on his game and ensure he is ready for an NHL job. Some will argue that is too much time, but no one said that about Corey Crawford when he was winning Stanley Cups or Ben Bishop when he was on the ballot for the Vezina Trophy.

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