Montreal Canadiens: AHL To Return in February

Montreal Canadiens prospects won’t be able to suit up for the Laval Rocket until February.

The Montreal Canadiens top affiliate, the Laval Rocket, have not played a game since the middle of March. It sounds like it could be close to a full year before they set foot on the ice again.

When the league first pushed back its start date for the season that should have begun by now, they were saying they were targeting December 1 to drop the puck on next season.

With all of the uncertainty in the hockey world these days, nothing is set in stone and it should come as no surprise that the AHL’s original plan has needed to be amended.

The American Hockey League announced today, following a Board of Governors meeting, that they are planning on beginning the 2020-21 season on February 5. They did not release any more details about travel or schedule or how many games will be played or how many teams will make the AHL playoffs in 2021.

The league President and CEO, Scott Howson simply stated that the league will not be playing until February 5th.

This obviously has a big effect on prospects that are not likely to play in the NHL this season, but planned on suiting up with the Laval Rocket this season.

The Canadiens have been quite busy at recent drafts and have a lot of young players with nowhere to play at the moment. The 2020-21 season was supposed to be a big one for the development of top prospects like Ryan Poehling, Cayden Primeau, Cale Fleury, Josh Brook and Jesse Ylonen. Now, it sounds like many of these players will be sitting around waiting for the season to begin until Super Bowl weekend.

With the NHL already pushing back its start date to early January, it’s really not a surprise that the AHL won’t be playing games in December. It is unfortunate, but the economic reality of the situation makes it impossible for the AHL to play games. without fans in the stands.