Montreal Canadiens: How Will Laval Rocket Sort Goaltending Situation?

The Montreal Canadiens have some questions to answer during training camp, but goaltending is not one of them.

The duo of Carey Price and Jake Allen performed well last season and they will surely be the Canadiens tandem once again this season.

The question in goal is, how do things shake out below the NHL level?

The Canadiens have five goaltenders in camp, with Cayden Prime, Michael McNiven and Kevin Poulin joining Price and Allen in the crease. That leaves the other three to battle for ice time with the Rocket, which isn’t really an unfamiliar situation for any of these goaltenders or the Rocket as an organization.

Last season, the Rocket used five different goaltenders in a 36 game season. One of those goalies was Carey Price who was sent down for a game after a lengthy injury layoff. Still, four goalies for a minor league team that only played 36 games is a lot.

Primeau led the way in appearances with the Rocket with 16. Next in line was McNiven with 13. The team also had Vasili Demchenko on the roster but he had just four games played while Charlie Lindgren suited up for three games as well.

Lindgren is gone, having signed with the St. Louis Blues and Demchenko is back in Russia after testing out North America for a season.

But with those two gone, the team signed Kevin Poulin to a minor league contract. Poulin is a 31 year veteran who has played 50 NHL games in his career and nearly 200 in the AHL. He has bounced around the past few seasons, playing in Kazakhstan, Germany, Switzerland and Sweden, but he had a strong year in Allsvenskan last season.

Poulin will be pushing hard for a spot with the Rocket.

As the incumbent, Primeau is likely to get the bulk of starts for the Rocket this season. The 22 year old had a terrific two season stint with Northeastern and ran with the starter’s role with the Rocket last season. With a full 72 game season this year, if Primeau stays healthy, I’d expect him to play 50 games.

The other 22 will be up to McNiven and Poulin to battle for.

McNiven has played well when given the opportunity for the Rocket, but the 24 year old always seems to be the third wheel in the team’s crease. He played 13 games last season but just three the year before and was loaned out to three different ECHL teams to find some ice time.

At 24, it is time to give McNiven a longer look at the AHL level and see how he can perform. It will be a battle for ice time at the AHL level with Poulin, but it makes a lot more sense to have the 24 year old prospect play games at that level and not the 31 year old veteran.

At least now, the Canadiens do have a third tier to their organization. The Trois-Rivieres Lions of the ECHL are the Canadiens new affiliate at that level and will give McNiven or Poulin a place to play close by if they don’t make the Laval Rocket.

Hopefully we get to see McNiven play a little more frequently at the AHL level while Poulin adds organizational depth from the ECHL until someone is injured. We will have to wait and see how training camp plays out, but that would be the best scenario for the organization.