Montreal Canadiens: Ryan Poehling Has Successful Return to Laval Lineup

Montreal Canadiens prospect centre Ryan Poehling was expected by many fans to grab an NHL roster spot in training camp.

There was an opening down the middle of the ice as the departures of Phillip Danault, Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Eric Staal left the team looking for centre help. They did add Christian Dvorak who would take on a big role and Cedric Paquette who could play further down the lineup.

But still, a fourth or maybe even third line centre spot was up for grabs if Poehling had a terrific camp.

Poehling’s camp wasn’t terrible but it did fall somewhere short of terrific. He played okay and by the end of training camp he was one of the final players sent down to the Laval Rocket. It was a bit disappointing to see him miss a chance at the NHL roster, but the 22 year old still has lots of time to develop into a solid, reliable NHL contributor.

It was expect he would star the year with the Laval Rocket and dominate. He did last season, when he led the team with 25 points in 28 games and Poehling scored in the team’s first game of the year.

Unfortunately, he was injured in the team’s second game on a scary incident behind the net that looked like it could have resulted in a serious concussion.

That injury occurred back on October 17th and Poehling finally was able to make his return to the Rocket lineup last night. He stepped right back into the first line centre role between Rafael Harvey-Pinard and Alex Belzile.

It took two whole periods, but Poehling got on the scoresheet again in this one. He fired a shot from the slot that was blocked, but Harvey-Pinard pounced on the rebound, spinning around and firing a backhand shot into the net.

Poehling added a second assist shortly after his first one. This one was a perfect pass across the ice on the rush to Xavier Ouellet who jumped into the play. The defender tried to hammer a one-timer but kind of flubbed it a bit, though it worked out as it seemed to fool the goaltender who was quickly sliding across the crease.

That puts Poehling up to three points in three games this season, though one of those games was lost due to an early injury.

The Canadiens can use all the help they can get right now. If Poehling can keep producing offence, and his defensive game remains strong as usual, he won’t be in the AHL for very long this season.