Montreal Canadiens: Mattias Norlinder Likely to Make NHL Debut This Week
Montreal Canadiens prospect defenceman Mattias Norlinder has a solid training camp with the team this season.
Unfortunately, his camp was cut short due to injury, just as he was making a positive impression and possibly earning an opening night spot in the lineup.
He finally recovered this week and was sent down to the American Hockey League’s Laval Rocket for a conditioning stint. He played his first ever AHL games on the weekend, and it sounds like it won’t be long before he gets his first chance to play an NHL game.
Canadiens head coach Dominique Ducharme mentioned that Norlinder will play one more game with the Rocket, on Wednesday night, before his conditioning stint ends. The plan at that point is to bring him up to the NHL level and see what he can do with the Canadiens.
This just stinks of desperation by the Canadiens. The team is struggling mightily with a 3-10-0 record to begin the season and most of their defenders appear to be skating in quicksand. They desperately need a puck moving defenders that can play bigger minutes, but it makes no sense to put that pressure on Norlinder.
Norlinder is a 21 year old left defenceman who was a third round pick of the Canadiens back in 2019. He has played two pro seasons in Sweden already, so the pace of the NHL would not be a complete shock to the young player, but haven’t the Canadiens learned to be patient and let players join the team when they are overripe instead of not quite ready?
Jesperi Kotkaniemi was taken third overall in 2018 and clearly a little thin and weak for the battles he would face in the NHL. However, the Habs needed a centre desperately and so Kotkaniemi made the jump immediately to the NHL. He played three mediocre-at-best seasons with the Habs and when another team offered him a contract the Habs were happy to let him walk.
Now, they desperately need a puck moving defender, and Norlinder is going to move to the NHL level, probably late this week.
The team is in a deep rut to begin the year, and Norlinder appeared destined to return to Sweden for another season anyway. Why force him to the NHL now when he could benefit from more development time in a great hockey league in Sweden?
It makes no sense to rush Norlinder to the NHL just because he happens to still be in town after rehabbing an injury. He has a clause in his contract that states the team can’t officially send him to the AHL without giving him permission to go back to Sweden instead. The conditioning stint is a “loan” so he can’t say no and head back overseas.
But, overseas is the best spot for him development right now. The Canadiens should just admit that and send Norlinder back to play the season with Frolunda and then take another look at him at next year’s training camp.