Montreal Canadiens Announce Several Roster Moves Ahead of Tonight’s Game

The Montreal Canadiens have been battling the injury bug a bit lately and it has caused them to make several roster moves this evening.

The team is getting set to take on the New York Rangers and looking to improve upon their awful 4-11-2 start to the season. They will be looking to a new goaltender to try and help them out.

The team announced several roster moves earlier today that will affect tonight’s lineup.

First of all, they announced Cayden Primeau will get the start in goal. It will be his first game of the NHL season after starting the year in the American Hockey League with the Laval Rocket. He was called up Saturday night after Jake Allen was injured, and watched as Samuel Montembeault faced the Boston Bruins on Sunday.

Speaking of Allen, he was not placed on injured reserve, which means the Canadiens have three goaltenders on their roster.

They needed to clear up a roster spot for Primeau, who was an emergency recall for Sunday’s game, and to do so they put Adam Brooks on waivers earlier today. Brooks has played four games for the Canadiens this season after being claimed off waivers from the Toronto Maple Leafs. He has one assist in those four contests.

It appears Jonathan Drouin will be ready to suit up once again after missing two weeks. He was hit in the head with a puck against the Detroit Red Wings on November 2nd and hasn’t played since.

Drouin’s return to the lineup coincides with Mike Hoffman being placed on injured reserve. Hoffman was the recipient of a high hit by Red Wings defenceman Moritz Seider on Saturday night and the Habs winger missed Sunday’s game versus the Bruins. He will be out for at least another week as a trip to the injured reserve needs to be at least ten days.

When the dust settled, the Canadiens were able to put together a lineup that look like this:

Toffoli – Suzuki – Gallagher

Drouin – Dvorak – Anderson

Lehkonen – Evans – Armia

Pezzetta – Poehling – Belzile

Chiarot – Petry

Kulak – Savard

Romanov – Wideman

Primeau