Montreal Canadiens: Sending Mattias Norlinder to Sweden Was Right Call

Montreal Canadiens prospect Mattias Norlinder was likely supposed to head back to Sweden all along. It was just expected to happen two months ago.

Norlinder was a third round pick of the Canadiens in 2019 and has played the past two seasons as a pro in Sweden. He suited up for Frolunda, traditionally a strong team in the top Swedish league.

He arrived at Habs training camp this season after signing his entry level contract, but it really was a long shot for him to make the NHL team

Though Shea Weber was out fr the year, David Savard was signed to a four year contract to join a defence led by Jeff Petry, Ben Chiarot and Joel Edmundson. Alexander Romanov, Brett Kulak and Chris Wideman were already here as well for depth purposes so there really wasn’t a spot for Norlinder and that was fine.

At 21 years of age, Norlinder is still a prospect. There is no rush to get him to the NHL level, but an odd chain of events led to him still being in North America halfway through December when it was expected he would be back in Sweden by the middle of October.

First, Norlinder was injured in training camp and missed about four weeks. When he returned healthy, he was eligible to be sent down to the AHL’s Laval Rocket for a week long conditioning stint. The Canadiens called him back up on November 11th and were battling several of their own injuries at that time.

Joel Edmundson still has not played a game and Savard is the only defender to suit up for every game so far this season. So, the Habs had room on their roster for Norlinder and decided to give him a few games.

He would play six NHL games and then, on December 1st, since he was still on the NHL roster, he was eligible to be sent down to the AHL. Before that, Norlinder could have used an out clause in his contract to head back to Sweden instead of going to Laval.

Though it would have been nice to keep him in North America, the Canadiens announced yesterday that Norlinder will return to Frolunda and finish the season there.

It makes a lot of sense to let him return to Sweden. First of all, that’s where he wanted to be instead of Laval. While there are some benefits to having a young, smooth skating, offensive defenceman play hockey in North America, it doesn’t make sense to force him to do that if he doesn’t want to be in the AHL.

Norlinder would have stayed in the AHL for much of the season as well. While the Canadiens are likely to trade Ben Chiarot, Brett Kulak and Chris Wideman this season, the trade deadline is not until March 21st this season. That’s just over three months away which is a long time to have a player in Laval that wants to be in Montreal or Frolunda.

Even when the aforementioned veterans are traded, the Canadiens will still have Petry, Edmundson, Savard Romanov, Sami Niku and Kale Clague on the roster. Letting Norlinder develop in Sweden for one more season allows a longer look at Niku and Clague who are both restricted free agents at season’s end.

Norlinder is likely to have a long NHL career in Montreal. The Canadiens desperately need a player that can skate and move the puck like him on the blue line. But there is no need to rush him there this season so the team made the right call sending him to Frolunda for the remainder of this year.