Montreal Canadiens Should Send Corey Schueneman Down to Laval Rocket

The Montreal Canadiens made several roster moves in the days and hours leading up to the trade deadline on March 21st.

On deadline day, they added a couple of second round picks and prospect Justin Barron in exchange for Brett Kulak and Artturi Lehkonen being shipped out. Leading up to the deadline, the Habs made big trades involving Tyler Toffoli and Ben Chiarot that had first round picks coming back.

A few smaller moves were made that day that may have gone unnoticed, but could have had a big impact of the Laval Rocket playoff run.

For a player to be eligible to play in the AHL playoffs, he has to be on the AHL roster when the deadline passes. On March 21st, the Canadiens sent Corey Schueneman and Justin Barron down to the Rocket, only to call them back up a couple of hours later once the deadline passed.

This kept them with the NHL squad the entire time, but made them eligible to play for the Rocket in the AHL playoffs this season.

It should have given the AHL squad quite a boost with an NHL caliber defence pairing joining them for the postseason. Unfortunately, Barron was injured and will not play again this season.

Schueneman is not playing tonight, but is out of the lineup as a healthy scratch. This late in the season, it would make sense to send him back down to the Laval Rocket to let him get ready for what will hopefully be a long playoff run.

There is really no need in having Schueneman sit as a healthy scratch for the Canadiens at this point in the season. He is going to be sent down for the playoffs, so why not get him down to Laval now and let him play the final five regular season games to get ready for the Laval Rocket’s first every playoff series.

The Canadiens certainly have the extra bodies around on the NHL roster to deal with Schueneman being sent down. Along with him, Kale Clague and William Lagesson are sitting as healthy scratches tonight as well. That gives the Habs nine defenceman on the NHL roster.

They don’t need nine defenders on the NHL roster. Schueneman is better than a few of them, but should get sent down to prepare for the AHL playoffs. The 26 year old has played 24 games with the Canadiens this season and played well. He has shown he could make the NHL roster next season.

But this season is a write-off for the Canadiens. They don’t need to hang on to a 9th defenceman on the roster for their final five games. Schueneman is eventually going to get sent down so they may as well just do it now and let Clague play if anyone else needs to come out of the lineup.

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