Montreal Canadiens prospect Mattias Norlinder has had a bit of whirlwind of a season.
He arrived for training camp in September, with full expectation of being sent back to Sweden. He was under contract with Frölunda of the SHL, which is where he played the previous season.
Then, he was injured in training camp and stuck around Montreal to rehab his injury.
While he was injured, the Canadiens had performed quite poorly and were all but eliminate from playoff contention in the middle of November. Since the team was going nowhere, they decided to give 21 year old Norlinder a few games to see what he could do.
The third round draft pick from the 2019 NHL Draft came as advertised, He showed off tremendous speed and skill, but still needed to work on his defensive game a bit.
He was somewhat surprisingly sent down to the Laval Rocket of the American Hockey League, when it was expected he would be shipped to Frölunda if not playing in the NHL.
Norlinder played six games in the AHL, scoring one goal and one assist after having one assist with the Canadiens. He was then finally loaned back to Sweden where he played 21 games for Frölunda, scoring two points.
Now 22, Norlinder had a terrific postseason for Frölunda, helping them advance to the league semi-finals before bowing out. Though he had just two points all regular season, he scored six in nine playoff games.
While Frolunda’s postseason ended, Norlinder is going to get another chance at playoff glory. It was announce yesterday that the young, offensive minded defender is heading back to Laval to join the Rocket for their playoff run.
Mattias Norlinder se joindra au Rocket pour les séries éliminatoires. Il rejoindra l'équipe pour la séance d'entraînement prévue demain à 10h30 à la Place Bell.
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) May 2, 2022
Norlinder will join the Rocket for the playoffs. He will meet the team for tomorrow's practice at 10:30 a.m. pic.twitter.com/VVpUyl5kTa
It will be interesting to see what kind of role Norlinder gets in the playoffs. He was playing plenty of power play time for the Rocket in November, but he hasn’t played an AHL game since well before Christmas.
He was playing his best hockey of the season in the SHL playoffs, but will he be able to continue that momentum into the AHL Playoffs?
We will find out on Friday night when the Rocket head to Syracuse to take on the Crunch.
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