Montreal Canadiens prospect Riley Kidney has signed a contract with the Laval Rocket. He will join the AHL squad just in time for their series with the Rochester Americans.
Kidney’s Junior team, the Acadie-Bathurst Titan, were eliminated in the second round of the QMJHL playoffs. They had fallen behind the Halifax Mooseheads 2-0 in the first round, but stormed back to win three straight elimination games in the Best-of-5 series.
They couldn’t duplicate the feat against the Charlottetown Islanders. The Titan return home down 2-0 once again, but lost to the Islanders again in Game 3 and their promising season was over sooner than expected.
Kidney, the Canadiens second round pick in the 2021 NHL Draft, had a fantastic season. He scored 30 goals and led the QMJHL with 70 assists, finishing inside the top ten in league scoring with 100 points. He added eight points in eight playoff games.
The smart, two-way centre with incredible vision and playmaking skills, will now take the next step in his career. He is slated to make his pro debut in the coming days.
Kidney has already signed an entry-level contract with the Canadiens organization. That contract is set to kick in next season, unless he is sent back to Junior again in which case the contract will slide forward to begin in the 2023-24 season.
For this year’s playoffs, Kidney signed an amateur tryout contract with the Rocket. This allows him to join the AHL team for the remainder of the season, but he won’t have to begin his entry-level contract this season.
After such a strong QMJHL season, it will be interesting to see what role, if any, Kidney gets in the Rocket lineup. The Rocket have been using 11 forwards and seven defencemen for most of the playoffs so far.
They were able to outlast the Syracuse Crunch with an overtime in in a deciding Game 5 with this lineup. Will they take Norlinder out of the lineup to go with six D and make room for Kidney up front?
We won’t have to wait long to see. The Rocket begin their Division Final series with the Americans tonight at home in Laval.
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