Montreal Canadiens: Rem Pitlick waived amid numbers game with roster

The Montreal Canadiens have waived forward Rem Pitlick. The Habs parted ways with the 25-year-old in a spot-clearing move on Monday. He’s been fighting for a Habs roster spot and broke camp with the team, but his time is up.

As the Montreal Canadiens get Evgenii Dadonov back off the Injured Reserve (IR), they have to make some flip-flop moves to stay under the 23-man roster limit. The Dadonov saga has some twists and turns of its own, with him still being in the hot seat, but this move to waive Pitlick happened to clear space for him.

In the early parts of the 2022-23 season, Pitlick has not been able to do much. He spent more time sitting on the sidelines as a healthy scratch. With 15 forwards, it made it hard for Pitlick to find his way into the lineup.

Through seven games played for the Habs this season, Pitlick did not manage to score a point at all. He was a minus-two on the season. He’s averaged just over 12:30 minutes of ice time to this point. He’s been pretty invisible out there, and the move is understandable.

Montreal Canadiens forward Rem Pitlick hits waivers.

Habs Head Coach Martin St. Louis mentioned that Pitlick deserves chances, but on this team, it just was not feasible to send down one of the younger waiver-exempt players. The team felt those players are bringing too much benefit to the offense, and it is best to keep them.

St. Louis went beyond that to say that he feels like Pitlick is fighting to earn a jersey, commenting that he related to him from struggles early in his Hall of Fame career. Pitlick signed a two-year, $2.2 million contract in July, but the numbers game ultimately beat him.

If Pitlick clears waivers, he will go to Laval to play for the Canadiens’ minor league affiliate. For Pitlick, the likelihood of clearing waivers is decently high. Any team bringing him in will need to keep him on the roster and find top-9 forward playing time for him, which seems on the lower end of the probability spectrum.

Given some of the reactions from players, Pitlick sticking around might not be the worst. He may not be the most significant impact on the ice, but a couple of the forwards and St. Louis were big proponents of Pitlick being a good locker-room presence.

It is someone good in the room and can get along well with teammates. It’s always hard to see players like that go, so it’s good for him to have a chance to stick around and possibly earn an opportunity to come back up from Laval if he passes waivers.