Colin White Appears To Be One & Done

The Montreal Canadiens claimed Colin White off waivers, in a move to secure their centre core in the NHL and help out the Laval Rocket for their playoff push.

A move that ensured the Rocket got their leading point producer and top line talent, Brandon Gignac. At one point, although it was just one game, the Habs relied on Rafael Harvey Pinard to run the fourth line down the middle, but that wasn't much of a success. So they decided to take a flier out on White, after the Pittsburgh Penguins put the former 2015 first round selection on waivers.

The 27-year-old played 11 games with the Penguins managing zeros all across the board. After being sent down to their AHL affiliate, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins he managed 5-5-10 totals through 21 games. The Penguins had seen enough and waived the struggling forward.

With a need for a centre, because of injuries to Kirby Dach, long-term and Christian Dvorak, who wasn't slated for a return until the end of the season, Kent Hughes jumped all over White. Unfortunately, it's been more of the same with the Habs, to the tune of zero points through 15 games.

Now, it isn't all about points, especially for a fourth line centre, but he hasn't exactly done much to warrant a return next season. He is currently a minus three and with Dvorak slated to return to the lineup soon, it doesn't seem all that likely that he will return back to the Habs lineup once that happens. It wasn't a costly move to bring him in by any means, so it's not a mistake; but it's rather sad to see how far that White has fallen.

After an impressive NCAA career with the Boston College Eagles, spanning two seasons from 2015 to 2017, the Senators liked what they saw. Hard to blame them, since he posted nearly back-to-back point-per-game seasons with 43 points in 37 games and 33 points in 35 games. He was named rookie of the year in Hockey East and New England after his Freshman season.

It took White a couple seasons to acclimate to the NHL pace, but once he did, he put up a respectable season in 2018-19 with 41 points through 71 games. The following season he scored 23 points in 61 games, a significant drop, but it certainly didn't signal anything too concerning. Unfortunately, he hasn't cracked the 20-point plateau since then, and this season he has fallen to a career-low.

When he was claimed, I had hoped that he could be a cheap, low risk addition, unfortunately that hasn't been the case. Sadly, I don't think that he will be in the NHL much longer.