Rafael Harvey-Pinard has been out of the Montreal Canadiens lineup all year with a broken leg suffered in the offseason. It seemed like a massive hit to the player's development and career track with the Habs, and I speculated in the offseason that he could lose his spot with the team. However, due to an injury to Emil Heineman and a need for more energy in the bottom-six, Harvey-Pinard received the call-up from the Laval Rocket.
Harvey-Pinard played 24 games with the Rocket since returning from his injury. He was slow starting out, but has four assists over his past eight games to total four goals and seven assists. It isn't the numbers that the Canadiens would hope for RHP after two seasons with the Canadiens, but it's hard to expect him to produce right away after recovering from a broken leg.
Michael Pezzetta hadn't played much for the Canadiens this season before the Heineman injury. He was in Montreal to be a practice player and continue being one of the better locker room guys on the team. Heineman's injury gave Pezzetta a chance, but the Canadiens had seen enough and called up Owen Beck for a quick tryout. Beck lasted just two games before the Canadiens sent him back down to further develop.
Pezzetta jumped in for the last three games, which the Canadiens lost. It is the first three-game losing streak for the team in two months, which led them to make another switch and insert RHP. Pezzetta has been a valuable member of the Canadiens in the past, but his style isn't great for the current roster construction. The Canadiens need Harvey-Pinard to bring more speed into their bottom-six, opposed to the grit that Pezzetta brings.
Is this the end of the road for the Pezzetta experiment? I'm sure they'll keep him around for the remainder of the season, but it's unlikely he'll get into too many more meaningful games. They may throw him some more appearances at the end of the year if the Habs are out of the playoff picture, but it seems like they're making it clear where they stand on his future.
It's unfortunate, as he was a fan favorite in years where the fans didn't have much to cheer about. However, its becoming less-and-less plausible to give him a roster spot.