The Montreal Canadiens returned Charlie Lindgren and Brett Lernout to the St. John’s IceCaps on Sunday morning. In addition Mikhail Sergachev was returned to the Windsor Spitfires of the Ontario Hockey League.
The Canadiens reassigned Charlie Lindgren and Brett Lernout to the AHL’s St. John’s IceCaps on Sunday. DETAILS -> https://t.co/7dPaFnUsJZ.
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) April 9, 2017
The three players were with the Canadiens on emergency recall, but with all injured players seemingly returning back to form in time for the playoffs the emergency condition was lifted and the players were no longer needed.
Lindgren was with the Canadiens since regular backup Al Montoya was injured, and therefore the team did not have the minimum required two active goaltenders. The emergency condition remained when Montoya returned to active duty on Saturday night, but Carey Price in turn did not travel with the team.
Initially the Canadiens called up Zachary Fucale from the ECHL Brampton Beast when Montoya was injured during the morning skate, just because Fucale was geographically closer to Montreal where the Canadiens were set to play the Dallas Stars.
He was then swapped out with Lindgren the following day.
Lindgren got two starts with the Canadiens, bringing his NHL experience up to three games. He’s showing a record of three wins, with a 1.65 goals against average and a 0.943 save percentage. Obviously the sample size is too small to draw any conclusions, but in combination with his AHL performances, it is a good indicator that Lindgren is ready to take on more steady backup duties behind Carey Price. He’ll first have to negotiate a new contract this summer as his two-year entry level deal expires.
Brett Lernout played two games with the Canadiens on an emergency recall as Shea Weber, Alexei Emelin, and Jordie Benn were all injured from the regular rotation of defencemen. Although he didn’t impact the scoresheet he did show progress from one game to the next in terms of confidence in play, and averaged out with a 52 CF%, which is respectable, given the big minutes he played on Saturday night.
Both Lindgren and Lernout now return to St. John’s who are in the midst of a very tight playoff chase, just sitting on the outside looking in. The IceCaps play this afternoon against the Utica Comets. It’s unknown at this time whether Lindgren and Lernout will be available for the game.
Finally, Sergachev returns to the Windsor Spitfires where he now will wait to see who the team will face in the Memorial Cup in May.
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