Montreal Canadiens assign Ryan Poehling to the AHL, finalize 23-man roster

After placing Charlie Lindgren and Charles Hudon on waivers on Sunday, the Montreal Canadiens were left with 24 healthy players still at training camp; one more than the allowed 23 to begin the season. Today, the team annouced that Ryan Poehling has been assigned to the Laval Rocket of the AHL.

He had a very strong pre-season, outperforming some of the veterans he was in direct competition with, but in the end the decision was made to send a waivers-exempt player to the AHL rather than risk losing a more senior member to another teams through the waivers process. It probably won’t be long before we see the rookie back in uniform with the NHL club, as he’ll be the number-one option to be recalled in the event of an injury.

The assignment finalizes the 23-man roster. The players who will make up the roster when the season begins are:

Forwards (13)

• Joel Armia (RW)
• Paul Byron (LW/RW)
• Nick Cousins (LW)
• Phillip Danault (C)
• Max Domi (C)
• Jonathan Drouin (LW)
• Brendan Gallagher (RW)
• Jesperi Kotkaniemi (C)
• Artturi Lehkonen (LW)
• Nick Suzuki (C/RW), rookie
• Tomas Tatar (LW)
• Nate Thompson (C)
• Jordan Weal (LW/C/RW)

Defencemen (8)

• Ben Chiarot (LD)
• Cale Fleury (RD), rookie
• Christian Folin (RD)
• Brett Kulak (LD)
• Victor Mete (LD)
• Jeff Petry (RD)
• Mikey Reilly (LD)
• Shea Weber (RD)

Goaltenders (2)

• Keith Kinkaid
• Carey Price

At practice on Tuesday, we also got a glimpse of what the Canadiens will look like on Opening Night in Carolina.

Nick Cousins, Christian Folin, and Mikey Reilly appear to be the extra bodies. Other than that, the lineup looks similar to how the Canadiens ended the pre-season.