After Tuesday night’s loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs it was expected that the Montreal Canadiens would be pruning their roster a bit more ahead of their final preseason game on Thursday. They did just that this morning, cutting four players and assigning them to the Laval Rocket of the AHL.
The Canadiens have released the following players from training camp:
Must clear waivers before being assigned to Laval:
M. PezzettaAssigned to Laval:
G. Bourque
G. Fairbrother
R. Harvey-Pinard— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) October 6, 2021
All of Michael Pezzetta, Gabriel Bourque, Gianni Fairbrother, and Rafaël Harvey-Pinard made positive impressions but ultimately are too far down the depth chart to make an impact at this time.
None of the names on the list are all that surprising in terms of cuts, and all four are expected to be big pieces of the Rocket roster this upcoming season. Luckily only Pezzetta needs waivers to clear, and the team will be waiting until 2pm EST on Thursday to see if he went unclaimed. Bourque, Fairbrother, and Harvey-Pinard will report to the Rocket for camp immediately as they are waiver exempt. Bourque is the only one of the group on an AHL contract.
This trims the roster down to 33 players. With several injuries still looming over the roster before opening night the Habs still have a handful of final cuts to make.
