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Montreal Canadiens recall Joel Hanley and Daniel Carr from the St. John’s IceCaps

The Montreal Canadiens announced on Wednesday the recall of defenceman Joel Hanley and forward Daniel Carr from the St. John’s IceCaps of the American Hockey League.

Daniel Carr, who opened the season with the Habs,  played three games with the IceCaps, scoring two goals and one assist, while registering ten shots. He had a goal earlier today against the Utica Comets.

Carr had been a healthy scratch since the third game of the season, and the Canadiens sent him down presumably to get some work since Brian Flynn earned a spot on the Habs fourth line.

Prior to the call-ups the Canadiens roster was at its allowable minimum of 20 players (12 forwards, six defencemen, and two goalies), but with three games in four days, they chose to be prudent and have some extra players ready in case of injury.

In ten games in St. John’s this season, Hanley scored one goal and added three assists, and is only one of a handful of players on the team with a positive +/- rating, +5.

Last season Hanley made his NHL debut playing 10 games with the Montreal Canadiens, registering six assists.

With Mikhail Sergachev returned to the Windsor Spitfires of the Ontario Hockey League and Zach Redmond on the shelf for another four weeks with a broken foot, the Canadiens were in need of reinforcements on defence.

Seeing Hanley get the call-up over Mark Barberio may be initially surprising, however if the plan is to simply use the call-up as insurance to be a healthy scratch, then there is no point calling up Barberio who will be better served playing top minutes in the AHL. Hanley represents a capable replacement until Zach Redmond returns from injury in a few weeks’ time.

That being said, another important consideration is waiver requirement for both Hanley and Barberio. Hanley is not waivers eligible which makes it easier to move him around. Once a waivers eligible player were to play 10 games with the Canadiens or spend 30 days on the active roster, whichever came first, they would have to be re-submitted to waivers in order to be sent back down to the AHL. There is no sense restarting the clock on Barberio with a recall until there is a definite spot for him in the Canadiens’ top six. Currently that does not appear to be case.

A stick tap goes to Dans les Coulisses for predicting the Hanley call up.

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