The Montreal Canadiens have sent Xavier Ouellet, Jesse Ylönen, Alex Belzile, and Cayden Primeau back to the American Hockey League’s Laval Rocket.
Les Canadiens ont cédé Alex Belzile, Jesse Ylönen, Xavier Ouellet et Cayden Primeau au Rocket de Laval dans l’AHL.
The Canadiens have reassigned Alex Belzile, Jesse Ylönen, Xavier Ouellet and Cayden Primeau to the AHL’s Laval Rocket.#GoHabsGo
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) May 13, 2021
The move is expected and inconsequential for several reasons. The Rocket still have three games remaining in their season: Friday, Saturday, and Monday. This will allow these players to play those games for a depleted Rocket team who have played with essentially 10 forwards the last two games.
The second is that the Canadiens are off on Thursday and Friday and only return to practice on Saturday with what is expected to be a reinforced lineup.
The third is that with the NHL regular season over for the team, there is no more taxi squad which will limit where players can go.
It would not be a surprise to see some of these players recalled to practice with the NHL team for the playoffs once Laval’s season is over. All four would be hard pressed to have a spot in the Canadiens’ healthy playoff roster so missing a practice or two is not a big deal.
