The Montreal Canadiens have sent Nikita Scherbak to the AHL for a conditioning stint. He has been left on the sidelines in each fo the Habs’ 11 games to this point of the season.
Canadiens assigned today forward Nikita Scherbak to the AHL Laval Rocket for conditioning purposes.
DETAILS ➡️ https://t.co/tLT6MaDSGX#GoHabsGo
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) October 31, 2018
He will join the Laval Rocket in time for a game on Wednesday night versus the Belleville Senators, but head coach Joël Bouchard has shown a pattern of holding new players out of the lineup immediately upon their arrival, waiting for them to get in a practice or two before being dropped into game action. It will be interesting to see if the trend holds.
Scherbak can remain in the AHL for 14 days before he needs to be recalled by the NHL club. He has three years of professional experience, and therefore would require waivers to be assigned outright to Laval; a risk the Canadiens are clearly unwilling to take.
In 140 AHL games, Scherbak has scored 27 goals and added 67 assists. With several new offensive options in Laval, he should be able to boost those numbers during his time in Laval.
