Montreal Canadiens: Seven More Players Assigned to Laval Rocket

The Montreal Canadiens just finished the fourth of their six preseason games and then reduced their training camp roster by seven more players.

After a tight 2-1 win over the Ottawa Senators that was a lot more promising than the lifeless effort from a night ago, the Canadiens announced seven players were going to be assigned to the Laval Rocket.

Four of them will need to pass through waivers before being assigned but they will be on the waiver wire tomorrow afternoon.

Brandon Baddock, Jean-Sebastien Dea, Laurent Dauphin and goaltender Michael McNiven will be on waivers and available for any other NHL club to select. J.C. Beaudin, Tobie Bisson and Corey Schueneman will be assigned directly to the Laval Rocket because, due to their lack of pro experience, they don’t need to pass through waivers before being sent to the AHL.

There really aren’t any surprises on this list. None of the seven players had a real shot of making the Canadiens this season but they will all play fairly large roles on the Rocket roster.

The Canadiens have two preseason games left, one on Tuesday night against the Toronto Maple Leafs and another on Thursday night against the Ottawa Senators.

They still have several decisions to make before the regular season begins in ten days, as they have 20 forwards, 12 defencemen and four goaltenders left in training camp. A couple of those forwards are injured as Paul Byron and Mike Hoffman won’t start the regular season on time.

That means, if Cole Caufield, Joel Edmundson and Sami Niku are healthy before the start of the regular season, we will see another six forwards, three defenders and two goalies sent down to the Laval Rocket or their respective Junior teams in the coming days before the regular season kicks off on October 13th against the Maple Leafs.