Note: Updated to reflect re-assignments of Scherbak and Farnham to IceCaps
The injury-ravaged Canadiens have made good use of call-ups from St. John’s. Eight players who have skated with the IceCaps this season were on Montreal’s roster before forwards Nikita Scherbak and Bobby Farnham were returned to the IceCaps today.
However, that use has re-created the need for some of those players to clear waivers should they be assigned to the farm team.
Forwards Chris Terry and Sven Andrighetto — still the IceCaps’ two leading scorers — and defenceman Mark Barberio already cleared waivers once in 2016-17, when they were sent to St. John’s at the start of the season. As a result, they could continue be called up and sent down without being made available to other NHL teams, but only on condition.
Once a player who has already cleared waivers spends 30 days on an NHL roster or plays 10 NHL games, he once again is subject to waivers. And it doesn’t matter how those days or games are accumulated. For example, Andrighetto’s 11 games for the Canadiens have come over a half-dozen separate call-ups.
Terry (13 games) and Barberio (18) are also well over the limit.
The accepted thinking is that Barberio, who still leads all IceCaps defencemen in scoring by a wide margin even though he’s only played half their games, is in Montreal to stay. And while Terry and Andrighetto cleared waivers in October, that was when NHL teams were mostly healthy and pretty much set on their season-starting rosters.
The situation becomes much different midseason, when many big-league clubs are needier because holes in their lineups have developed, whether because of injury or failed expectations.
“At the end of the end of training camps, there are so many players on waivers, but during the season, there are only a few at a time, so it really becomes a matter of timing and who needs what and when,” said IceCaps’ head coach Syvain Lefebvre, whose team begins an eight-game homestand with games against the Hartford Wolf Pack, the farm team of the New York Rangers, tonight and Saturday at Mile One Centre.
“But I can’t be worrying about that. Somebody else is paid to do that. We do know the guys that do need waivers and those who don’t, but from experience, we also know anything can happen.”
The IceCaps (18-14-4) are coming off a 10-game road trip that saw them go 5-2-3 and improve their position in the American Hockey League standings despite a steady drain of players to Montreal.
“You deal with whatever situation presents itself when it presents itself. You can’t worry about what the situation might be,” said Lefebvre.
“Right now, our situation is that we have a game … the first home game after a long road trip and that’s always a tough one.”
Defenceman Zach Redmond, who has been a frequent healthy scratch for the Canadiens in recent games, is subject to waivers. Redmond did get sent down to St. John’s earlier this season, but that was on a two-game conditioning assignment.
Winger Daniel Carr, who also had a brief stint with the IceCaps in the fall, does not require waivers — he hasn't had enough time as a professional — but he has become somewhat of a fixture in the Montreal lineup. While it might be easier-done — waiver-wise — to send Carr to St. John's as opposed to Terry or Andrighetto, it still would be at least a mild surprise to see him back in the AHL
Farnham and Scherbak did not have to go through the waiver process to be returned.
Since Farnham only played three games for Montreal, he doesn’t yet require waivers to be sent back, but as a veteran player, he could eventually subject to the 10-game/30-day rules depending on any future recalls.
LIke Scherback, defenceman Ryan Johnston (seven game with Montreal) and centre Michael McCarron (13) wouldn’t need waivers to be re-assigned to St. John’s because they are still on entry-level contracts.
Mind you, McCarron has been drawing steady shifts in Montreal, and is looking more and more like a regular NHLer. He is getting closer to providing the Habs with the conundrum of perhaps having to decide whether to keep a player who can be sent o the minors without worry or to try to slip another through waivers.
But as Lefebvre well knows, even though there are rule about moving players between the NHL and AHL, there are no guarantees.
“Sometimes the system works for you, sometimes it works against you,” he said. “Sometimes, you end up getting sent down even though you might not be the guy everyone thinks should be sent down, but because you’re the guy who can get sent down.
“However, these things have a way of working out over time. Maybe in the future, maybe the next season or the season after that, you’re the guy who stays in the NHL because you need to waivers.”
“That’s the system we have, but even though we know how it works, we don’t know how it will work out.
“You can wonder all you want about what might happen. You can only deal with the reality.”
