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What should the Habs do with Oliver Kapanen?

 Andrew Taylor
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What should the Habs do with Oliver Kapanen?
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Tonight, Oliver Kapanen will be used on the 4th line alongside Joel Armia and Christian Dvorak.

He was on the club’s second unit at yesterday’s practice, but Martin St-Louis’ plans have since changed.

Having said that, it looks like the Finn is starting to smell like hot soup…

In fact, Rafaël Harvey-Pinard accompanied the team to Washington and practiced this morning wearing a non-contact shirt.

And when he’s able to play, there’s one guy in the line-up who’ll have to bail out to make room for HP in the official 23-man roster.

And here, it’s easy to think of Kapanen because he’s the most logical candidate.

After all, Emil Heineman seems to have overtaken him in the pecking order because tonight, the big forward will be employed on the first line with Suzuki and Caufield. And the advantage for Heineman is that he can be sent to Laval without having to go through the waivers.

Barring a major surprise, Dvorak, Armia, Anderson and Gallagher won’t be sent back to the AHL… And the same can be said of Pezzetta, because he can be useful in the lineup if need be.

And let’s not forget Patrik Laine, who will be back at some point.

Could the Canadiens decide to send Kapanen back to Europe if he can’t be traded to Laval(for the time being)?

Patrik Bexell floated the idea on Twitter:

There are two ways of looking at this.

On the face of it, if Kapanen isn’t able to play much and ends up on the bridge most of the time, he won’t improve.

He’ll gain experience by traveling and practicing with the guys, which is good… But ultimately, at his age, he has to play to progress.

On the other hand, in Europe, he would have the opportunity to play a huge role in a good hockey league.

He was used as the center of his team’s first line in Timra before he left for the Canadiens’ practice camp, and he’d probably find himself back in that position when he returned to Sweden. That said, does he still have things to learn there? To hear Olli Jokinen, who is the team’s head coach there, the answer is no…

Ultimately, the Canadiens have a big decision to make.

By sending him to Europe, Kent Hughes and his associates won’t have 100% control over his development, unlike if they keep him in North America… But speaking of his development, the Habs also need to put him in a situation where he’ll be able to progress.

It’s a real headache.


Overtime

– I give him a big hug!

– Him, for example… Hehe.

– Sick.

– With good reason.

This content was created with the help of AI.

This content was created with the help of AI.

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