Habs: Phillip Danault is not expected to play on Saturday

Charles-Alexis Brisebois
Habs: Phillip Danault is not expected to play on Saturday
Credit: Twitter/screenshot

The news of the day is clearly that Phillip Danault is back with the Canadiens.

At the time of the trade, the Canadiens were left with 14 forwards, including six centers: Danault, Nick Suzuki, Oliver Kapanen, Joe Veleno, Jake Evans, and Owen Beck.

Kirby Dach is getting closer to a return, and Alex Newhook will hopefully be back before the end of the Canadiens' regular season. But for now, they're injured.

Cole Caufield, Zachary Bolduc, Juraj Slafkovsky, Ivan Demidov, Brendan Gallagher, Josh Anderson, Alexandre Texier, and Jared Davidson were the wingers in town at the time of the transaction. And Patrik Laine is still on the injured list, of course.

But according to colleague Maxime Truman, Jared Davidson, unsurprisingly, will be leaving for Laval before the trade freeze. Today's deal cost him his NHL job and the Habs will be able to roll with just 13 forwards.

But when can we expect to see Danault in town? That's the question people are asking.

According to Renaud Lavoie, we shouldn't expect to see him play tomorrow night, on the heels of the last game at the Bell Centre in 2025. He's not expected to be available tomorrow… and that may also be the case for Sunday's game in Pittsburgh.

But against Boston, he'll be there.

That means some guys (Owen Beck and Joe Veleno, in particular) are auditioning. They'll have to play to avoid being sent to the stands when Danault is ready to play.

Let's not forget that this acquisition is also going to be a complex one in terms of payroll ($5.5 million without salary deductions). But that's a problem for management, who have done their homework, taking into account injured and active players.

It's a good thing Carey Price was traded, right?


extension

Everyone knew there was a chance Danault would arrive in Montreal tonight. And now the Canadiens have acquired another player from outside their organization. Samuel Blais and Alexandre Texier are the others.

And on that subject, there's one agent who must be thinking he didn't look too good on Twitter this week…

For the Kings, the salary increase will allow them to look elsewhere for forwards and center reinforcements. Could the Danault pick be in play?

Ken Holland didn't manage to do it (get Danault out and get reinforcements) all at once. The rest will come later.

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