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The Canadiens scrapped Cayden Primeau’s development, says Stéphane Waite

 Charles-Alexis Brisebois
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The Canadiens scrapped Cayden Primeau’s development, says Stéphane Waite
Credit: Getty Images

Clearly, over the years, the Canadiens haven’t exactly managed Cayden Primeau well.

How is it that in his four seasons in Laval, the goaltender wasn’t able to play more than 41 regular-season games? Why didn’t he get much playing time?

123 regular-season games (and 16 in the playoffs) plus 54 games in Montreal: in his sixth full-time year in the pros, Primeau has remained healthy, but still hasn’t surpassed the 200-game threshold.

(Credit: Hockey DB)
Not enough, of course.

But when you look at it, it’s clear that there are times when Primeau wasn’t able to play because he was in Montreal when he wasn’t fully trusted.

It often happened, during his years in Laval, that he was recalled simply to warm up the second goalie’s seat in Montreal because of an injury upstairs. In those days, he didn’t play much.

And his development was taking a hit.

Of course, there’s also the matter of the ménage à trois, which has meant that he hasn’t played much for the past two years. These are all aspects that are causing the goalkeeper to develop poorly.

And in the eyes of Stéphane Waite, who was his first NHL goaltending coach, Primeau’s development has been scuppered by the Canadiens. That’s what he said on the podcast Sortie de zone, and whatAlexandre Pratt (La Presse) reported in an article on the subject.

Waite points out that this was not voluntary, but that these aspects are taken into account. The same goes for COVID-19, by the way.

I don’t sense that Waite is criticizing the way he was coached (he won’t target himself), but more the circumstances. Perhaps he’s more targeting Marc Bergevin, who had to recall Primeau if he didn’t have other options on the table.

Of course, no one is saying that Primeau isn’t a good goalie just because of the circumstances, because to be one of the worst goalies of the last 25 years, it has to be the goalie’s fault too.

But Pratt raises a good point: will we end up seeing Primeau for what he is, instead of thinking he could be that Samuel Montembeault-type goalie who has what it takes to take a big step forward?


Overtime

– Patrick Kane is injured.

– Really?

– Of note.

– Cole Caufield, poorly surrounded. [TVAS]

– Cayden Primeau is an American goalkeeper.

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