NHL Rumors: Canadiens To Send Down Young Players To Focus On Development

The Montreal Canadiens are rumoured to be making a big decision in the coming weeks as Juraj Slafkovsky and other young players on the NHL club could be sent down to Laval of the AHL to focus more on development, per Darren Dreger.

I assume this decision would be made because they aren't getting enough playing time in the NHL and the team would like to showcase some of their potential trade candidates before the trade deadline like Evgeni Dadonov, Jonathan Drouin, Sean Monahan, Mike Hoffman, and possibly others. Three of the four of those players have been a healthy scratch at one point in the season while Slafkovsky is currently playing on the second line.

The expectation is that Slafkovsky, Anthony Richard, and Justin Barron would be among the group of young talent sent down for a while, but return when the dust of the trade deadline settles and stick with the team for good.

The Canadiens will either be retaining salary cap on players they trade away, be getting NHL players back in return, or both, so there will be a need for young players on cheap contracts to fill holes. In the AHL, every player who has been playing in NHL games this season will be given a much larger role and more responsibility which some or all of them need a bit more of before they can make the jump full-time to the Canadiens.