Canadiens place nine players on waivers ahead of 23-man roster cut

The Montreal Canadiens have taken a major step toward finalizing their opening-night lineup by placing nine players on waivers, with the intention of assigning them to the AHL’s Laval Rocket. The moves come with Monday’s deadline looming for NHL clubs to cut down to a maximum 23-man roster.

Nine players waived, Condotta sidelined with injury

Among the players placed on waivers are forwards Alex Belzile, Brett Berard, Hunter McKown, Sasha Pastujov and Samuel Poulin, as well as goaltender Kaapo Kähkönen. On defence, Ethan Samson, Maksymilian Szuber and Reilly Walsh were also put on waivers with an eye toward joining Laval if unclaimed.

One notable omission from the list is forward Lucas Condotta, who would also require waivers for an AHL assignment. The team has announced that he is dealing with an injury and is expected to miss roughly a month while he recovers, delaying any roster decisions involving him.

The Canadiens will learn within 24 hours whether any of the waived players are claimed by another club. Several of them joined the organization during the off-season. Forwards such as Berard and Pastujov, if they clear and report to Laval, could become call-up options later in the year should injuries or performance issues arise in Montreal.

Camp roster tightens around core and key prospects

With this wave of transactions, the training camp roster now centres on a mix of established NHL regulars, waiver-exempt prospects and a handful of players on AHL contracts. Up front, core forwards Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Juraj Slafkovský, Kirby Dach, Phillip Danault, Alex Newhook and Josh Anderson remain in camp, supported by young waiver-exempt players like Owen Beck, Jared Davidson, Ivan Demidov, Filip Mešár, Tyler Thorpe and Florian Xhekaj.

On the blue line, the group still features Mike Matheson, Kaiden Guhle—currently out with an injury—Arber Xhekaj and Jayden Struble, along with prominent waiver-exempt prospects David Reinbacher, Lane Hutson, Adam Engström, Luke Mittelstadt and Owen Protz. Defencemen Alexandre Carrier and Noah Dobson are also part of the mix, while Bryce Pickford is sidelined due to injury.

In goal, Samuel Montembeault continues to share the net with Jakub Dobeš and waiver-exempt Jacob Fowler. The coming days will allow management and the coaching staff to sort out their depth chart in net and make the final decisions needed to comply with the 23-man limit ahead of the regular season.