Canadiens goalie Cayden Primeau has cleared NHL waivers and will now report to the AHL’s Laval Rocket.
The Canadiens placed Primeau on waivers Saturday after calling up goalie Jakub Dobes from Laval. Dobes made his NHL debut Saturday in Florida, stopping all 34 shots he faced as the Canadiens beat the Panthers 4-0.
Primeau struggled this season with the Canadiens, playing in 11 games and posting a 2-3-1 record with a 4.70 goals-against average and a .836 save percentage. The Canadiens lost confidence in him and as a result Samuel Montembeault made 10 consecutive starts in goal before Dobes was called up from Laval.
Primeau hasn’t started a game since Dec. 1, when he allowed five goals on 29 shots in a 6-3 loss to the Bruins in Boston. The last goal by the Bruins was an empty-netter. Primeau replaced Montembeault for the final 11:19 of a 9-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Dec. 12 at the Bell Centre, allowing three goals on seven shots.
In 55 games over six seasons with the Canadiens, the 25-year-old Primeau has a 13-24-7 record with a 3.69 GAA and a .884 save percentage. The Canadiens selected him in the seventh round (199th overall) of the 2017 NHL Draft.
The Canadiens went with a three-goalie system for almost all of last season — with Montembeault, Primeau and Jake Allen — because GM Kent Hughes was afraid Primeau would get claimed by another NHL team on waivers if he tried to send him down to the NHL. It was a situation that didn’t help any of the three goalies.
Hughes finally traded Allen to the New Jersey Devils at the NHL trade deadline on March 8 in exchange for a conditional third-round pick at the 2025 NHL Draft. In 12 games with the Devils this season, Allen has a 5-6-1 record with a 2.81 GAA and a .900 save percentage.
The Rocket play their next game on Friday night at Place Bell against the visiting Abbotsford Canucks. The Rocket are in third place in the North Division with an 18-10-2 record.
Dobes had a 9-3-1 record in 14 games with the Rocket this season to go along with a 2.44 GAA and a .910 save percentage. Connor Hughes, the other regular goalie in Laval, has an 8-6-1 record with a 2.54 GAA and a .903 save percentage.
Primeau hasn’t played for the Rocket since the 2022-23 season when he had a 19-15-6 record with a 3.04 GAA and a .909 save percentage.
The Canadiens play the Lightning Sunday in Tampa (5 p.m., TSN2, RDS) with Montembeault expected to start in goal.