The Montreal Canadiens, dealing with players out due to injury and COVID-19 protocols have recalled Alex Belzile, Lukas Vejdemo and Rafaël Harvey-Pinard from the American Hockey League’s Laval Rocket.
Les Canadiens ont rappelé les attaquants Alex Belzile, Lukas Vejdemo et Rafaël Harvey-Pinard du @RocketLaval.
The Canadiens have recalled forwards Alex Belzile, Lukas Vejdemo and Rafaël Harvey-Pinard from the Laval Rocket.#GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/zRGJKYH0Px
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) December 19, 2021
This comes one day after the team announced that Artturi Lehkonen has entered COVID-19 protocol, and that Mathieu Perreault and Joel Armia have been added to the injured reserve until after the holiday break.
The Rocket are off until December 27 due to their holiday break.
The three players have been playing their best hockey of the season lately, and have done so as a line. It will be interesting to see if they are used together at the NHL level.
Belzile played eight NHL games this season without scoring a point. He has four goals and 11 assists in 16 AHL games.
Vejdemo recently became the Rocket’s all-time leading goal scorer. The centre has one career goal in seven NHL games, most recently in 2019-20 right before the season was postponed. He has six goals and seven assists in 22 AHL games, matching his total in fewer games from a year ago.
This is the first NHL recall for Harvey-Pinard. He has five goals and nine assists in 24 AHL games this season.
The Canadiens next game is Monday in New York against the Islanders. They will practice Sunday morning in Brossard.
