Montreal Canadiens Place Rem Pitlick On Waivers

The Montreal Canadiens announced forward Rem Pitlick will not participate in the scheduled practice on Monday due to their intention to place him on waivers.

Rem Pitlick ne participera pas à l’entraînement d'aujourd’hui, dans le but d’être soumis au ballottage à 14h.

Rem Pitlick won't take part in today’s practice ahead of being placed on waivers at 2:00 p.m.

— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) November 7, 2022

The Canadiens are currently in a roster crunch, owing to an overabundance of players both among forwards and defence. With Josh Anderson’s suspension, the Canadiens were not only left without one of their most expensive wingers, but they also lost a roster spot, seeing as suspended players count towards the player limit.

There’s also the matter of Evgenii Dadonov‘s imminent return from the injury reserve, though there are still a few days left before he can play.

Simply put, the Canadiens have too many healthy players and too few roster spots. It’s an issue head coach Martin St-Louis has discussed at length, explaining that it can be difficult to manage morale, especially among veterans.

The move should alleviate the pressure for the time being.

Pitlick, who has been a healthy scratch for several of the Canadiens’ games this season, is yet to produce a point in seven total games.

Last season, Rem Pitlick scored 9 goals and added 17 assists in 46 games, a relatively impressive result given he was originally claimed on waivers by the Canadiens from the Minnesota Wild.

Pitlick is currently signed to a two-year contract with a $1.1 million annual average value.

As it stands, teams can bury up to $1.125 million ($750,000 + $375,000)  in the AHL, which means Pitlick’s cap hit will not count if he clears.

As explained by PuckPedia: The amount of Cap Relief that a team gets from assigning a player to the AHL is the lesser of their Cap Hit and the NHL Minimum Salary.

However, given his relatively low salary cap hit and his fairly good results with the Canadiens last season, there are decently healthy odds the 25-year-old may end up being claimed by an NHL team looking to fill their roster with a low-cost winger.