Oliver Kapanen will have played a dozen games in the NHL before seeing his first stay in the circuit end on Wednesday.
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Just before the morning workout, the Canadian announced that his 2021 second-round pick was heading to Sweden, where he will join Timra IK in the Swedish Elite League.
The rookie player earned a position before the Canadian after having had a good training camp. In twelve games, he collected two assists, including one on Brendan Gallagher’s goal Tuesday night against the Flames.
Kapanen left a very good impression during this first visit to Montreal, during which he demonstrated the extent of his playing range.
Good hearing
Martin St-Louis had nothing but positive things to say about the 21-year-old Finnish center.
“He had a very good audition,” assured the head coach. You see he’s a very intelligent player and I’m glad he had this experience to see how things work in the National League on a daily basis.
“I was proud of him. Like any young player, he must continue to try to get a little stronger. Everything else is pretty good.”
David Savard also had good words for his teammate.
“I liked his game. He’s a guy who is capable of creating offensively, he’s also capable of winning faceoffs and being responsible defensively. That bodes well for him.”
Follow the plan
We understand that sending Kapanen to Sweden is part of the plan that had been drawn up for the young player.
“He is part of our future and it’s the best decision we could make knowing that we wanted to give him a sample,” noted St-Louis.
“He also saw the speed of the game and the execution, I think that’s something that he can apply to a place where he’s going to have a lot more minutes that we weren’t able to give him .”
Employed mainly on the team’s bottom two lines, Kapanen spent an average of 11:38 on the ice, but only played 7:54 against the Flames on Tuesday.
Condotta recalled
The Canadian recalled Lucas Condotta from the Laval Rocket to fill the position left vacant by Kapanen’s departure. This is a second stay in Montreal for the Rocket captain, who was recalled at the end of October without having played a single match.
Why did you call Condotta back? It seems to be for a practical reason.
“We needed a center,” said Martin St-Louis without going any further.
That therefore eliminated Joshua Roy, who has seven goals and three assists in nine games. Alex Barré-Boulet is injured and evaluated daily, while Brandon Gignac is an offensive center who would have fit less well in the responsibilities that would have been entrusted to him in Montreal.
We could also have thought of Owen Beck and Florian Xhekaj, who are having a very interesting start to the season, but in their case, it is preferable that they continue to accumulate minutes in Laval.
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