(Laval) The Rafaël Harvey-Pinard of 2021-2022 had not stolen his very first call-up to the NHL, we understand. In his second season in the American League, he finished 1is Rocket rank with 56 points in 69 games.
Posted at 5:38 p.m.
Except that he also needed favorable circumstances, in this case an ultra-contagious virus which had devastated the CH locker room, a team already burdened by injuries.
Three years later, the Habs are elsewhere. Since Patrik Laine’s return to play on December 3, no attacker has been injured. Since then, Montreal has a 9-4-0 record. The numbers are therefore frozen, which blocks, for the moment, elements like Harvey-Pinard and Joshua Roy, who aspire to return to the NHL one day.
“There is no recall because there are no injuries and because the Canadian is playing well,” recalled Pascal Vincent, head coach of the Rocket, after training on Thursday. This is not charity we are doing! You have to beat someone who is already there. Sometimes it takes you a year, two years, three years. I always come back to Josh Morrissey, one of the best defensemen in the NHL. It took him three full years in the American League before he got his chance full time. »
PHOTO PATRICK SANFAÇON, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Pascal Vincent, head coach of the Laval Rocket
Harvey-Pinard must therefore do like the others and wait his turn. After a lackluster 2023-2024 season, he was injured this summer and was only able to start playing again on November 20. In the meantime, Emil Heineman took away his position as an energetic fourth-line winger and with 9 goals in 36 games, the Swede is increasingly asserting himself as the surprise of the year in Montreal. “It’s fun to watch him go, he surprises me and I think he will have a very long career. He plays big hockey,” concedes Harvey-Pinard.
The little winger continues to find his rhythm in Laval, after being ignored on waivers. After nine games, he had been limited to two points and showed a differential of -6. But in his last six outings, he has four points and a return of +2.
“It’s starting to get better. In terms of skating, the first eight games were difficult. It’s the explosion, the reaction. Often, my skate was too “flat” on the ice and that’s the kind of detail that makes you a second slower. It was harder at this level in the first eight matches,” he explained.
The good news for him is that the health of the group “at the top” gives him time to find his rhythm, and better position himself for the day when Kent Hughes will need reinforcements. It will continue this weekend with two games, Friday and Saturday, against Abbotsford.
