The Montreal Canadiens won’t be going to arbitration with Michael McNiven after all. The minor league goaltender has settled on a one-year, two-way contract with Montreal, which will carry an NHL salary of $750K. McNiven was scheduled for an arbitration hearing on August 11, but will no longer need it.
The 24-year-old McNiven would have been an interesting arbitration case, given he still hasn’t played a single game in the NHL. In fact, he has spent more time in the ECHL the last few seasons than anywhere else, splitting 22 games between the Adirondack Thunder, Jacksonville Icemen and Norfolk Admirals in 2019-20. This season he played 13 games for the Laval Rocket and went 7-3-3, even with a save percentage of just .895.
There have been clear signs of success for the undrafted netminder, but McNiven’s career has been marked by inconsistency both in his play and his assignment. He has never remained at a single level for a full season, including this year when he was routinely called up to the taxi squad when the Canadiens were dealing with injuries. The epitome of organizational depth at this point, it seems that he’ll be used just wherever Montreal needs him at the time.
In terms of an NHL future, McNiven is obviously behind the tandem of Carey Price and Jake Allen, but has also been passed on the depth chart by 21-year-old Cayden Primeau, who has six NHL appearances over the last two seasons.
@Gavin – Did you ever find out the “technicality”, for lack of better word, on how McNiven ended up arb-eligible?
No technicality, you don’t need NHL experience to become arbitration-eligible. Players don’t usually elect it if they’ve never played in the NHL, but more often teams just don’t qualify pending RFAs who are old enough to reach arbitration but haven’t made it yet–specifically in order to avoid going to a hearing with a player that isn’t in the NHL mix.
In McNiven’s case, he’s valuable enough as a depth goaltender to keep around, and actually getting to a hearing was always unlikely.
@Gavin – Thanks! Let’s hope I remember this the next time it comes up… :)
@Gavin – Just before I head off to the bin to serve my two, I’d ask if this simply more due to him having a two-way contract? If so, I *really* should’ve seen that possibility, but McNiven threw us all off with no actual NHL time.