The Canadiens loaned winger Rafaël Harvey-Pinard to AHL Laval on Friday, according to a team announcement. They now have a pair of open roster spots, with PuckPedia reflecting that Emil Heineman was also transferred to injured reserve earlier in the week.
Harvey-Pinard, 26, made his season debut in Thursday’s shutout loss to the Wild. He posted zeroes across the board in 8:54 of ice time, recording one hit. Montreal was outshot 4-2 with him on the ice at even strength.
It was a quiet showing amid a quiet season for the 5’9″ winger. A broken leg sustained during offseason training kept him out of training camp and on the shelf until mid-November, when the Canadiens assigned him to the minors on a long-term injury conditioning loan. They opted not to reinstate him to the active roster when his loan was up and instead placed him on waivers to keep him in Laval long-term. That was a semi-risky move, considering he’s on an expiring contract at an affordable $1.1MM cap hit and had 14 goals and 20 points in only 34 games two seasons ago, but there were no takers on the wire.
Thirty-one other NHL teams made the right call. Harvey-Pinard has struggled since his late start to the season, scoring only four goals and seven assists for 11 points in 24 games with Laval. He’s on pace for easily the worst offensive showing of his five-year professional career, especially after he logged 31 points in 40 games in his last extended AHL stint in 2022-23.
The Habs recalled Harvey-Pinard last weekend as the Habs wanted an extra forward with Heineman on the shelf, but he sat twice as a healthy scratch before entering the lineup. His lack of NHL usage and disappointing minor-league play this season makes it unlikely that he’ll receive his $1MM qualifying offer from Montreal at the end of the season, making him an unrestricted free agent.
Heineman’s IR placement does not affect his return timeline. He hasn’t played since sustaining an upper-body injury as a pedestrian in a traffic action on Jan. 13 while the team was in Utah and is expected to remain out of the lineup for around another week.