The Cayden Primeau story is a good one. Former Philadelphia Flyers GM, Ron Hextall traded the 199th overall pick to the Montreal Canadiens for a 2018 seventh-round pick. That was a good story since Primeau grew up around the Flyers, watching his father, Keith for many years.
I’ve kept up with the netminder’s career. While with Northeastern, I saw him courageously win the Beanpot twice and he won the MVP Award in 2019. One of those times, he was hurt in the game and stayed in. In 2019, Primeau won the Mike Richter Award as the best goalie in college hockey and was the Hockey East Tournament MVP. He entered his AHL career with some credentials.
Related: Canadiens’ Curious Case of Cayden Primeau
I felt like his time in Laval was good but not great. He played 123 games there and was up and down with Montreal so there was no development issue.
He looked his best last season posting a .910 save percentage in 23 games. Still, I’ve always felt like he was an NHL backup at best. I never saw 1B potential in him and now it looks like Martin St. Louis might be skipping his next start. A .836 save percentage will do that.
Are the expectations more than I expect from Primeau? Sometimes a reset is in order. Get with the goalie coach and see what’s wrong. I’m no goalie expert so I can’t say for sure.
According to PuckPedia, he’s an RFA next year for one more season. This could be a make-it-or-break-it year in Montreal.
