After picking up Nikita Nesterov in a trade this past week, and with Andrei Markov on the verge of returning to the lineup, the Montreal Canadiens had a bit of a roster crunch on their blue line.
They started to address it on Monday by placing Zach Redmond on waivers.
Redmond, 28, has only appeared in 16 games for the Canadiens this season and recorded five assists in his limited action. He has also played two games for the St. John’s IceCaps of the American Hockey League.
After spending the past couple of seasons in Colorado, the Canadiens signed Redmond in free agency over the summer to a two-year contract that pays him just a little more than $600,000 per season.
The Nesterov trade was a solid gamble for the Canadiens to take and added a young, talented blue liner to the mix, while coach Michel Therrien said this weekend it is possible Markov could be returning to the lineup this week after being sidelined since the middle of December with a groin injury. With those two guys entering the lineup Redmond seems to have simply lost out on a numbers game. Even when he was in the lineup this season he was only averaging a little more than 12 minutes of ice-time per game, mostly playing on the team’s third pairing alongside either Mark Barberio or Nathan Beaulieu.