A few hours after the injured Mathieu Perrault and Joel Jeremiah were removed from his training, along with Arturi Likonen, adding to the NHL’s COVID-19 monitoring protocol, the Canadian summoned three forwards from his school club in Rocket de Laval.
Quebecers Alex Belzel and Raphael Harvey Benard, as well as Swede Lucas Videmo, were called up as reinforcements. The three train with CH on Sunday morning and they will definitely be on the team’s three-game trip to the New York area over the next few days.
Belzel, 30, played 8 games for a confinement team earlier this season, not scoring any points. But in Laval, he collected 11 points in 16 matches.
For Vejdemo, this is a return to the NHL almost two years after his last game at this level. He participated in seven matches in 2019-2020, before the league ceased activities due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He was then called several times, but never played a game again. In the American League this season, he scored 13 points in 22 games.
PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, press archives
Lucas Videmo
As for Harvey Benard, it is for him his first call-up with the big club. 7 . choicee Touring CH in 2019, he is currently playing his second season at Laval. With the Rocket he has 14 points in 24 games this season.
Photo by David Boyle, press archives
Raphael Harvey Benard
Adding the three players’ attendance to Montreal’s Laurent Dauphin and Jesse Ylönen, five of Rocket’s eight top scorers, including the top three, are now with the Canadian.
Beckett, Byron, Gallagher, Nico
Furthermore, Cédric Paquette is not on the ice at Complexe Bell on Sunday morning. He has been placed in administrative isolation, awaiting the result of a COVID-19 test.
Paul Byron shares his first full training session with his teammates. He wears a “contactless” jacket.
Brendan Gallagher and Sami Nico have also joined their teammates for the first time, who have missed CH’s last seven games after contracting COVID-19.