On Friday afternoon, the Habs announced the signing of one of their 2014
draft picks, defenceman Brett Lernout, to a three year entry-level contract.
As per club policy, financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Lernout is now the second player from the 2014 Entry Draft to sign an
entry-level deal with the Canadiens, the other being first rounder Nikita
Scherbak.
Lernout is off to a strong start to his third full WHL season with Swift
Current. He leads all Broncos defencemen in scoring with eight goals (six
of which have come with the man advantage) and eleven assists in 35 games this
year. He has already equalled his goal tally from 2013-14 despite playing
less than half the games than the 72 he suited up for last year.
The Habs selected the 6’4 blueliner in the third round back in June, dealing
their 87th and 117th selections to Arizona to move up to 73rd in order to select
him.
As Lernout will turn 20 later this year, he will be eligible to join the
Hamilton Bulldogs next season despite being only a year removed from being
drafted. We ranked him
21st in our annual
prospect rankings with a projected NHL ETA of 2018-19 if all goes according to
plan.
Lernout’s Stats
In other news Friday…
– The team announced that Max Pacioretty is listed as day-to-day after
suffering an undisclosed injury on Thursday night in Montreal’s 2-1 loss to
Anaheim.
– Backup goaltender Dustin Tokarski has been assigned to Hamilton on a
conditioning stint for their next two games. He’ll likely rejoin the
Canadiens before their game on Tuesday. As it’s a conditioning stint, he’s
not subject to waivers, however, he technically remains on Montreal’s roster and
will thus count against the salary cap. The team will promote one of
Hamilton’s goalies late in the afternoon to back up Carey Price for Saturday’s
game against Ottawa.
– Eric Tangradi was also assigned to Hamilton. Like Tokarski, the
corresponding roster move will be announced later in the day.
– Lars Eller will return to the lineup on Saturday. He skated on the
third line with P-A Parenteau and David Desharnais, the latter lining up as a
left winger.