HabsWorld.net --
Brandon Davidson is heading back to where it all began as the Oilers claimed him off waivers from Montreal on Sunday.
Davidson was acquired late last season from Edmonton in exchange for David Desharnais. He didn’t play a big role down the stretch as he only got into ten regular season games as well as three playoff contests while spending a lot of time as a healthy scratch.
That trend carried over into 2017-18. He played in just 13 of Montreal’s 25 games and while he had positive possession numbers, that didn’t earn the trust of the coaching staff as he played just 14:56 per game and was in the 6/7 spot pretty much all season long. Offensively, he had a single assist along with nine penalty minutes.
It was reported earlier in the week that GM Marc Bergevin had made it known that the 26-year-old was available for a trade but clearly nothing materialized. With the Habs needing a roster spot to activate Shea Weber, it appears that Edmonton was simply content to wait Bergevin out knowing that they’d be forced to waive Davidson as soon as Weber was ready to go (assuming they wouldn’t have returned Jakub Jerabek to Laval).
Davidson is in the final year of his contract that carries a $1.425 million cap hit and a $1.55 million salary (which represents his qualifying offer this coming summer). That amount now comes entirely off of Montreal’s books.
It appears that at least for now, Victor Mete will continue to stick around with the Canadiens. The next big date to watch for is December 11th where they can loan him to the World Juniors while reserving the right to recall him at the conclusion of the tournament.