Canadiens Youngsters Receive Subtle Reward Due To Quality Play

Of all the Montreal Canadiens’ recent call-ups, Rafaël Harvey-Pinard and Justin Barron are the two who have impressed the most, and they’re being rewarded for it in subtle ways.

The Canadiens are still in the midst of a very tight roster crunch, which means that while Joel Armia and Jonathan Drouin are set to return after the NHL All-Star break, they will still be missing a few bodies. .

The Canadiens were down to 22 players on their active roster heading into Tuesday night’s game against the Ottawa Senators, but proceeded with the reassignment of Jesse Ylönen and Alex Belzile to the Laval Rocket.

They could no longer send underage players due to NHL roster criteria, which requires NHL clubs to have a minimum of 20 healthy players on their active rosters at all times; even during breaks.

This means the Montreal Canadiens made a conscious decision to keep Rafaël Harvey-Pinard and Justin Barron on the main roster over other players during the 10-day break in Montreal.

It might not seem like a big deal at first glance, but for young hockey players it makes a big difference, especially when it comes to their salary.

payday

An NHL player’s salary is calculated on a daily basis, similar to the salary cap of each NHL team, which means that every day is a good day to be on an NHL roster.

Rafaël Harvey-Pinard and Justin Barron earn respectively $825,000 and $925,000 when they are on the Montreal Canadiens roster.

With the NHL schedule spread over 184 working days, each day a player spends on a team’s active roster earns a significant increase in salary over their minor league salary.

For example, Harvey-Pinard and Barron earn respectively $70,000 and $80,000 in one season with the Laval Rocket. So during the 10-day hiatus the Canadiens began between Feb. 1 and Feb. 11, both players are expected to earn more than half their minor league salaries ($44,000 and $50,271, respectively).

It may not seem like much, but it’s a subtle reward for two youngsters who have worked hard this season to prepare for an eventual call-up to the NHL.

Encouraging signs

For Harvey-Pinard, he will definitely benefit from the salary increase, but he is focused on increasing his pay scale on a more permanent basis.

The petite winger has won over the Montreal Canadiens faithful with his hard work and unyielding attitude.

The 24-year-old has put the odds in his favor in his seven-game call-up, registering an impressive five goals and one assist for six points during that span.

He proves to be a versatile player; used regularly outnumbered by Martin St-Louis; who also rewarded his young winger by sending him on the ice to end the game.

It’s a good sign of things to come for Harvey-Pinard, who is well on his way to realizing his dream of becoming an everyday NHL player.