Canadiens Reassign Owen Beck, David Reinbacher

Earlier this morning, the Montreal Canadiens announced they reassigned forward Owen Beck and defenseman David Reinbacher to the AHL’s Laval Rocket. The Canadiens now have 21 players on their active roster.

Still, both players could return to Montreal by Friday. If Beck and Reinbacher play for the Rocket tonight against the Syracuse Crunch, they would be eligible to return against the Chicago Blackhawks on Friday.

However, that may not happen. The Canadiens recalled Reinbacher a week ago after veteran blue liner Mike Matheson went down with a lower-body injury. According to Sportnet’s Eric Engels, Matheson skated yesterday and may join Montreal for practice tomorrow. If he does, it’s a good indication he’ll return to the lineup in a few days.

Engels also reported that forward Florian Xhekaj could return Friday, which would eliminate Beck’s roster spot. At any rate, by reassigning both players today, the Canadiens are keeping their options open for Friday if Matheson and Xhekaj aren’t ready to return.

Throughout their recalls, both Beck and Reinbacher were fairly sheltered. The former went scoreless while averaging 7:23 of ice time per game, whereas the latter also went scoreless in one game while averaging 9:09 of ice time.

Regardless, if it is their last time in the NHL for a while, the Rocket will return a pair of quality players to the lineup. Each of Beck and Reinbacher has skated in four games for AHL Laval this season, with Beck registering one assist and Reinbacher adding two.