Defenseman Alexandre Carrier Out To 2-4 Weeks, Adam Engstrom Called Up To Replace Him

Carrier has had a very up-and-down season, struggling significantly when it comes to boxing out his opponents in front of the net due to his lack of size and strength. Standing at just 5’11” and 180 lbs, the reality is that he shouldn’t have ever been the guy to do that, as the Canadiens often had bigger players on his pairing next to him. Although he was paired up with Hutson at times over the past 73 games this season, which allowed big power forwards to take advantage of their lack of size and strength in front of the net.

Despite the biggest shortcoming in Carrier’s game this season, the injury comes at the worst time given that he was finally starting to find his game next to Kaiden Guhle over the past 2 weeks. They were primarily used in defensive situations as the duo itself is defensive-minded, but they both have proven that they can produce offence when given the chance. It is now Engstrom’s turn to show that he can fill Carrier’s shoes for the time being.

Given Engstrom’s game, a pairing with Guhle likely won’t be as much of a shutdown pairing and more like a 2-way pairing where Guhle plays the more defensive-minded role as the physical muscle on their duo. Meanwhile, the young Swede will have a chance to do some of the puck-moving from the backend that he has in Laval for most of the season. They each have tools that could make them work well together. Despite both being left-handed, Engstrom actually tends to play some of his best hockey on his off-side, so adding him into the lineup for a right-handed defenseman still makes sense, as he will likely be needed on the right side rather than on the left.

Engstrom came back from an upper-body injury that kept him out for four weeks just two weeks ago, so it will be interesting to see how he can perform given that he hasn’t been playing at the top of his game since returning. Nonetheless, with David Reinbacher having yet to get a taste of NHL action and more development time being the main priority with him, it makes sense to call up Engstrom, who has already played a few games, to suit up during this playoff race that the Habs are currently in.

*Update from practice is that Engstrom was actually practicing on a pairing with Hutson, allowing the dynamic defenseman to play on his proper side of the ice, since the Habs will be using Engstrom on the right side. However, it was later mentioned by Renaud Lavoie that Engstrom did the extra work that healthy scratches normally do after practice. Therefore, it sounds like Arber Xhekaj will be on defence on a pairing with Guhle against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday night. It seems like an odd decision given that Engstrom can play the right-side of the ice much better than either Xhekaj or Guhle. We will see what happens but it seems like if Habs were going to call him up, it would be to give him ice time. Therefore, it’s possible he is guaranteed to play on Thursday if not Tuesday night.