Canadiens place four players, assistant coach in COVID protocol

The Montreal Canadiens added forwards Rafael Harvey-Pinard, Jesse Ylonen, defenseman David Savard, goalie Sam Montembeault and assistant coach Trevor Letowski to the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol on Tuesday, per a team tweet.

Montreal and their AHL affiliate in Laval are already in the middle of a five-day pause in team activities that lasts through Jan. 6. The team isn’t scheduled to return to play until Jan. 12.

That pause is certainly necessary for the Canadiens, who really don’t have an NHL team to ice right now. Quite literally, they don’t have enough players under NHL contracts to field 18 skaters and two goalies. Only Jean-Sebastien Dea and Xavier Ouellet remained in the minors.

Montembeault has a .893 save percentage in 11 games with Montreal this season after he was claimed on waivers from the Florida Panthers early in the season. He’s the team’s backup to Jake Allen with Carey Price currently out of the picture.

Harvey-Pinard and Ylonen, both callups from Laval, had combined for three points through a combined 10 games played. Savard, the team’s big addition on defense in free agency, has a goal and eight assists through 34 games and is averaging 20:32 per game.