Alzner clears waivers, gets sent to Laval Rocket
After the Canadiens finished their morning skate Tuesday in Brossard, Karl Alzner’s equipment was still hanging in his locker-room stall. But after Alzner cleared NHL waivers at noon, his equipment would have been packed up and shipped to Laval, where he will report to the AHL’s Rocket. This isn’t what Alzner or Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin had in mind when the veteran defenceman signed a five-year, US$23.125-million contract as a free agent on July 1, 2017, with an annual salary-cap hit of $4.625 million. The 30-year-old is earning $6 million this season and will continue to earn that salary with the Rocket. Alzner has three seasons after this one remaining on his contract. Alzner becomes the highest-paid player in the AHL, moving ahead of forward Matt Beleskey, who is earning $4 million with the AHL’s Hartford Wolf Pack after being sent down by the New York Rangers. Beleskey, 30, is in the fourth season of a five-year, US$19-million contract and has 3-3-6 totals in 13 games with the Wolf Pack. The Buffalo Sabres are paying 34-year-old forward Matt Moulson $3 million to play for the AHL’s Ontario Reign in the final season of his five-year, US$25-million contract. Alzner will continue to count toward the Canadiens’ salary cap, but at a reduced hit of $3.6 million pro-rated over the remaining 131 days of the NHL season, or for however long he remains in the minors, according to CapFriendly. com. The Canadiens could buy out Alzner’s contract after this season to obtain a reduced salary-cap hit over a period of twice the remaining length of the contract. Because Alzner is older than 26, the buyout amount would be two-thirds of the remaining contract value, according to CapFriendly.com. Alzner had problems keeping up with the Canadiens’ new fastpaced style of play this season and was made a healthy scratch for 16 of the first 24 games before being placed on waivers at noon Monday. In the eight games Alzner played, he had one assist and a plus-2 rating. “His future’s not gone with us,” Canadiens head coach Claude Julien said about Alzner after the defenceman was placed on waivers Monday. “It was more a question of who could we not lose. Right now, there’s a lot of teams that are really struggling on the back end with injuries and stuff like that. We’ve got some guys that are cap friendly that would be easily picked up had they been put on waivers. “We were protecting ourselves because we want to keep our depth, and Karl was the guy, because of his contract, we felt would be the least (likely) to be picked up right now of the guys (to) put on waivers. We hope to keep him.” Said Canadiens captain Shea Weber about Alzner: “He’s been nothing but a great teammate, a good guy for this team. He’s worked his tail off. He kept quiet when I’m sure he didn’t have to. He’s in a tough position. He wasn’t comfortable sitting out. He was trying to get back in the lineup. He was doing extra and working hard. Hopefully this is just a period for him to go play some more games and hopefully he’ll be back with us at some point.” The Rocket’s next game is Wednesday night when the Belleville Senators visit Place Bell for a 7:30 p.m. start. The last time Alzner played in the AHL was in 2009-10, his second season with the Hershey Bears after the Washington Capitals selected him in the first round (fifth overall) at the 2007 NHL Draft. He then spent nine seasons with the Capitals before signing with the Canadiens as a free agent.