Time for Grabovski to be demoted to Hamilton?
Michail Grabovski has not proved himself as 2nd line center and will probably be sent back to Hamilton shortly. After surviving the the final cut in training camp, he hasn’t been able to contribute any offensive since the start of the season. He’s been demoted to the 3rd line during most of the games he’s started and replaced by Plecanec, who spent most of last season playing with Kovalev. He has shown some interesting speed and skill, but in general he looks totally out of place, rarely able to get in on the play. RDS commentators agree that he shouldn’t be around for much longer.
Sending him down would give Montreal the opportunity to call up Maxim Lapierre, who has had an impressive start(7 pts in 3 GP) after being criticized by Carbo and not making the cut. There was talk of playing him on the wing seeing as the team is over-stocked with 3rd and 4th line centermen. I’m thinking a Begin-Chipchura-Lapierre 4th line would be worth a try.
Can’t blame the team for giving Grabovski a shot, as we really are that desperate for offense and Kovalev was said to like playing with the kid, but he’s not ready enough to deal with NHL quality defense and he’s not worth keeping in a defensive role.