Habs Made the Right Call by Returning Oliver Kapanen to SHL

With his ice time being largely limited to the fourth line, it felt like Oliver Kapanen’s situation might be coming to a head soon.  That was indeed the case on Wednesday as he was returned to the SHL.  This was the right call for the organization to make.

Before coming to training camp, Kapanen was playing big minutes for Timra.  While it was the preseason, he was in a position to play easily in their top six, if not the top line.  While the SHL isn’t the strongest league in the world, it’s a step up from Finland’s Liiga where he played previously and a chance to play an all-situations role is great from a development perspective.

That opportunity wasn’t coming in Montreal this season.  Martin St. Louis tried to give him a taste of some secondary power play time and even the odd penalty killing shift to try to boost his minutes but at its core, Kapanen is only a fourth liner on this team.

Barring injuries, that probably wasn’t going to change anytime soon.  And frankly, if there was an injury to an offensive player, it might be Joshua Roy getting the look in that spot anyway.  Basically, there wasn’t a pathway to any sort of substantial ice time and with two assists in 12 games, he wasn’t forcing the issue from a production standpoint either.

Now, there’s the loophole, so to speak, that could have gotten Kapanen to Laval in December, bypassing the European Assignment Clause in his contract.  But that would have meant another month of limping along in his current situation, one where the best way to describe his play would be ‘surviving’.  That’s not a good spot to keep someone for an extended stretch.

In the spring, I suggested that the proper question about Kapanen wasn’t could he play in the NHL but rather should he?  It still applies today.  Can he play at the NHL level?  He’s shown enough that the answer is probably yes.  But is hanging on the fourth line with the odd second power play shift really what’s best for him?  I said it then and it still applies now, the chance to play big minutes in all situations is better than limited fourth line action.

All in all, I think that the first month of the season was successful for Kapanen.  He showed enough to demonstrate that he’s pretty close to being ready for full-time duty and got a chance to work with NHL coaches and players for six weeks or so (counting training camp).  There’s nothing wrong with that for a 21-year-old in his first taste of action in North America but the time was right to get him back to playing a big role.

Notably, this might not be the end of Kapanen in Montreal this season anyway.  The SHL season ends March 11th and if Timra was to get eliminated relatively quickly, it’s possible that he could be recalled to the Habs late in the year to assess how the season went development-wise.  He could also be assigned right to Laval depending on the situation.  Today, however, he’s best off in Sweden.

As for the fact they called Lucas Condotta up to take his place, that’s an understandable move.  This will allow Michael Pezzetta to return to the lineup and Rafael Harvey-Pinard seems to be close to returning.  It’s likelier that Condotta is earmarked to be the 13th forward until Harvey-Pinard returns; it’s much better for a veteran to be in that reserve role than a prospect.  Let Roy and the other youngsters stay in a good environment with the Rocket for now.   As is the case with Kapanen, patience is the right word when it comes to recalls as well.