Breaking: Habs have lost Nikita Scherbak on waivers.

No surprise here.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 5 years ago
Breaking: Habs have lost Nikita Scherbak on waivers.
David Kirouac/CSM/Zuma

The Montreal Canadiens and by extension Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin made a very curious move on Saturday when they decided to place former 1st round draft pick Nikita Scherbak on the waiver wire. The move came as stunning to many who felt the Habs were effectively giving up on a promising young offensive talent, especially considering that not many of those critics believed he would clear the waiver process. 

That belief, rather unsurprisingly I must admit, proved to be correct as now the Canadiens have officially given up their first round pick in the 2014 National Hockey League Entry Draft for absolutely nothing. According to a report from Habs insider Renaud Lavoie of TVA Sports, the Los Angeles Kings organization have claimed Scherbak of waivers and he will now be joining the ranks of their team effective imemdiately. Yesterday in our story on the controversial move from the Habs we speculated that both the Los Angeles Kings and the Edmonton Oilers could potentially look to claim Scherbak off of waivers and at least one of those predictions has proven to be correct. 

This is not to pat myself on the back but rather to illustrate the fact that there had to be some knowledge within the Habs organization that it was extremely unlikely that Scherbak would clear waivers and then quietly head down to the American Hockey League to play with the Laval Rocket. Which of course begs the question, why make this kind of move at all? The thought of trading Scherbak makes considerably more sense, even if his value is fairly low at the moment, and I have very little doubt that given their recent struggles the Kings gave been open for business on the trade front. That being said perhaps Bergevin did attempt to make the trade but was simply unwilling to find any suitors for Scherbak's services. 

The Kings now get a first round pick in the 2014 draft who has only managed to appear in 29 NHL games so far in his professional career, but one who has shown serious flashes of promise in the past. During the 2017 - 2018 AHL season Scherbak appeared in 26 games for the Laval rocket and produced 7 goals and 23 assists for a total of 30 points over that strettch . Now of course AHL success does not always translate directly over to the NHL but that appears to be a gamble that the Kings are more than happy to take.

If the Kings are the only team to have made a claim they will be able to send Scherbak right down to the AHL, however if any other NHL team filled a waiver claim he would require waivers once again before being sent down to play with the Machester Monarchs. It's unclear at this time how much play he's going to get on the Kings' but given the organization recent struggles it seems fair to suggest they will give him a shot at the very least. It will be very interesting to see if he can become in Los Angeles what the Canadiens once thought he would be in Montreal.

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