{"id":40922,"date":"2026-05-11T20:19:23","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T20:19:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/40922\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T20:19:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T20:19:23","slug":"canadiens-recall-four-players-pro-hockey-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/40922\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadiens Recall Four Players \u2013 Pro Hockey Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Montreal Canadiens announced today<\/a> that they have recalled four players from their AHL affiliate, the Laval Rocket: Forwards Owen Beck<\/a> and Florian Xhekaj<\/a>, as well as defensemen Adam Engstr\u00f6m<\/a> and David Reinbacher<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Rocket were eliminated from the Calder Cup Playoffs yesterday, falling in the fifth game of their best-of-five North Division Semifinal against the Toronto Marlies.<\/p>\n

These recalls help reinforce the depth of the Canadiens roster as they look to continue their push towards the Eastern Conference Final. Montreal took a 2-1 series lead against the Buffalo Sabres last night, courtesy of a 6-2 win in game three. Game four of the series is Tuesday night in Montreal.<\/p>\n

These four players represent some of the best of the Canadiens\u2019 organizational depth, and notably, none of the players recalled are even 23 years old. Beck and Engstr\u00f6m were added to the Canadiens organization at the 2022 draft, part of a haul that has already become franchise-changing. Reinbacher was the No. 5 overall pick at the 2023 draft and Xhekaj, who is the younger brother of Canadiens blueliner Arber Xhekaj<\/a>, was picked in the fourth round that year.<\/p>\n

The player that is most immediately NHL-ready is likely Engstr\u00f6m, a 22-year-old Swedish defenseman. After he was drafted in 2022, Engstr\u00f6m spent two years developing at the professional level in his native Sweden playing for R\u00f6gle BK. In 2024, he crossed the Atlantic and made his debut in the Canadiens organization, playing in 66 games for the Laval Rocket.<\/p>\n

Engstr\u00f6m has had a stellar 2025-26 season, scoring 10 goals and 34 points in 45 games for the Rocket while also earning 15 NHL games with the Canadiens. Scott Wheeler of The Athletic rated Engstr\u00f6m<\/a> as the No. 6 prospect in Montreal\u2019s system, calling him someone who \u201ccould become a No. 5-6\u201d defenseman \u201cwith some modern elements\u201d to his game.<\/p>\n

The Canadiens\u2019 defense already skews to left-shot blueliners, which means he faces stiffer competition in his efforts to land a full-time role in Montreal. That\u2019s not the case for Reinbacher, the team\u2019s No. 4 prospect according to Wheeler<\/a>. Reinbacher is a big right-shot defenseman who plays a composed, steady game. Persistent injury issues have slowed the pace of his development, putting him behind some of his peers from the 2023 draft class. But he had a strong season playing in all situations in Laval and should be a real contender for an NHL role next fall.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Beck, 22, is Montreal\u2019s No. 7 prospect according to Wheeler<\/a> and is, like the two defensemen, on the cusp of making the leap to the NHL on a more permanent basis.<\/p>\n

A hard-working two-way center, Beck scored 15 goals and 44 points in 64 games as an AHL rookie last season, and scored 13 goals and 33 points in 58 games this year.<\/p>\n

He also added five points in five playoff games this season. Beck already has 28 NHL games under his belt and could push for a bottom-six role in training camp.<\/p>\n

The fourth player recalled was Xhekaj, a forward who is one of Montreal\u2019s faster-rising prospects. He was picked in the fourth round despite scoring just 25 points in his draft campaign in the OHL. But the Canadiens saw something in the forward that gave them the confidence to draft him in that round despite relatively low offensive numbers. Co-director of amateur scouting Nick Bobrov called Xhekaj a \u201cunicorn\u201d<\/a> during the team\u2019s pre-draft process.<\/p>\n

Since being selected, all Xhekaj has done is reward the team\u2019s faith in him. He became a point-per-game OHL scorer and had a strong rookie pro campaign with the Rocket in 2024-25, scoring 24 goals and 35 points. He also added 175 penalty minutes. This past year, Xhekaj scored 17 goals and 29 points, racking up 182 penalty minutes. His blend of size, physicality, and goal-scoring ability gives him a chance to become a well-liked bottom-six forward in the NHL.<\/p>\n

All four skaters recalled today by the Canadiens are players who could very well play a role in the NHL next season. They represent the next wave of youthful NHL reinforcements the Canadiens are set to receive, fruits of a rebuild that already appears to be paying off. While none is particularly likely to draw into the lineup during this run, it wouldn\u2019t be a surprise to see some \u2013 or all \u2013 of these faces in the NHL at this time next year.<\/p>\n

Photos courtesy of\u00a0Perry Nelson-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Montreal Canadiens announced today that they have recalled four players from their AHL affiliate, the Laval Rocket:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21408,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[17790,50,269,17791],"class_list":["post-40922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-ahl","tag-montreal","tag-montreal-canadiens","tag-players"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}