The Laval Rocket may be going without goaltender Cayden Primeau for at least Game 1 of their upcoming Calder Cup Playoff series against the Cleveland Monsters.
Primeau, who joined the Rocket this past January after a rocky first half with the Montreal Canadiens, is back with the NHL club. With Samuel Montembeault injured in Game 3 of the Canadiens’ first-round series with the Washington Capitals, Primeau was recalled from the Rocket to back up Jakub Dobeš for Game 4 this past Sunday night. The series resumes Wednesday with Game 5 at Washington with the Capitals holding a 3-1 lead.
Wednesday also happens to be the same night that the Rocket open their postseason on the road in Cleveland after finishing first overall in the AHL in the regular season. Montreal has not announced whether Montembeault will be healthy enough to dress for Game 5. Primeau helped to anchor the Rocket in net alongside Connor Hughes after making his AHL season debut Jan. 3. He finished 21-2-2 | 1.96 | .927 in 26 games as he and Hughes combined to win the Harry “Hap” Holmes Memorial Award that is given to the goaltenders for the team that allows the fewest goals per game in the regular season. Laval surrendered just 178 goals and had a plus-51 goal differential. The Rocket also added Boston College standout Jacob Fowler late in the regular season. Hughes has not played since April 6 at Abbotsford, however. With Primeau on recall, the Rocket recalled goaltender Luke Cavallin from their ECHL affiliate, the Trois-Rivières Lions.
2025 Laval Rocket vs Cleveland Monsters
Bolstered by the additions of goaltender Jet Greaves and defenseman Denton Mateychuk from the Columbus Blue Jackets, the Monsters overcame the Toronto Marlies in their opening-round series to set up this match-up with Laval. Cleveland will host Game 2 on Friday before the series moves to Laval for Games 3-5. The series winner will meet the winner of the Rochester Americans-Syracuse Crunch series. Rochester holds a 2-0 lead in that best-of-five series.
Blues Add Three
With the Springfield Thunderbirds’ elimination from the Calder Cup Playoffs this past Sunday, three players will join the parent St. Louis Blues in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Goaltender Colten Ellis, defenseman Corey Schueneman, and forward Nikita Alexandrov all received promotions to St. Louis on Monday. Leading the way is the 24-year-old Ellis, whose outstanding play nearly helped the Thunderbirds to upset the Providence Bruins in their opening-round series. Ellis, went 1-2 | 2.32 | .933 in three starts against the P-Bruins, who needed until the second half of the deciding Game 3 to finally break the contest open following another outstanding effort by the 24-year-old. Ellis played 42 regular-season games and finished 22-14-5 | 2.63 | .922 and also had three shutouts while his save percentage ranked fourth in the AHL.
Alexandrov, also 24, finished second in team scoring with 21-28-49 in 48 games for the Thunderbirds. Schueneman, 29, had 4-16-20 in 63 games with Springfield while also dressing for four regular-season games with St. Louis.
Notably absent from the list is rookie forward Dalibor Dvorský. The 19-year-old forward, taken 10th overall in the 2023 NHL Draft, had 21-24-45 in 61 regular-season games with Springfield while also representing the team at the AHL All-Star Classic this past February. Miroslav Šatan, the president and general manager of the Slovak Hockey Federation, announced Monday night that Dvorsky will represent Slovakia at the IIHF World Championship. Slovakia opens play at the tournament on May 9 in Stockholm against Sweden.
After winning Games 3 and 4 of their first-round series with the Winnipeg Jets, the Blues will resume the series Wednesday at Canada Life Centre.
Edstrom To Milwaukee
Fresh off winning the Central Division regular-season title, the Milwaukee Admirals continue to strengthen their roster for the Calder Cup Playoffs.
After reaching the Western Conference Finals in back-to-back years, the Admirals will open their postseason Thursday at home against the Rockford IceHogs.
They will have center David Edstrom on their roster as they begin that series. The Nashville Predators reassigned Edstrom from SHL club Frölunda HC to the Admirals on Monday. Selected 32nd overall in the 2023 NHL Draft by the Vegas Golden Knights, the 20-year-old Edstrom has already been a part of two major trades. He went to the San Jose Sharks organization in the March 2024 deal that sent Tomas Hertl to the Golden Knights. Then last August the Predators acquired him from San Jose as part of the return that sent standout goaltending prospect Yaroslav Askarov to the Sharks. In 39 games with Frölunda this season, Edstrom finished with 7-12-19 before going scoreless in three playoff games. He also represented Sweden at the IIHF World Junior Championship and posted 4-2-6 in seven games.
Edstrom is the latest addition to the Milwaukee roster.
Forward Fedor Svechkov and defenseman Marc Del Gaizo are back from Nashville as well. Svechkov spent most of this season with Nashville, where he had 8-9-17 in 52 regular-season games. He also had 5-7-12 in 13 games for Milwaukee before his promotion to Nashville. Last year with Milwaukee he also produced 6-6-12 in 15 playoff games. Del Gaizo spent 46 games with the Predators, finishing with 2-7-9, and also had 8-4-12 in 30 games for the Admirals. He has been with Milwaukee for each of the past two postseasons and has a combined 8-11-19 in those two runs to the Western Conference Finals. He also played nine playoff contests with Milwaukee in 2022.
Nashville also returned forward Kieffer Bellows and defenseman Spencer Stastney to the Admirals earlier this month after they had a month-long NHL stint. In addition, rookie forward Cole O’Hara logged his first two games with the Admirals late in the regular season. The 22-year-old turned pro after three seasons at the University of Massachusetts. In 40 games this season, he broke out with 22-29-51 and was named an NCAA East First Team All-American.
Elsewhere
Šatan also announced that Ontario Reign forward Martin Chromiak has been selected for Slovakia’s IIHF World Championship roster. Ontario was eliminated by the San Jose Barracuda in opening-round play. Last week Iowa Wild netminder Samuel Hlavaj was selected as well.
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