Kent Hughes may have a roster call on his hands once Canadiens camp opens, and Maksymilian Szuber is the kind of player who can make that decision awkward fast.
The summer pickup from the Utah Mammoth, sent to Montreal in exchange for Joshua Roy, arrived in a deal that barely registered at the time. But the move could end up carrying more weight than it first seemed.
Szuber doesn’t project as a headline-grabber, and he’s not walking into camp to challenge Lane Hutson in the scoring department. What he does bring is the kind of dependable package coaches tend to trust: size, hockey sense and a steady game at both ends of the ice.
His style fits the mold of a defenseman who wins jobs by being hard to notice for the wrong reasons. He moves the puck cleanly, finds smart outlets and uses his frame well in his own zone.
There’s not much flash in it, but there also isn’t much sloppiness. That sort of reliability can matter a lot when teams are sorting through depth on the blue line.
The wrinkle for Montreal is the waiver situation. Szuber is not waiver-exempt this season, unlike David Reinbacher and Adam Engstrom.
That puts the Canadiens in a bind if they want him in Laval. Sending him down would mean exposing him to waivers, where another team could claim him for nothing.
And that’s the part Kent Hughes has to weigh. No general manager wants to hand over an asset without getting anything back. Because of that, Szuber’s waiver status could give him a real edge in camp and potentially make him harder to assign to the minors than prospects who can be moved without consequence.
The Canadiens can send Reinbacher to Laval. They can’t do the same with Szuber without taking a risk.
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