{"id":79998,"date":"2020-07-12T01:19:41","date_gmt":"2020-07-12T05:19:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonhockey.com\/?p=79998"},"modified":"2020-07-12T01:19:41","modified_gmt":"2020-07-12T05:19:41","slug":"montreal-canadiens-karl-alzner-opts-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2020\/07\/12\/montreal-canadiens-karl-alzner-opts-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Montreal Canadiens Karl Alzner Opts-Out"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Montreal Canadiens<\/a> announced on Saturday that defenceman Karl Alzner<\/a><\/strong> will opt out of phase three and four the NHL’s Return to Play Program.<\/p>\n

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The Montreal Canadiens have announced that defenseman Karl Alzner has informed the organization that he has made the decision to opt out of Phase 3 and 4 of the NHL’s Return to Play Plan.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Canadiens Montr\u00e9al (@CanadiensMTL) July 12, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Karl Alzner Opts-Out<\/h2>\n

Karl Alzner is a veteran defensive defenceman playing professional hockey since the 2008-09 season. He signed five-year deal worth at $23 million with the Canadiens in July of 2017. At the time, Alzner was one of the best defenceman on the free-agent market. However, things have not worked well in Montreal and Alzner has spent most of the past two seasons playing with their AHL team in Laval.<\/p>\n

Alzner joins Travis Hamonic<\/a><\/strong>, Mike Green<\/a><\/strong>, Steven Kampfer<\/a><\/strong>, Sven Baertschi<\/a><\/strong> and Zach Trotman<\/a><\/strong> as players to opt out of phase three and four of the NHL’s Return to Play plan.<\/a> That would see players travel to their NHL cities for training camp and then travel to the Hub Cities<\/a> of Edmonton and Toronto to play postseason hockey. Some players have publicly announced why they have decided to opt-out. At the time of writing, there is no information on why Alzner opted out.<\/p>\n

What this Means for the Future<\/h3>\n

Karl Alzner is not a regular defenceman for the Montreal Canadiens. His presence won’t be missed as badly as if it were a top-six defenceman. However, Alzner was a top replacement option<\/a> if one of the regular defenceman could not play. Alzner has played\u00a0 686 NHL games and 64 playoff games. He could have stepped into post-season hockey and quickly felt comfortable. Montreal is also playing the Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a> in the playoff qualifying round. That is a team Alzner has a lot of experience with having faced them in the playoffs three times when he played for the Washington Capitals<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This is certainly not a big problem for Montreal. They have many replacement options on defence like Noah Juulsen<\/a><\/strong>, Xavier Ouellet<\/a>, Cale Fleury<\/a><\/strong>, and Gustav Olofsson<\/a><\/strong>. Losing an experienced player like Alzner is not ideal, but Montreal is still in good position without him.<\/p>\n

Main Photo:<\/p>\n

Embed from Getty Images<\/a>