After signing him to an affordable one-year deal right before Christmas Day, the Montréal Canadiens assigned Michael Frolik to their AHL affiliate Laval Rocket on a conditioning stint earlier today. He and fellow veteran Corey Perry had cleared waivers ahead of opening night; I believe most skaters will clear this year, what with the flat cap, quarantine rules and taxi squads, but GMs may be willing to try to upgrade their third-string goalies on the rebate wire as the playoff races get tighter.
Frolik has had an up-and-down last few years. He was usually good for a half-point per game on average (he was around that mark for nine of his 12 NHL seasons), and he did manage that in two of the past four seasons with the Calgary Flames, but his 4 points (1 goal, 3 assists) in 19 games with the Buffalo Sabres to finish off the 2019-20 season is probably the biggest reason why he only signed a one-year deal near the league minimum, coupled with the warining sign in the form of a 25-point season (10 goals, 15 assists) with a -19 rating in 70 games with Calgary in 2017-18, although he had been +13 the year prior and was +24 the next.
He even earned some Selke Trophy votes with the Chicago Blackhawks in 2012-13, the year the Hawks won their second of three recent Stanley Cups. He also has an impressive collection of bronze medals as a member of the Czech Republic Team from the 2004 and 2006 U-18s, the 2005 World Juniors, and the 2011 and 2012 World Championships.
He was originally a first-round pick in 2006, having been selected 10th overall by the Florida Panthers and he currently stands 12th of his draft class in career points with 384, so pretty much in the right spot though a ways away from the top-five of Nicklas Backstrom (4th overall, 954 points), Phil Kessel (5th, 877), Claude Giroux (22nd, 837), Jonathan Toews (3rd, 815) and Brad Marchand (71st, 673), and a case has to be made for defensemen Erik Johnson (1st, 304 points) and Jeff Petry (45th, 275 points), as well as goalie Semyon Varlamov (23rd, one Vezina nomination). Here is what he looked like wearing the Cats' black (home) Reebok-era uniform:
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