Poehling will be sent down to make room for Niku. He clearly hasn’t done enough to make the team. Belzile will be waived before Hoffman is back.

That's one option, but I wouldn't be surprised if Poehling gets some real games in before he goes down. Not because he deserves them, but because we need to be sure of our evaluation before future moves.

Well the habs don’t really have an option to keep Poehling. Niku is basically healthy now, and they need to send someone down to make room for him. Poehling, Romanov, and Caufield are the only players on the team who aren’t waiver eligible.

Plus we’ve seen nearly 100 pro games for Poehling in this organization, the habs would be likely be more apt to try out someone who hasn’t been in the organization and has had more success at both the NHL and AHL level in Brooks. Plus Poehling isn’t waiver eligible, so that puts him at a disadvantage.