Primeau agrees to three-year, $2.67 million contract with Canadiens

The 23-year-old goalie was a restricted free agent.He is expected to compete for playing time with Jake Allen this season. Carey Price, who has been the Canadiens’ starting goalie since 2007-08, is not expected to play in 2022-23 because of a knee injury.Primeau was 1-7-1 with a 4.62 goals-against average and .868 save percentage in 12 games (nine starts) for Montreal last season, and 16-12-3 with a 2.94 GAA and .909 save percentage in 33 games with Laval of the American Hockey League. He was 9-5 with a 2.17 GAA and .936 save percentage in 14 AHL playoff games.”I think I’m just going into it with an open mind,” Primeau said. “I have to perform and I have a job to do. But at the same time, I put some standards in place in the past and it hasn’t really worked out to my benefit, so what I’m really trying to do is just go back to the basics, just take it day by day. Just try to keep rolling on the momentum from the playoffs and try to just give it my best. I think that’s my main focus going into this (training) camp.”Selected by the Canadiens in the seventh round (No. 199) of the 2017 NHL Draft, Primeau is 3-10-2 with a 4.21 GAA and .874 save percentage in 18 games (15 starts) the past three seasons.