Another of the Montreal Canadiens’ first-round draft picks has moved on.

The Los Angeles Kings claimed forward Nikita Scherbak on Sunday, a day after he was placed on waivers. The 22-year-old Russian made the Habs’ NHL roster out of training camp, but didn’t appear in a single game this season. He was sent down to the Laval Rocket of the AHL at the end of October for a conditioning stint, where he posted one goal in five games before getting injured.

 

In 29 NHL games, Scherbak scored five goals and two assists. His best professional season came last year, when he scored seven goals and 23 assists in 26 games for Laval, while adding another four goals and two assists in 26 games with the Canadiens.

Scherbak, who was picked twenty-sixth overall in the 2014 NHL draft, is the latest in a long series of highly touted first rounders who failed to stick with the club. Last year, 2016 pick Mikhail Sergachev was sent to Tampa Bay for forward Jonathan Drouin. 2013 pick Michael McCarron currently plays for the Rocket, despite several stints with the big club over the past several years.

Alex Galchenyuk, taken third overall in 2012, was traded to the Arizona Coyotes in the off season for Max Domi, while defencemen Nathan Beaulieu and Jarred Tinordi, taken in 2011 and 2010, respectively, were both dealt for little return in recent years.

In 2009, the Canadiens took Quebecer Louis Leblanc at eighteenth overall. Leblanc played just 50 games in the NHL and spent several seasons in Europe before retiring from hockey in 2016.