MONTREAL — The Montreal Canadiens are beginning their quest to get out of the bottom rung of the NHL standings, to make a push towards a playoff picture they’ve been absent from for three seasons, and they have to get off on the right foot.
Injuries hobbled them before each of the last three campaigns begun but, for the first time in a long time, the Canadiens are coming into camp with virtually everyone angling for a job at full health.
That can only help.
Fringe winger Rafael Harvey-Pinard will miss the whole thing as he continues to rehab an off-season leg fracture, but everyone else (pending Wednesday’s physicals), is ready to go, setting the table for what should be an uber-competitive audition for the season to come.
We don’t know if it’ll be a successful season for the Canadiens, but it’s shaping up to be an exciting one.
As one executive put it to us over this past weekend, “One thing the Canadiens won’t be is boring.”
The intrigue is already palpable, with Patrik Laine’s arrival in an August trade with the Columbus Blue Jackets bolstering the top-six forward group and three rookie defencemen fighting for jobs on a more seasoned defence corps than the Canadiens have carried over the last two seasons.
The team is more mature in general, with its hard-working identity now established and its fast-paced system already fully implemented by head coach Martin St. Louis.
When he said on Monday, from the Canadiens’ season-opening golf tournament in Laval, that the team certainly wasn’t starting from scratch, it resonated. There was very little turnover on the roster over the off-season and everyone who’s been there over the last couple of years knows exactly what’s expected of them.
Those players — like Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Mike Matheson, Kaiden Guhle, Juraj Slafkovsky and Arber Xhekaj, among others — feel ready to take their respective games to the next level. And all the ones we spoke to at the golf tournament Monday expressed their excitement about the vibe around the team.
It appears to be more upbeat than it’s been in recent memory.
Now the Canadiens must channel that vibe accordingly to make the necessary progress they need in order to propel this rebuild forward.
That’s how general manager Kent Hughes sees it.
“I think we have a competitive group, we have a positive group,” Hughes said on Monday. “They believe in their own ability individually and collectively and we’re certainly not going to in any way try to dampen their expectations. That’s for them to push, and, as the season progresses, I’m sure if they’re having success they’ll be more optimistic.”
That drive begins right now, well before the real games get going in October.
The battle for jobs — on the second line, third line, fourth line and blue line — will be fierce out of the gate, and we can’t wait for it to start.
Salary cap space: -$2.02 million
GM: Kent Hughes
Head coach: Martin St. Louis
Assistant coaches: Trevor Letowski, Stephane Robidas
Unsigned players: None
Key additions: Patrik Laine
Key subtractions: Jordan Harris, Johnathan Kovacevic
PTOs: None
CAMP BATTLES
• Blueline jobs
In 17 years covering the Canadiens, we haven’t seen a crazier battle than what we’re about to potentially witness at this camp. Matheson and Guhle are guaranteed their spots at the top and David Savard is likely to be anchoring the second pair from the right side, but everything else is in flux. Arber Xhekaj, Justin Barron and Jayden Struble start off ahead just based on experience, but Lane Hutson, Logan Mailloux, David Reinbacher and even Adam Engstrom are all knocking on the door. It won’t be a surprise to see all of them play games at this level over the course of the season, but only three of eight will dress on opening night against the Maple Leafs. Everyone brings something different to the mix, but we’ll see who brings their best right out of the gate.
• Second-line winger
Alex Newhook probably has the edge in this competition to play alongside Kirby Dach and Patrik Laine, but Joshua Roy, Josh Anderson, Brendan Gallagher and Joel Armia will all be pushing for the opportunity. Chances are all of them will get a chance — not only in this camp, but also at one point or another during the season — but only one of them will start there. For Newhook, who’s a capable centre that’s versatile enough to be as effective from the wing, the pressure is on him to keep his place. Barring an injury to Christian Dvorak, who’s the only other left-handed centreman on the team to have filled a middle-six role at this level, it is the place he looks like he belongs in. But Newhook will have to prove that with a strong camp, especially with those guys pushing behind him.
• Power play 1
St. Louis may ultimately seek to balance out his units — especially considering he only had one good one to work with a season ago — but it’s hard to imagine there being equal opportunity here. It’s a given that Suzuki will be on the top unit, but nothing else feels guaranteed. Could Matheson’s spot as the quarterback be seized by Hutson? Who out of Caufield and Laine gets the left half wall? If both Caufield and Laine end up on the first unit, what does that mean for Slafkovsky? And who serves as the top bumper between Dach and Newhook? Expect there to be a lot of testing here in camp, but this is ultimately going to be a season-long competition.
• Third-/fourth-line centre: Dvorak’s experience in the middle six doesn’t guarantee him a spot there out of camp. Jake Evans has to be thinking about pushing him right out of it, and Alex Barre-Boulet and Owen Beck will be angling to knock either Evans or Dvorak right out of the lineup. There may not be a lot of buzz about this battle right now, but that could change in an instant over the coming weeks.
ONE PRESSING QUESTION
It isn’t a big one, but the Canadiens are currently over the cap and people are surely curious as to how they’ll resolve that.
The most likely scenario is they’ll place Rafael Harvey-Pinard on long-term injured reserve and clear roughly $1.1 million to be cap compliant by Day 1 of the season by papering a roster player or two to the AHL before recalling them, taking Harvey-Pinard off LTIR and placing Carey Price on LTIR.
It’s not guaranteed that’s how the Canadiens will do it, but it’s one of a few different ways they can easily solve the problem.
PROJECTED LINEUP
Forwards
Cole Caufield – Nick Suzuki – Juraj Slafkovsky
Alex Newhook – Kirby Dach – Patrik Laine
Joshua Roy – Christian Dvorak – Joel Armia
Brendan Gallagher – Jake Evans – Josh Anderson
Extra: Michael Pezzetta
Notes:
The third and fourth lines are interchangeable in our eyes, as we expect they’ll be allotted relatively equal ice-time unless one needs to be used more than the other on a given night due to their role. The Dvorak line is set to be a possession line, while the Evans line is set to be an energy-forechecking line. There doesn’t appear to be much hierarchy here if St. Louis is setting them up this way.
Defence
Mike Matheson – Kaiden Guhle
Lane Hutson – David Savard
Arber Xhekaj – Logan Mailloux
Extra: Jayden Struble – Justin Barron
Notes:
We have the Canadiens carrying a 13th forward and eight defencemen.
Goaltenders
Samuel Montembeault
Cayden Primeau
