Players for the 2021 series: fewer and fewer in Montreal two years later

This morning, I saw a photo of the Canadiens celebrating the elimination of the Vegas Golden Knights in June 2021. It was the evening of the 24th, as you know.

And clearly, there aren’t many players left with the Habs today.

As there are a few small typos in the photo, it inspired me to pay a little visit to Hockey DB and clearly, even though we already know it, the roster is… er… quite different.

That was already the case a year ago, but even more guys have left in the last few days. So here are the players who are no longer with the team and who played at least one game with the Habs in 2021, whether in season or playoffs.

• Tyler Toffoli
• Corey Perry
• Eric Staal
• Jesperi Kotkaniemi
• Joel Edmundson*
• Jonathan Drouin*
• Shea Weber
• Jeff Petry
• Artturi Lehkonen
• Phillip Danault
• Erik Gustafsson
• Ben Chiarot
• Alexander Romanov
• Brett Kulak
• Tomas Tatar
• Jon Merrill
• Michael Frolik
• Xavier Ouellet
• Ott Leskinen
• Victor Mete
• Alex Belzile*

Many players are no longer with the team, and several of them (Belzile, Drouin and Edmundson) have all left the CH in recent days, making the photo even more intense than before.

Paul Byron and Carey Price, whose respective careers on skates are over, are also in the Canadiens’ entourage at the moment, but they won’t be playing again. We all know that.

It’s also worth noting that management has changed, and so has the bench. In fact, several members of the organization have not been present in Montreal since those playoffs.

Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Joel Armia, Brendan Gallagher, Josh Anderson, Jake Evans, Jesse Ylönen, Jake Allen and Cayden Primeau are the only ones still here. The last three did not play in the playoffs.

That leaves six guys from the 2021 series. The first two are the heart of the club, the next two are practically giveaways and the last two are doing a good job, but they’re not necessarily part of the core.

I don’t see Anderson as a long-term core guy, personally… even if he is a good field hockey player.

That means there are only two guys who will be part of the next core and who made the playoffs in 2021: Suzuki and Caufield. Both did very well with 16 and 12 points in the playoffs that year. Tyler Toffoli had 14.

John Scott may think they’re too small to be successful in the playoffs, but if the CH makes it to the finals in the next few years, it’s possible that these guys will be the only ones to have also made the 2021 playoffs, since the other four may be called upon to leave.

In a gust

– What do you think?

– Of note.

– He will face Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in the first round tonight.

– Oh well.