Jayden Struble is even more muscular than last year

If all goes according to plan at the next camp (I say this knowing that nothing often goes according to plan in life), Mike Matheson, David Savard, Kaiden Guhle, Arber Xhekaj, Justin Barron and Lane Hutson should be six of the club’s seven defensemen to start the year.

The final spot could/should come down to Logan Mailloux and Jayden Struble, two players with different profiles.

Both have good size and are capable of playing physical. But otherwise, we know that Mailloux is more offensive than Struble, as well as being right-handed. However, he has less NHL experience than the American.

I don’t think we should be too quick to underestimate Struble in this race. After all, he obviously earned the trust of management last year by playing a lot – even though he was originally called up to warm up the bench.

Struble will work hard to make the club and play as often as possible.

And to do that, he’s been working on himself this summer. As reported by Tony Marinaro, who spoke with Struble yesterday on the heels of the media premiere of the documentary on the rebuilding of the Canadiens, the defenseman has put on weight.

He’s even bigger and more muscular than he used to be – like a lot of guys, including Juraj Slafkovsky. That’s what he’s been working on, as Marinaro reports in the latest episode of his Sick Podcast.

We imagine that the Habs were able to see this for themselves this summer, given that the American spent his summer training in Montreal instead of returning to his homeland.

What Marinaro also reported was that Struble’s goal is to return to the level of play he had at the start of the season in 2023-2024. And he wants to do it with the Canadiens, a club whose future makes him optimistic.

When he first arrived in the NHL, Struble was impossible to get out of the line-up. Then, at the end of the campaign, he was running out of steam and was rotated with other guys.

The man Marc Bergevin once dubbed the “Greek God” wants to make his mark. Will the fact that he’s a bit in the mold of Arber Xhekaj work against him when it comes to lining up for the start of the season?

That remains to be seen. And it will also depend on how much Martin St-Louis feels he can rely on him.

It’s worth noting that the departures of Jordan Harris and Johnathan Kovacevic open doors, and he’s not the one who’s been dealt. Struble would have good value on the market, but he must also have good value internally, in the eyes of Kent Hughes, Jeff Gorton and Martin St-Louis.