Hockey

Practice camp: fighting for an encore rather than a position
Mathis Therrien
Practice camp: fighting for an encore rather than a position
Credit: Getty Images

After many long months of waiting, it's finally game day for the Montreal Canadiens. Although it's not yet the start of the preparatory schedule or the regular season, it's still a game at the Bell Centre, featuring, among others, Ivan Demidov. And that's something we've been wanting to see for a long time. The Canadiens will be holding two prospect games this weekend, followed by the official start of the real training camp.

The only downside for the vast majority, if not all, of these prospects (aside from Ivan Demidov) is that they'll be fighting more for a potential NHL call-up than for a starting spot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHJJPf_Xi40

As Marc-Antoin Godin explains in the latest episode of “Tellement Hockey”, the Habs have a few young players who could aspire to an NHL job. Oliver Kapanen, Owen Beck and Florian Xhekaj could all deserve an NHL position, but in the end, they'll probably be fighting over who gets called back to Montreal first in the event of injury.

Clearly, we'd like to see at least one of these three guys with the Habs to start the season, but the Habs already have a lineup that could overflow: Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Juraj Slafkovsky, Patrik Laine, Ivan Demidov, Zachary Bolduc, Kirby Dach, Alex Newhook, Brendan Gallagher, Josh Anderson and Jake Evans are already guaranteed to make the team.

That's 11 forwards already, and there's one spot left on the ice, which is likely to go to Joe Veleno, at the expense of Samuel Blais

So there are 13 forwards in Montreal, and it's clear that the Habs aren't going to keep Kapanen, Beck or Xhekaj in Montreal and leave him in the stands as an extra forward.

So, unless Kirby Dach isn't fit to start the season, we're likely to see these three prospects start the season with the Laval Rocket, which wouldn't be a bad thing in itself. All three guys will have to give 100%, because when a door opens in Montreal, they're all going to be first on the recall list. The same situation exists on defense, where the Habs have seven NHL defensemen, which is likely to push David Reinbacher and Adam Engstrom back to Laval by default.

Still, you never know, but that's how it's shaping up just days before the opening of training camp

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