Brossard: Cole Caufield and Arber Xhekaj Take to the Ice for the First Time This Summer

Maxime Truman
Brossard: Cole Caufield and Arber Xhekaj Take to the Ice for the First Time This Summer
Credit: Patrick Guillet

Today is August 31. Tomorrow will be September 1. Where did the summer go?

At least September means the golf tournament, rookie camp, and the Canadiens' training camp. And this year, September also means the start of the regular season. Reminder: The season will start about ten days earlier because it will consist of 84 games instead of 82, and we'd like to award the Stanley Cup a little earlier in the spring.

In nine days—on September 9—rookie camp will begin. On the 14th, it's the Canadiens Children's Foundation's annual golf tournament, and on the 16th, the Habs' actual training camp kicks off.

We've seen a few players skating regularly in Brossard over the summer, and this morning we're seeing some new faces. The players are starting to head back to the city to be ready when it all kicks off.

This morning, some guys we hadn't seen at the CN Complex in a long time laced up their skates, including a certain Cole Caufield. My colleague Pat Guillet, who attended just about every summer practice in Brossard, hadn't seen Caufield all summer.

Arber Xhekaj, Oliver Kapanen, Noah Dobson, and Alexandre Texier were also taking their first laps on the ice this summer at the CN Complex.

Phillip Danault, Alex Newhook, Josh Anderson, Lane Hutson, Jake Evans, Kaapo Kahkonen, and Jacob Fowler are also here this morning.

It's worth noting that Samuel Montembeault, Jakub Dobes, Ivan Demidov, Zachary Bolduc, Mike Matheson, Jayden Struble, and Alexandre Carrier weren't there this morning, but they've been spotted several times in Brossard over the past few weeks.

So there are only four players on the team who, according to my colleague Pat Guillet, have yet to lace up their skates in Brossard during the offseason: Juraj Slafkovsky, Nick Suzuki, Kirby Dach, and Kaiden Guhle.

Guhle and Dach usually train together in Alberta, and Slafkovsky has taken a break from life in Montreal by heading to Europe. As for the captain, it's safe to assume he needed to spend some time with his family in Ontario after a crazy year.

According to the buzz behind the scenes in Brossard, however, he's been back in Montreal for a few hours now. Same goes for the coach…

Is It October September Yet?


Overtime

As I reread my piece, something struck me: fewer key players spent the summer in Montreal. In 2025, nearly all of them had been spotted regularly in Brossard. Not this summer.

People told me in July that several players felt the need to get away from the madness in Montreal once the playoffs were over. It was very intense for a lot of players, I was told.

Let's hope they'll all be 100% focused as they kick off the season in the same “jungle” as before. And with even higher expectations this year!

And let's hope they don't regret signing for less to play in this Montreal “jungle.”

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