It’s getting even closer to the wire with the Montreal Canadiens as they choose to release 23 players from their training camp roster.
The magic number for the Montreal Canadiens as far as their training camp roster is now 43. After practice and on-ice sessions Friday morning, 23 players have been cut introducing a new wave internal competition for the next two weeks.
The list of players cut include: Morgan Adams-Moisan, Jeremiah Addison, Alexandre Alain, Daniel Audette, Alex Belzile, Will Bitten, Ryan Culkin, Jake Evans, Cale Fleury, Alexandre Grenier, Nikita Jevpalovs, Maxim Lamarche, Étienne Marcoux, Phélix Martineau, Michael McNiven, T.J. Melancon, Michael Pezzetta, Adam Plant, Lukas Vejdemo and Antoine Waked.
These 20 players will be reporting to the Laval Rocket who being their training camp festivities this upcoming Monday (September 24th).
The remaining three, Joël Teasdale, Josh Brook and Scott Walford will be returning to their junior clubs in the QMJHL and WHL respectively. Hearing of Brook’s departure is a little bittersweet. He was one of the Habs better defencemen throughout camp so far and looked as if he took a multitude of strides in the right direction. On the other hand, the stage is set for Brook to be a dominating force not only with the Moose Jaw Warriors but in the league as a whole.
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Teasdale is returning to the Armada with a shiny new contract under his belt. The goal for him should be to improve and hopefully convert his play to a professional debut towards the end of the season in the AHL.
Going back to the 20 main cuts, Bitten, Vejdemo, and Fleury are among the standouts. Bitten showed a lot of speed and work ethic to his game, similarly to last year, but Vejdemo has proven to be a very underrated prospect in the Habs system. His two-way play in combination with his offensive awareness will be a great asset in Laval as it seems he’s adjusted well to the smaller ice in a short amount of time.
Luckily, the curtain hasn’t completely closed on the idea of Fleury turning pro. The fact that he wasn’t returned to Regina yet shows the organization wants to give him every opportunity to change their mind. However, with the Montreal Canadiens sitting at 48 contracts, Fleury will really need to show more than he’s already put on the table.
It’ll be interesting to see how the rest of these players perform for new coach Joël Bouchard. The Rocket had a brutal inaugural season and should be looking to change the atmosphere around the team quickly. Perhaps a number of these names can help drive that point along.