Montreal Canadiens: Three Most Pleasant Surprises In First Week of Camp
The Montreal Canadiens started training camp a week ago and have since played a trio of preseason games. These three players have been the most pleasant surprises thus far in camp.
The Montreal Canadiens began camp just over a week ago. Since then we have seen them take the ice in several practices, an intense Red vs White scrimmage game as well as three exhibition contests. Wins and losses don’t really matter in the preseason of course, but the Habs have gone undefeated thus far, beating the New Jersey Devils and taking a pair of games from the Florida Panthers.
What is more important than winning games at this time of year is evaluating where the young players in the organization stand. It is important for young players to have a great camp if they want to crack the NHL roster for the first time. Veterans are given a little more leeway and can be forgiven for uninspired performances if they have played the past few seasons with an NHL club.
The Canadiens entered camp with a plethora of these returning players. They had nine forwards back who played most of last season in a Canadiens jersey plus Nate Thompson and Jordan Weal who were fixtures after being acquired at the trade deadline. They also brought in a depth forward in Nick Cousins who played last season with the Arizona Coyotes.
On defense, five of the six players who finished the season were back and Jordie Benn was replaced by Ben Chiarot. Carey Price is clearly still the starter and Keith Kinkaid steps into Antti Niemi‘s role as the number two option.
So, with all of those returning players and a few more veterans being added in free agency, it seemed like there was very little room for rookies to crack the lineup to start this season. That didn’t stop several young players from stepping up and making the Habs management team take notice over the past week.
There are going to be some difficult decisions for general manager Marc Bergevin to make at the end of camp. The reason it is going to be so difficult is because some veterans who thought they had a spot nailed down are being outplayed by rookies who many thought would be sent to the Laval Rocket.
Which young players are the most pleasant surprises so far and are putting the most pressure on Bergevin to make difficult choices? Let’s take a look at the top three.