The Montreal Canadiens have decided on their final Phase 4 list for the Stanley Cup Qualifier, where Josh Brook and Laurent Dauphin were the two cuts.
Training camp is officially over, and now it’s time for the Montreal Canadiens to head to Toronto for the Stanley Cup Qualifier.
Phase 3 has given fans scares, concerns, and plenty of resurgences ahead of a series where they are clearly the underdog. At the same time, off-ice pressures surrounding the Habs have also made their participation all the more interesting with Alexander Radulov and Team E winning the NHL Draft Lottery. We also saw more trust from the coaching staff in Nick Suzuki while Jesperi Kotkaniemi‘s work in Finland after recovering from his spleen injury has been paying off.
The Habs were allowed to have a leaky maximum as far as players at camp, but now it has to be controlled. And that number must be brought down to 31.
According to John Lu of TSN, the Montreal Canadiens have their final roster set:
#Habs Phase 4 roster. Dauphin and Brook are the two players from camp who aren’t with the team on Toronto. pic.twitter.com/Pg9tuc3spu
— John Lu (@JohnLuTSNWpg) July 26, 2020
Four goaltenders are making their way to the Eastern Conference Hub as well as 16 forwards and 10 defencemen. Romanov is also joining the team as their 31st player even though he can’t participate in any actual games. That leaves forward Laurent Dauphin and defenceman Josh Brook off the list.
There aren’t many surprises as far as who was being brought along. On the other hand, Brook not making the trip is a little odd.
Apparently, the 2017 second-round pick came to camp in shape and was in one of those battles for a bottom-pair spot along with Cale Fleury and Noah Juulsen. But it looks as if Claude Julien wanted experience in their extras during Phase 4 and went with Fleury and Juulsen, who have both seen time in the NHL already.
That would also explain why the likes of Christian Folin and Gustav Olofsson got the ticket to ride as well.
However, Dauphin does have NHL experience but not as much as the other forwards (save for Ryan Poehling). The 25-year-old has played 35 games all for the Arizona Coyotes, the most being a stretch of 24 games in the 2016-17 season.
Now that they’ve arrived in the city, it’s time for the Montreal Canadiens to get ready for their Tuesday night competition.
https://twitter.com/CanadiensMTL/status/1287489101520941058
Things within the lineup can still change after that exhibition game against the Toronto Maple Leafs, but the one thing we know won’t are the 31 players entering the bubble.