Montreal Canadiens First Round Pick Kaiden Guhle Season Will Start in January

Montreal Canadiens first round pick Kaiden Guhle will play his first regular season game in January.

The Montreal Canadiens selected Kaiden Guhle with the 16th overall pick in the first round of the 2020 NHL Draft.

The big left defenceman didn’t exactly fill the biggest organizational need, but his excellent skating and physicality were too much for general manager Marc Bergevin to pass up on in the opening round.

Guhle played the past two seasons for the Prince Albert Raiders of the Western Hockey League. The 6’3″ and 190 pound defender scored 11 goals and 40 points in 64 games last season before the season was cancelled.

The question that has been lingering since Guhle was selected in the first round is, when will we get to see him play? The WHL season has not started yet and the Raiders have not even begun training camp. The league finally announced last night that they are looking to drop the puck on Friday, January 8th to begin the 2020-21 campaign (I guess it’s just the 2021 campaign).

A schedule has not been announced, but the WHL has stated teams will only play against teams in their own division. This makes sense considering there is an entire division of teams in the United States and the ability to cross the border will remain unknown.

The Prince Albert Raiders are in the East Division, which will drastically cut down on travel for the Canadiens recent first rounder. Instead of traveling to Spokane and Everett at times, Guhle’s squad will only play against the Winnipeg Ice, Brandon Wheat Kings, Saskatoon Blades, Regina Pats and Moose Jaw Warriors.

Of course, there is a chance we get to see Guhle wearing a Team Canada jersey at the World Juniors, but if not, our first glimpse of the Canadiens first round pick will be in early January as Guhle’s Raiders travel around the prairies for a few months.