Montreal Canadiens: Three Players Who Could Surprise at Training Camp

Montreal Canadiens training camp is underway and these three players could surprise.

Montreal Canadiens training camp is underway. The team gathered together yesterday for the first time, but they won’t hit the ice as a group until later today.

Yesterday was all about doing physical testing, filming clips for media usage and just getting familiar with protocols that were never in place in previous training camps.

Also, Marc Bergevin met with the media and left no doubt that he has high expectations for this team. He thinks all of the new acquisitions, Josh Anderson, Jake Allen, Joel Edmundson, Tyler Toffoli, Corey Perry, Michael Frolik and Alexander Romanov are going to have big impacts and make this team a contender.

Bergevin also noted that Perry and Tomas Tatar have another day of quarantine to take care of today before they can join the team tomorrow. So, it you see a line of Brendan Gallagher, Phillip Danault and Jordan Weal being used today, just remember that Weal is holding a spot for a day for Tatar.

While Bergevin is excited about the aforementioned players and thinks they could all have a positive impact, there are a few others he didn’t mention that have a chance to impress as well.

Every year there is a player (or two) that surprises everyone and makes the team out of training camp. Two years ago it was Jesperi Kotkaniemi who everyone had pencilled in to play another season in Finland, and Noah Juulsen who looked like he would play another year with the Laval Rocket. However, both players were in the lineup on opening night 2018 and Kotkaniemi stayed there all season.

Last season, not many people predicted Nick Suzuki and Cale Fleury would be on the roster on opening night. Yet, both players had such good training camps, they forced the Laval Rocket to look elsewhere for impact players because they were staying with the Canadiens.

It will be more difficult for a player to surprise this season since there are no preseason games. However, the ten day camp will still be plenty long enough for a few players to gain the attention of the Canadiens coaches.

Who could be the biggest surprises at this year’s training camp? Let’s take a look at the top three.