Montreal Canadiens: Jesse Ylonen On His Way To Montreal

Montreal Canadiens prospect Jesse Ylonen on his way to Montreal.

Montreal Canadiens training camp is underway as the team will be on the ice for the fourth consecutive day today. They have been on the ice in two separate groups for practices since Monday, and will play a full scrimmage today.

There are 42 players in training camp, including 36 skaters and six goaltenders. Still, there were a couple of interesting omissions from the camp roster.

Jesse Ylonen was one of those players that would have been expected at training camp, but was not on the roster. This led to questions about whether he would play the full season in Finland or make his way over to play in the American Hockey League this year.

Ylonen was drafted in the second round of the 2018 NHL Draft. He has played his entire career in Finland, but had signed his entry-level contract in March of 2020. The 21 year old right winger had made his way to Laval but the league suspended operations just before he made his debut and would not return to finish the 2019-20 season.

Ylonen returned to Liiga in Finland to begin this season. He scored five goals and seven points in 21 games thus far, but he is now heading to Montreal.

When he was left off the Habs training camp roster, it was either because he elected to play the whole season in Finland with the Lahti Pelicans, or he was too far down the depth chart to have any chance of making the Canadiens so he sat it out.

With new rules and restrictions around training camp this season, teams were only allowed to bring a maximum of 36 skaters. Since Ylonen was going to play in the AHL anyway, and he had already played 21 pro games in Finland this season, it made sense to leave him off the list and allow someone who hasn’t been able to play at all this season a chance to get on the ice.

Ylonen is a young, skilled winger and it will be exciting to watch how he performs at the AHL level this season. The AHL recently committed to a season that begins on February 5, and the Rocket will play in a Canadian division with the Belleville Senators, Toronto Marlies and Manitoba Moose.