Montreal Canadiens: Laval Rocket Set to Begin Training Camp
Montreal Canadiens players have been back on the ice playing games for just over a week. Their AHL affiliate is set to get back in action as well.
There are still plenty of question marks about the AHL season, but the Laval Rocket will be on the ice today to begin their training camp.
There still is no schedule for the AHL season, though that is expected to be released a little later today. It is believed that the Rocket will play their first game of the season on February 5th, but nothing is confirmed until we see the official schedule released.
The Rocket released the names of the players that will take part in their training camp yesterday. Of the 32 players that will be on the ice today at the Bell Centre, there are three goaltenders, ten defencemen and 19 forwards. They won’t play any preseason games this season, but they will have intra-squad games on Monday, January 25, Thursday, January 28 and Sunday, January 31.
The roster of 32 has some interesting names on it, and some really interesting names not on it.
Of note on the lineup are players that would normally be playing in the CHL. With the three Canadian Junior leagues currently not playing, players like Kaiden Guhle, Jan Mysak, Jacob LeGuerrier and Gianni Fairbrother are eligible to play for the Laval Rocket. So, they will be at training camp today, but will likely need to report back to Junior if those leagues get going in the future.
Notably not on the Rocket roster are Ryan Poehling and Cale Fleury. They both split last season with the Rocket and Canadiens but are yet to play a game for the Habs this season. They are on the Canadiens taxi squad at the moment, so maybe they just aren’t allowed to be named to the training camp roster yet or maybe the Habs want to keep them on the taxi squad instead of sending them down for intra-squad games against AHL players.
Either way, I would expect both of them to play plenty of games for the Rocket this season and likely be sent down next week to get ready for the AHL season.
Of course, we don’t know the Rocket schedule yet either. It’s possible they are only playing 28 games since they are in a four-team All-Canadian division. It’s possible the Habs are waiting to see how busy the Rocket schedule is before they decide to send down Fleury and Poehling. It’s probably better for their development to practice with the NHL team than the AHL team.
With Fleury on the taxi squad and Noah Juulsen claimed off waivers last week, the defence of the Rocket is looking a little thin. It will be interesting to see if they decide to add some AHL veterans to the roster on the back end in the near future.
The schedule will be released at 12:00 PM EST today.