Montreal Canadiens: Three Players at Rookie Camp Most Likely to Play With Habs This Season

Kaiden Guhle

Kaiden Guhle had an odd season as far as the back of hockey cards go in 2020-21. He was supposed to be a cornerstone of the Prince Albert Raiders blue line, but the WHL season kept being delayed because of Covid-19.

Eventually, Guhle was allowed to skate with the AHL’s Laval Rocket while waiting for the WHL to decide whether it would have a season or not. When December rolled around, Guhle was off to World Junior camp for most of the month leading up to the tournament held in Alberta in late December and early January.

Then, after just one weekend with the Raiders in January after the WHL season finally began, Guhle was injured and missed the remainder of the year.

By the end of the season, the 2019 first round draft pick had played three games for the Laval Rocket, two games for the Prince Albert Raiders and seven games for Canada at the World Juniors.

It’s not often a player plays more games for his World Junior team than any other team.

Though it was an odd year for Guhle, he performed well at each level. He is still just 19 years old and is eligible to return to the World Juniors this season. Though I fully expect him to return to the Raiders for the WHL season, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him have a terrific rookie camp followed by a strong training camp and then start the year with the Canadiens.

In 2016-17, first round pick Mikhail Sergachev played four games with the Canadiens before being sent back to Junior. Guhle could be given the same treatment just to get his feet wet at the NHL level.