The Montreal Canadiens began training camp two weeks ago with 70 players on their roster.
Though they had a large turnout at camp, there were not many positions on the NHL lineup up for debate. With the exception of injuries opening up spots, it would have been simple to guess 20 of the 23 players that would eventually be named to the initial roster, and fairly easy to predict 22 of them.
The only real position up for grabs was the fourth centre role.
It should have been Ryan Poehling’s to take. The 21 year old centre had a terrific season for the Laval Rocket last year and should be ready to take the next step and become a full-time NHL centre now. His only real competition entering camp was Cedric Paquette, a low scoring but reliable defensive centre who signed a menial (by NHL standards) one year deal with the Habs.
Ideally, and it was probably expected, that Poehling would take the fourth centre position behind Nick Suzuki, Christian Dvorak and Jake Evans. That would leave Paquette to be the team’s 13th forward.
However, Poehling has not really taken old of that lineup spot that was carved out for him. He has had a pretty quiet preseason thus far, though he did look better in his last exhibition game.
One thing that should catch his attention is Mathieu Perreault making a move to centre for tonight’s game.
Perreault, who also signed a menial (by NHL standards) one year contract with the team was penciled in as a fourth line winger by most heading into camp. He has played some centre in his NHL career but was mostly a bottom six winger for the Winnipeg Jets over the past number of years.
With Paquette injured, and Suzuki, Dvorak and Evans sure to play centre on the top three lines, that really only left Poehling to be fourth line centre.
Well, not anymore. Perreault will be between Gabriel Bourque and Alex Belzile tonight. Poehling has the better wingers in Rafael Harvey-Pinard and Artturi Lehkonen, and likely still the inside track to start the year as the Canadiens fourth line centre.
However, seeing Perreault in the middle gives the Canadiens another option for that depth role. This should be a clear signal to Poehling that he needs to play well over the final two preseason games or he could be back with the Laval Rocket to start the 2021-22 season.