Montreal Canadiens Make First Series of Cuts at Training Camp

The Montreal Canadiens invited 74 players to training camp this season. They are going to have to make some early decisions to get that down to a reasonable number in order to have a real battle for the final jobs.

They do have eight preseason games that they need to fill out lineups for, and it is not likely that any individual player plays more than half of them, so they do need to have a lot of bodies around for this first week of exhibition games.

On the verge of the first preseason game, which is scheduled for 7:00 PM EST tonight against the New Jersey Devils, the Habs have announced their first set of cuts from the roster. Four players have been released from camp, reducing the number of players still in attendance to 70, so they still have plenty of decisions to make.

Canadiens cut four players from training camp

The four players that have been removed from the training camp roster are Antoine Coulombe, Daniil Sobolev, Cedrick Guindon and Jared Davidson.

Coulombe is a 20 year old goaltender who posted strong numbers for the Shawinigan Cataractes last season. He was in Canadiens camp on a tryout and will now either return to Junior for his overage season, or try to find a team that will sign him to a minor league contract. With Cayden Primeau and Kevin Poulin signed, it won’t be with the Laval Rocket.

Sobolev was a 5th round pick of the Canadiens in 2021. The right shot defenceman scored two goals and 17 points in 62 games for a deep Windsor Spitfires team. The 19 year old will now head back for a bit more seasoning at the Junior level.

Davidson had a breakout season with the Seattle Thunderbirds before the Canadiens drafted him in the 5th round last July. He scored 42 goals and 89 points in 64 games, but was a bit of a late bloomer and will now likely head to Laval Rocket camp when it opens, but could head back to the WHL for his overage season eventually.

Guindon is an 18 year old left winger who scored 30 goals for the Owen Sound Attack of the OHL. He was a 4th round pick of the Canadiens in July and will now gear up for the OHL season which begins this weekend.

The cuts still leave quite a few players in camp, with 70 still on the list, though that does include a few injured players like Carey Price and Logan Mailloux who we may not see hit the ice at all in training camp.

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