Montreal Canadiens: Three Veterans Who Need A Strong Preseason

Otto Leskinen

The Montreal Canadiens have completely reshuffled thier defence in a very short time. They were in the Stanley Cup Final just 14 months ago with a group of defenders that included Shea Weber, Ben Chiarot, Jeff Petry, Joel Edmundson, Brett Kulak, Erik Gustafsson, Jon Merrill and Alexander Romanov.

Of those eight defenders who played games in the Stanley Cup Final in 2021, seven are gone. Edmundson is the only holdover and he is injured right now. That leaves some openings on the back end.

I still don’t see a ton of drama or big surprises on the back end. There are four veterans in camp likely to start the season at the NHL level. That list includes Edmundson as well as David Savard, Mike Matheson and Chris Wideman as well as Corey Schueneman, especially if Edmundson is injured.

Then, there are a number of very young defenders who will either get their chance at the start of the regular season or in the future. That list would include Kaiden Guhle, Jordan Harris, Arber Xhekaj, Mattias Norlinder and Justin Barron. Even if they don’t make the opening roster, they will likely get a look later on this season and could still play a big role on the team in the future.

Then there is Otto Leskinen. He is 25 years old so he is the lone sort of mid-20’s blue liner between a large group of 22 and unders on one end and a handful of 28 and over veterans.

With a strong camp, Leskinen could earn a job out of the preseason and play on the Canadiens opening night roster. If he sort of blends in through camp or doesn’t look NHL ready, he will be quickly passed over by a number of defenders who are younger and have a brighter future and we may never see Leskinen in the NHL again.