Montreal Canadiens Drastically Reduce Number of Players at Training Camp

The Montreal Canadiens began training camp just over a week ago with 74 players in attendance. Obviously, that number needed to be cut down dramatically, and the Habs just did that.

Their first set of cuts was just four players when Antoine Coulombe, Daniil Sobolev, Jared Davidson and Cedrick Guindon were all sent back to their Junior teams.

Riley Mercer was later released from his tryout and then star Junior players Joshua Roy and Riley Kidney were sent back to Junior just in time to start their final seasons at that level.

Canadiens cut 23 players

This evening, the Habs finally made their first lengthy list of cuts from training camp. The team has announced that 23 players have been cut and won’t be playing with the Canadiens on opening night.

Forwards Peter Abbandonato, Anthony Beauregard, Gabriel Bourque, Lucas Condotta, Pierrick Dube, Cam Hillis, Ryan Francis, Danick Martel, Jan Mysak, Emile Poirier, Brennan Saulnier, Brett Stapley and Joel Teasdale were part of the cuts.

Defenders Santino Centorame, Tory Dello, Gianni Fairbrother, Olivier Galipeau, Alex Green, John Parker-Jones, Miguel Tourigny and William Trudeau were also released as well as goaltenders Phillippe Desrosiers and Joe Vrbetic.

The 23 players will now attend Laval Rocket training camp which is scheduled to begin on Sunday. This leaves the Habs with 47 players on the training camp roster, including six players who are injured at the moment.

None of the names on the list of cuts were really surprising. Zero of them were expected to contend for a job on the opening night roster, though maybe Jan Mysak or William Trudeau were expected to make it a little more interesting than being cut this early.

The Habs still have five more preseason games to play after losing to the New Jersey Devils, Toronto Maple Leafs and Winnipeg Jets in their first three exhibition contests.

Their next contest is tomorrow night when they will face the Ottawa Senators for the first of FOUR meetings in and eight day span to close out camp.