Canadiens: 3 Prospects Most Likely To Steal Roster Spot

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The Montreal Canadiens will begin training camp in less than two weeks as we enter the month of September and inch closer to hockey season returning. Before the official training camp opens, the team will have a rookie camp to kick things off.

The Canadiens best prospects will take part in the rookie camp, and head to Buffalo to play in a prospects tournament. The Habs rookies will play three games against other prospects from the Buffalo Sabres, Boston Bruins and Ottawa Senators in a span of four days from September 15th to 18th.

The Canadiens have a deep prospect pool, which could make this tournament an exciting few games to watch. College players like Lane Hutson will not be in attendance, but the past few drafts have brought plenty of top talent to the Canadiens organization so their lineups are sure to be fun to watch.

Most of the players that play in this rookie tournament will head back to Junior, or their respective European league when the regular season begins. Many will also find themselves with the Laval Rocket to begin the 2023-24 season. Most will get an invite to the Canadiens main training camp, but most of them already know they will be sent down at some point.

But, could any of them actually have a chance of making the Canadiens opening night roster? There seems to be no openings that need to be filled by a youngster, but that won’t stop an NHL team from forcing a spot to open if a young player performs well enough in training camp.

Even though the odds are stacked against them, which prospects who did not play in the NHL last season have the best chance of forcing their way onto the Canadiens roster and starting the season with the big club on opening night?

Let’s take a look at the top three.

Owen Beck

Owen Beck was drafted by the Canadiens with the first pick of the second round in the 2022 NHL Draft. He had played the previous season with the Mississauga Steelheads of the Ontario Hockey League, where he scored 21 goals and 51 points in 68 games.

While his offensive numbers were fine for a 17 year old in the OHL, it was the other side of the ice where he did his best work. He was known as one of the best defensive centers in the OHL, is a good faceoff guy, plays smart positionally and just always seems to make the right play and be in the correct defensive positioning.

Even at the age of 17 in the OHL, he played like a seasoned veteran and was on a lot of teams draft lists near the end of the first round or early on in the second.

Beck played extremely well at last season’s training camp and was one of the last player’s cut from the team. He played great in his preseason games, showing that excellent defensive game and limiting his mistakes to the point they were pretty much non-existent.

Eventually, the Canadiens chose to send him down to the OHL, and Beck scored 17 goals and 41 points in just 30 games with the Steelheads. He was then moved to the Peterborough Petes who had a deep lineup and he helped them win an OHL championship. He scored seven goals and 25 points in 30 games and added eight goals and 16 points in 22 playoff games.

He still has one more year of Junior eligibility, and will either start the season in the NHL or OHL. He was close to making the team a year ago and has added an OHL championship and a World Junior gold medal to his resume since then and also has the experience of an NHL camp so he knows what to expect.

Beck would have to force Jake Evans off the opening night roster to earn a role, but he is going to make it difficult to send him back to Junior for his 19 year old season.

Joshua Roy

Joshua Roy was in need of some adjustments to his approach when he was drafted by the Canadiens.

He was taken in the fifth round of the 2021 NHL Draft, though he had all the skill in the world. He just had not shown the effort or dedication on a regular enough basis to bring his best performance on the ice every night.

He had scored 35 points in 35 games the previous season in the QMJHL, but was traded from the Saint John Sea Dogs to the Sherbrooke Phoenix as the Sea Dogs were tired of waiting for him to reach his potential.

After being drafted by the Canadiens, Roy made some changes to his workout routine and diet plan. Since then, he has been one of the best players in the QMJHL for two seasons. He scored 51 goals and 119 points in 68 games in the 2021-22 season and followed that up with 46 goals and 99 points in 55 games last season. He also had a combined 20 goals and 47 points in 25 playoff games over those two seasons.

He performed well on a bigger stage, suiting up for Canada at the past two World Juniors and scored a total of eight goals and 19 points in 14 games while earning two gold medals.

Roy plays a terrific defensive game as a winger, and also showed at the World Juniors he was a great linemate for an offensive dynamo like Connor Bedard.

The Canadiens do not have a Connor Bedard on their team, but Roy’s performance over the past two seasons shows he might be a perfect fit with highly skilled players and may get a long look on a line with Nick Suzuki or Kirby Dach right away.

David Reinbacher

David Reinbacher is likely headed back to Switzerland for the upcoming season. That is probably where he should end up and it would be best for his long term development.

But we said the same things about Juraj Slafkovsky a year ago, and though he was okay, not great, in the preseason, he made the NHL roster out of training camp and stuck with the big club even though he had his struggles as an 18 year old.

Reinbacher is a big, two-way right defender and he is going to stand out like a bad weed, but in a good way, throughout the exhibition schedule and preseason practices. Every single good play or read or pass he makes is going to be highlighted as everyone from the team’s owner and their general manager to the casual fan who watches a preseason game will take notice.

Everyone will be looking at him and waiting for him to do something good, and when he does they will take note. Add into this the fact that Reinbacher is really good, and his performance is going to make it difficult to send him back to the European leagues for another season.

The fifth overall pick will likely have his ups and downs, much like Slafkovsky did, but the number of good things he can do on the ice will attract the coaches, and managers who will want to work with him right away.

Reinbacher has pro experience and is a smart, reliable two-way defender who will be able to play well in NHL preseason games. He also does not have the most difficult competition in front of him as David Savard, Justin Barron, Jonathan Kovacevic and Chris Wideman are the right defensemen on the roster, but Reinbacher will be able to look as good as most, if not all of those players, in training camp.

Of all the players that were not NHL players a year ago, Reinbacher has the best chance of stealing a roster spot for opening night.

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