Montreal Canadiens: Who’s Roster Spot Does Tanner Pearson Take?

When Montreal Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes shipped out Mike Hoffman and Rem Pitlick over the summer, he appeared to be clearing the logjam at the forward position to open up some spots for the influx of young talent coming up the pipeline.

So understandably the news that the Canadiens had acquired 31 year old winger Tanner Pearson from the Vancouver Canucks has been met with some confusion.  Pearson is on an expiring contract which makes him a prime candidate to be flipped at the trade deadline for more futures, especially if he can bounce back to his mean after an injury plagued season.

So while it’s no doubt a nice bit of business by Hughes to add another tradable asset as well as an extra third round pick to the draft stable, the question of where Pearson fits into this lineup has introduced more layers of intrigue to an already highly anticipated training camp.

Taking into account the subtraction of goaltender Casey DeSmith, who was dealt away in the Pearson trade, and the temporary omission of Christian Dvorak and Chris Wideman due to injuries, I believe the Canadiens will now almost certainly carry 14 forwards to start the season.

There are ten of them I consider to be locks to be on the game sheet for the season opener in Toronto on October 11th.  They are Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Kirby Dach, Brendan Gallagher, Alex Newhook, Josh Anderson, Sean Monahan, Tanner Pearson, Rafael Harvey-Pinard and Juraj Slafkovsky.

I’m also not expecting any of the younger forwards who are entering their first full year of professional hockey to make this team.  Hughes and Jeff Gorton have shown great patience thus far and I suspect they will let their prospects marinate in Laval as long as possible rather than rush them to the NHL before they are ready to fully contribute.  As a result, I consider the chances that players like Sean Farrell, Joshua Roy or Owen Beck make the final 23 a long shot at best.