Montreal Canadiens: Predicting Habs Final Cuts At Each Position

Defensemen

How many defensemen are still left at camp? 10. How many need to be cut? 3.

Who is still on the roster? Justin Barron, Kaiden Guhle, Jordan Harris, Johnathan Kovacevic, Gustav Lindstrom, Logan Mailloux, Mike Matheson, Mattias Norlinder, David Savard, Arber Xhekaj.

The Canadiens are going to have a young blue line no matter what happens between now and the drop of the puck on the regular season on October 11. There are a couple of veterans locks on the roster though as Matheson and Savard are guaranteed to be on the roster if they are healthy. Matheson is battling something right now, but it sounded short term so we are assuming he is healthy when the regular season begins.

Kaiden Guhle, Jordan Harris, Johnathan Kovacevic and Arber Xhekaj were regulars on the Canaidens blue line last season and should all be on the roster to begin the year. That already gives us six defensemen on the team, leaving just one open spot for Barron, Lindstrom, Mailloux and Norlinder.

Norlinder and Mailloux have an offensive side to their game that the Canadiens could desperately use on the back end, but they just are not ready yet. They will benefit from time with the Laval Rocket and that is where they should begin the season.

That leaves one final roster spot that will be given to either Barron or Lindstrom. Barron does not require waivers which works against him, but Lindstrom has not proven to be a better option than Barron.

This will be interesting as there is a valid argument to be made that Barron would be better off playing big minutes and running the power play for the Rocket than being the seventh defenseman on the Canadiens roster and watching some games from the press box.

I tend to agree with that line of thinking and believe Barron will be sent down to start the season but immediately called up when an injury occurs. Lindstrom will make the team but serve as the seventh defenseman who travels with the team but rarely plays.