Montreal Canadiens: Predicting Habs Final Cuts At Each Position
The Opening Lineup
With the final cuts predicted to be Cayden Primeau, Justin Barron, Logan Mailloux, Mattias Norlinder, and Emil Heineman, that leaves a roster of 23 players including 14 forwards, seven defensemen and two goaltenders.
The opening night lineup would then look something like this:
Alex Newhook – Nick Suzuki – Cole Caufield
Juraj Slafkovsky – Kirby Dach – Rafael Harvey-Pinard
Tanner Pearson – Sean Monahan – Josh Anderson
Jesse Ylonen – Jake Evans – Brendan Gallagher
Extras: Joel Armia, Michael Pezzetta
Mike Matheson – David Savard
Kaiden Guhle – Jordan Harris
Arber Xhekaj – Johnathan Kovacevic
Extra: Gustav Lindstrom
Sam Montembeault
Jake Allen
It may not be a playoff contending roster, but a first line of Suzuki, Caufield and Newhook would bring plenty of flash, skating and scoring punch. Following that up with a trio of Dach, Slafkovsky and Harvey-Pinard which has proven to be quite difficult to play against in preseason action gives the Habs a steady top six.
A veteran laden bottom six with Pearson and Monahan on line three with Anderson as well as Gallagher on the fourth line with Evans and Ylonen would give the Habs quality depth though a bit of a lack of scoring if injuries start to amount early on in the season.
The defense pairings are pretty much interchangeable but I think we will see the coach lean heavily on a couple of veterans at the top while the younger players have a bit of an internal battle for ice time.
Montembeault seems the likely choice to start game one but he will split time with Allen for the third consecutive season.
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