Training camp just opened for the Montreal Canadiens. On-ice sessions start as of Thursday, Sept. 19, while the first preseason game is Sept. 23 against the Philadelphia Flyers, giving fans the chance to see players in action. Several stand-outs have emerged on paper ahead of time. Here’s hoping they justify the attention in literal practice.
A reported total of 59 players are participating. Obviously, barring exceptions due to injury like Rafael Harvey-Pinard, only 23 will make the cut. And, while some that won’t end up making the opening-night roster hold special interest for fans, we’re technically only talking about a fraction of those 23 overall who represent question marks personified.
Here are the top five:
5. Josh Anderson (RW)
Logically, forward Josh Anderson isn’t at risk of losing his job. He’s under contract for the next three seasons at $5.5 million per. However, after veteran Joel Armia got cut last season following a poor 2022-23, suddenly Anderson looks vulnerable competing for a spot on a deeper team up front after a disappointing 20-point campaign.
Fans already know what Anderson brings to the table as a fast, 6-foot-4 power forward. At his best, he’s a 20-goal scorer when given ice time commensurate with top-six expectations. It will be interesting to see what he brings in a bottom-six role, when there shouldn’t be room at the top of the lineup any longer. Ironically, if he doesn’t deliver like the scoring winger he’s merely shown flashes of over the last four years this training camp, there may not be any room left for him at all. At least there won’t be, if it’s a true meritocracy
4. Joshua Roy (RW)
Similarly, Joshua Roy still has to prove himself, despite having established himself as one of the team’s top forwards after the All-Star Game. Still technically a rookie, who will be eligible for the Calder Memorial Trophy, Roy is exempt from waivers. That makes him an easy target to get demoted, even if he outplays someone like Anderson above.
So, it’s Roy’s job to a) make that decision as hard as possible on management and b) then prove he belongs to play in a suddenly crowded top-six pool. Seeing as he projects as a top-six forward, it’s in the Canadiens’ best interest to put him in the best position to succeed as such, but the onus is on him to first put the pressure on them to make the right choice.
3. Kirby Dach (C)
Part of the reason Roy has to re-establish himself as a top-six forward is due to how he ended last season on the shelf. While Kirby Dach is in a similar boat, after playing just two games, he’s admittedly at virtually zero risk of finding himself on the outside looking in when all is said done. He’s proven himself to be that valuable when healthy. However, it still remains to be seen how healthy he actually is.
While Dach says he’s 100%, fans will likely want to see for themselves how close to the same player he is. Remember, many saw him as (eventually) surpassing Nick Suzuki as the team’s best centre. While that seems less likely now, it’s more to do with Suzuki’s development than any step back in his.
Dach is still in theory an above-average second-line centre… on whom the success of the team hinges a great deal. If he’s able to stay healthy (along with the rest of the team), the ramifications cannot be understated, as it would give the team two dangerous lines… and, based on how there’s really only room for someone like Anderson on Line 4, maybe more.
2. Lane Hutson (LD)
Rookie defenseman Lane Hutson undeniably impressed as one of the top prospects at 2024 Rookie Camp. In fact, he was widely considered the top-performing Canadiens prospect as someone who could quasi-realistically make the team. However, that’s based on how he played against prospects. He still has to perform in the main camp against NHLers.
True, Hutson has already proved himself to a degree, getting in two games at the end of last season. However, it was a small sample size and he still has to show a lot, namely that it makes sense for the Canadiens to keep him up despite a log jam on his left side, with no fewer than four other lefties holding claims on roster spots.
Keep in mind, general manager Kent Hughes has gone on record as saying: “If [Hutson] needs to improve certain aspects of his game and he would be better served playing in the American Hockey League, we’ll send him there, but we’re not going to keep him in the NHL just to make him a power-play specialist.”
Related: Canadiens Will Realistically Keep Hutson in AHL in 2024-25
With that in mind, Hutson is logically competing with three other defensemen for a top-four spot: Lefties Mike Matheson, who just scored a career-high 62 points and Kaiden Guhle, who just signed a six-year, $33.3 million extension, and rightie Logan Mailloux, who was named an AHL all star last season.
Hutson needs to play better than Matheson to force Hughes to make a trade or better than Guhle to force head coach Martin St. Louis to keep deploying the latter on the right to make room, at the arguable expense of his own development. That’s why Mailloux makes more logistical sense to earn a promotion instead, as it’s his right side where there’s a theoretical spot up for grabs. Forcing Guhle to play there, takes it away. However, if Mailloux outplays Hutson in camp, it becomes a moot point.
1. Patrik Laine (RW)
For all intents and purposes, Patrik Laine is guaranteed a roster spot. It’s not that the Canadiens have invested a lot in him. Technically, they just gave up defenseman Jordan Harris, who wouldn’t have been a 100% lock for a roster spot himself, to acquire him from the Columbus Blue Jackets. It’s more so what he represents as an $8.7 million player with superstar potential. For that reason alone there will be a lot of eyes on him.
Now, training camp won’t reveal much in terms of what Laine has to offer. Everyone has a good idea of what he’s capable of as a former 44-goal scorer. It’s just a question of how much goal-scoring talent he rediscovers after a nine-point season (18 games) and time spent in the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program. However much he pans out though, it’s a classic low-risk situation.
Laine can conceivably fall flat and everyone should still be able to applaud Hughes for taking a chance on him for as little as he paid. No one with a heart is really hoping for that, though. They’d much prefer Laine get his career back on track. He’ll take his first steps to making that a reality in the coming days.
