After an abysmal 2021/22 season, the Montréal Canadiens have shown promising signs of life this offseason. Making 36 roster moves since June 6, the future is looking bright for the Habs.
While the offensive depth that general manager, Kent Hughes, and executive vice president of hockey operations, Jeff Gorton, have assembled is theoretically a positive thing, there are only 12 forward positions that the team can roster on a nightly basis.
Needless to say, there’s bound to be a couple of odd men out. Who those men are going to be is the biggest question the team has to answer before the season begins.
Laval Rocket Bound
Without question, the freshly drafted Juraj Slafkovsky is my choice as the most likely candidate to kick off his season with the Canadiens’ minor league affiliate, Laval Rocket.
At 6-foot-4, 220 pounds, the Rocket, as AHL Eastern Conference Final runner-up, would happily welcome the 2022 NHL first overall pick, not just for his size, but also his offensive upside.
Slafkovsky had 17 points in 49 games last season (regular season and playoffs) with TPS Turku in the Finnish SM-Liiga, and after scoring seven goals in seven games for Slovakia at the 2022 Olympics, the 18-year-old left winger is already showing growth in his game.
Along with Slafkovsky, look for the Canadiens to send forward Michael Pezzetta to the Rocket as well. Pezzetta tallied 11 points in 51 games with the Habs last season, while also accumulating 81 penalty minutes.
Long-Term Injured Reserve
Unfortunately, as confirmed by Kent Hughes in mid-August, it appears the Montréal Canadiens will be without goaltender Carey Price for the entire 2022-23 season due to a knee injury.
Price underwent knee surgery last summer, while also nursing a hip injury for most of last season. Price also didn’t skate in the Canadiens’ training camp prior to voluntarily entering the NHL/NHLPA player assistance program for issues pertaining to substance use last October.
This will more than likely see Price starting the season on long-term injured reserve, which clears an estimated $10.5 million in salary cap space.
Jonathan Drouin and Paul Byron are two other Habs forwards that may start the 2022/23 season on LTIR, with reports that Byron may return at some point within the first two weeks of the regular season, according to Renaud Lavoie of TVA Sports.
Byron suffered a lower-body injury against the Minnesota Wild on April 19, 2022, after just four minutes, 41 seconds of ice time. The 33-year-old Ottawa native registered four goals and three assists in only 27 games played last season.
Drouin has been nursing a wrist injury since last season, along with taking time to address recent mental health struggles. There’s a general hope that the forward can start the season with the team, but nothing has been confirmed at the time of this writing.
Healthy Scratches
This is where the Canadiens management team is going to have to do some stickhandling on a nightly basis. Even after a handful of necessary roster moves, the Canadiens are left with three to four players still looking for a roster spot.
Forwards Christian Dvorak, Jake Evans, Rem Pitlick, and either defenseman Corey Schueneman or Jordan Harris make up the handful of players that may still be looking for a home to start the season.
With Byron probably starting the season on LTIR, at least one of those three forwards will be slotted into the lineup, but once he’s scheduled to return, the locker room will once again become overcrowded with forward talent.
It’s clear the Canadiens are trying to build a successful team, and on paper, they look to be in a good place. There are tough decisions to be made by the Habs front office before the season starts, which could be more entertaining to keep your eye on than most of the games they played last season.
Andrew Stuetz