The CN Sports Complex in Brossard will be a busy place Wednesday morning when 57 players report for medical testing on the first day of Canadiens’ training camp.
The players will be split into three teams and will hit the ice for the first time Thursday, starting at 10:30 a.m.
The Canadiens need a lot of players for training camp since they will have two separate games with split squads this Saturday against the Maple Leafs — one at the Bell Centre and another in Toronto. Both games will start at 7 p.m.
The Canadiens will then play the Ottawa Senators in a Kraft Hockeyville pre-season game next Monday night at the Colisée Vidéotron in Trois-Rivières, before wrapping up their pre-season schedule the following Saturday with two more split-squad games against the Senators — one at the Bell Centre and one in Ottawa.
That will put an end to the pre-season schedule before the Canadiens open the regular season on Tuesday, Sept. 29 against the Leafs in Toronto to kick off an expanded 84-game schedule. Most teams played 6-8 exhibition games in previous seasons. The Canadiens had six pre-season games last year.
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The NHL’s new collective bargaining agreement, which goes into effect on Wednesday, gives teams about a week less than in previous years to prepare for their first regular-season games with two games added to the schedule. It will be 12 days from the first practice to the first game for the 10 teams playing on the first night of the season, including the Canadiens.
Under the new CBA, players with at least 100 games of NHL experience are restricted to playing in two pre-season games. Mandatory fitness testing at training camp has also been eliminated as part of the new CBA.
“So, if you do the math (for teams playing Sept. 29), it’s literally five or six practices, two games, ‘Let’s go!’” Washington Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said on the NHL’s website.
There will be 31 forwards, 19 defencemen and seven goalies at the camp
Canadiens training camp roster
Players under contract
Bold denotes players who played in NHL last season
Forwards:
- Josh Anderson
- Owen Beck
- Alex Belzile
- Brett Berard
- Zachary Bolduc
- Cole Caufield
- Lucas Condotta
- Kirby Dach
- Phillip Danault
- Jared Davidson
- Ivan Demidov
- Jake Evans
- Oliver Kapanen
- Chris Kreider
- Hunter McKown
- Filip Mesar
- Alex Newhook
- Sasha Pastujov
- Samuel Poulin
- Juraj Slafkovsky
- Nick Suzuki
- Alexandre Texier
- Tyler Thorpe
- Florian Xhekaj
Defencemen:
- Alexandre Carrier
- Noah Dobson
- Adam Engstrom
- Kaiden Guhle
- Lane Hutson
- Mike Matheson
- Luke Mittelstadt
- Bryce Pickford
- Owen Protz
- David Reinbacher
- Ethan Samson
- Jayden Struble
- Maksymilian Szuber
- Reilly Walsh
- Arber Xhekaj
Goaltenders:
- Jakub Dobes
- Jacob Fowler
- Kaapo Kahkonen
- Samuel Montembeault
Players not under contract
Forwards:
- Vincent Arseneau
- Dillan Bentley
- Laurent Dauphin
- Aleksandr Legkov
- Israel Mianscum
- Josh Nadeau
- Xavier Simoneau
Defencemen:
- Jacob Dion
- Aiden Dubinsky
- Braden Hache
- Kale McCallum
Goaltenders:
- Hunter Jones
- Francesco Lapenna
- Kevin Mandolese
Read More: Canadiens invite 57 players to attend this year's condensed training camp