Logan Mailloux and Joshua Roy among players cut by Canadiens

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The Canadiens’ 23-man roster has been set to start the NHL season.

The team announced several player moves Monday morning ahead of the NHL’s 5 p.m. deadline for teams to announce their opening-day rosters.

The Canadiens sent defencemen Logan Mailloux, Adam Engstrom and William Trudeau down to the AHL’s Laval Rocket, along with forwards Joshua Roy, Lucas Condotta and Brandon Gignac, as well as goalie Jakub Dobes.

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That means forwards Alex Barré-Boulet, Oliver Kapanen and Emil Heineman have made the team to start the regular season, along with defenceman Lane Hutson. They were all on the ice for Monday’s practice at the CN Sports Complex in Brossard.

Defenceman Jayden Struble missed Monday’s practice, taking a therapy day instead.

The Canadiens will open the regular season Wednesday at the Bell Centre against the Toronto Maple Leafs (7 p.m., SN, TVA Sports). The Canadiens’ 23-man roster to start the season has 14 forwards and seven defencemen, along with goalies Samuel Montembeault and Cayden Primeau.

Barré-Boulet is an undrafted 27-year-old who has only played 68 games in the NHL, posting 12-6-18 totals. The Canadiens signed the Montmagny native to a one-year, US$775,000 contract as a free agent on July 1 after he posted 6-3-9 totals in 36 games last season with the Tampa Bay Lightning and 4-15-19 totals in 23 games with the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch. Barré-Boulet is 5-foot-10 and 174 pounds.

Kapanen and Hutson were drafted by the Canadiens, while the 22-year-old Heineman was acquired from the Calgary Flames on Feb. 14, 2022 as part of the Tyler Toffoli trade. Heineman was selected by the Flames in the second round (43rd overall) of the 2020 NHL Draft.

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If Kapanen didn’t make the Canadiens, he would have returned to Timra IK to honour his Swedish Hockey League contract.

Head coach Martin St. Louis said the 21-year-old Kapanen has a good foundation to be a 200-foot player and could also be used on the power play and the penalty-kill. Now the Canadiens will find out if he can do those things consistently at regular-season speed in the NHL. The Canadiens selected Kapanen in the second round (64th overall) of the 2021 NHL Draft. Last season, the 6-foot-1, 194-pounder had 14-20-34 totals in 51 regular-season games with KalPa Kuopio in the Finnish Elite League and added 7-7-14 totals in 13 playoff games before signing with Timra IK.

The Canadiens selected the 20-year-old Hutson in the second round (62nd overall) of the 2022 NHL Draft. The 5-foot-10, 162-pound defenceman had 30-67-97 totals in 77 games over the last two seasons at Boston University.

St. Louis isn’t too concerned about Hutson’s ability to play defence in the NHL at his size.

“So far his size hasn’t made me think that he can’t defend,” St. Louis said. “I think he plays with a tremendous amount of pace. He’s got a mental pace, but his feet are quick. So he’s able to close and he reads the game really well. So he’s not going to defend the same as a (Kaiden) Guhle, but I feel like he can take care. So far what he’s shown me is he can take care of that part of the job. Now, is that something we’re going to have to keep an eye on? Absolutely.

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“We’re not worried what he can do offensively and drive possession and offence,” St. Louis added. “But, like every young defencemen, we’re going to expect him to do the things he needs to do defensively and so far what he’s shown me, he’s shown me that he can do that. Now, can he do that consistently at NHL regular-season speed? I don’t know yet. We saw him two games last season at the end of the season. I liked what I saw. But we’ll see.”

The young players found out during a video meeting before the start of practice that they had made the team.

“To be honest, I was ready for whatever,” said Heineman, who had 15-14-29 totals in 48 games last season with the Rocket and was held pointless in four games with the Canadiens. “But I felt just really excited.

“I felt like I took steps (at training camp),” the 6-foot-2, 198-pound left-winger added. “Happy the way I set myself up for the games, how I mentally prepared and how I acted out there. No matter if it’s points or not, just how I contributed out there.”

Here’s how the forward lines and defence pairings looked at practice Monday.

FORWARDS

Juraj Slafkovsky – Nick Suzuki – Cole Caufield

Alex Newhook – Kirby Dach – Joel Armia

Alex Barré-Boulet – Christian Dvorak – Josh Anderson

Emil Heineman – Jake Evans – Brendan Gallagher

Extra forwards: Michael Pezzetta and Oliver Kapanan

DEFENCE

Mike Matheson – Kaiden Guhle

Lane Hutson – David Savard

Arber Xhekaj – Justin Barron

Therapy day: Jayden Struble

The Canadiens spent the last part of practice working on the power play. Here’s how the two units looked:

First Unit

Matheson

Caufield – Suzuki – Dach

Slafkovsky

Second Unit

Hutson

Armia – Newhook – Barré-Boulet

Gallagher

scowan@postmedia.com

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