HabsWorld.net -- 

The Habs have set their roster for training camp which gets underway on Thursday.  While there weren’t any surprise invitees, some of the cuts from rookie camp may come as a bit of a surprise.

Following their 7-3 victory over a group of U Sports players on Tuesday, the majority of Montreal’s junior-eligible players were sent back to their respective CHL teams.  Those were:

Cole Fonstad (Prince Albert, WHL), Rafael Harvey-Pinard (Chicoutimi, QMJHL), Cameron Hillis (Guelph, OHL), Samuel Houde (Chicoutimi, QMJHL), Jacob LeGuerrier (Sault Ste. Marie, OHL), and Allan McShane (Oshawa, OHL)

Of those, Harvey-Pinard comes as potentially the biggest surprise.  He fared quite well in the games during the rookie tournament and at 20, he’s already eligible to play in the minors.  Typically, Montreal will let those players go through camp with the big club and the farm team before deciding on whether or not to send them back to the junior ranks.

Defenceman Gianni Fairbrother remains with the team for now but is currently injured which likely explains why he’s still around.

Six players that were at rookie camp on tryouts were also released – forwards Nicolas Guay and Vincent Marleau, defencemen Marc-Olivier Crevier-Morin, Dylan Plouffe, and Jack York, as well as goalie Alexis Shank.

Here are the 57 players that will be attending camp with the Habs.  Players in italics are signed to Laval for the upcoming season.

Goalies: Connor LaCouvee, Charlie Lindgren, Keith Kinkaid, Michael McNiven, Carey Price, Cayden Primeau

Defence: Karl Alzner, Josh Brook, Ben Chiarot, Ryan Culkin, Gianni Fairbrother (injured), Cale Fleury, Christian Folin, Noah Juulsen, Brett Kulak, Maxim Lamarche, Otto Leskinen, Victor Mete, Gustav Olofsson, Xavier Ouellet, Jeff Petry, Mike Reilly, David Sklenicka, Shea Weber

Forwards: Morgan Adams-Moisan (injured), Alexandre Alain, Joel Armia, Riley Barber, Alex Belzile, Paul Byron, Joe Cox, Nick Cousins, Phillip Danault, Max Domi, Jonathan Drouin, Jake Evans, Brendan Gallagher, Liam Hawel (carryover from rookie camp), Charles Hudon, Nikita Jevpalovs, Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Artturi Lehkonen, Michael McCarron, Matthew Peca, William Pelletier, Michael Pezzetta, Ryan Poehling, Nick Suzuki, Tomas Tatar, Joel Teasdale (injured), Nate Thompson, Phil Varone, Lukas Vejdemo, Hayden Verbeek, Antoine Waked, Jordan Weal, Dale Weise

There won’t be too much time between the start of camp and the preseason as Montreal’s first game is less than a week away as they will host New Jersey this coming Monday.