HabsWorld.net --
On top of handing out a pair of new contracts today, the Habs also announced their roster for training camp. A total of 57 players will be taking part starting on Wednesday.
The group is comprised of 31 forwards, 19 defencemen, and seven goalies and is as follows:
Forwards (31)
Josh Anderson, Vincent Arseneau, Owen Beck, Alex Belzile, Dillan Bentley, Brett Berard, Zach Bolduc, Cole Caufield, Lucas Condotta, Kirby Dach, Phillip Danault, Laurent Dauphin, Jared Davidson, Ivan Demidov, Jake Evans, Oliver Kapanen, Chris Kreider, Aleksandr Legkov, Hunter McKown, Filip Mesar, Israel Mianscum, Josh Nadeau, Alex Newhook, Sasha Pastujov, Samuel Poulin, Juraj Slafkovsky, Nick Suzuki, Alexandre Texier, Tyler Thorpe, Florian Xhekaj
Minor League Contracts: Arseneau, Bentley, Dauphin, Legkov, Mianscum, Nadeau
Defencemen (19)
Alexandre Carrier, Jacob Dion, Noah Dobson, Alden Dubinsky, Adam Engstrom, Kaiden Guhle, Braden Hache, Lane Hutson, Mike Matheson, Kale McCallum, Luke Mittelstadt, Bryce Pickford, Owen Protz, David Reinbacher, Ethan Samson, Jayden Struble, Maksymillian Szuber, Reilly Walsh, Arber Xhekaj
Minor League Contracts: Dion, Dubinsky, Hache, McCallum
Goalies (7)
Jakub Dobes, Jacob Fowler, Hunter Jones, Kaapo Kahkonen, Francesco Lapenna, Kevin Mandolese, Samuel Montembeault
Minor League Contracts: Jones, Lapenna, Mandolese
Notably, only a handful of players moved on from rookie camp. None of the tryouts or Montreal’s unsigned junior prospects are moving on to main camp.
While 57 players seems like a lot for a shortened preseason, it’s worth noting that four of their games are split-squad affairs. Accordingly, they’ll need at least 40 players on hand for those games, the latest ones coming September 26th with the regular season starting on the 29th.
Meanwhile, Laval does not have any preseason games and will jump right into regular season action on October 2nd so while there might be a Group C featuring Rocket-bound players, few, if any, will be officially cut until the end of camp.
