It was only a matter of time before the Habs made a big list of cuts with minor league camps soon to get underway.  That happened on Friday as Montreal trimmed down their roster by 19 players.

Regular waivers opened up on Thursday and the Habs wasted little time putting a pair of veterans on the wire as defencemen Xavier Ouellet and Louie Belpedio on waivers.

A strong sophomore season for Nick Suzuki has helped cement his role as Montreal’s top centre. With that comes an expectation for him to produce more; what type of numbers could he put up in 2021-22?

As is usually the case, Monday’s preseason contest against Toronto was not very exciting. However, the team’s would be second line had a huge night as they hit the back of the net three times and combined for 10 points in a 5-2 victory.

There are plenty of wildcards heading into the 2021-22 season. One of those will certainly be head coach Dominique Ducharme as he runs training camp for the first time and looks to learn from some choices that didn’t work out as well as he had hoped in the playoffs.

Montreal’s first preseason game is in the books and it was not a particularly pretty one as they fell 4-1 to Toronto on Saturday night. Tyler Toffoli had the lone goal for the Canadiens in the losing effort.

When training camp started, Mike Hoffman was a notable absentee.  At the time, he was ruled as doubtful to take part in camp while he was undergoing testing on his injury.  The results of those tests have been revealed and Hoffman is expected to miss the next four weeks.

The Habs have added some depth on the back end as on Friday, they announced that they have signed defenceman Sami Niku to a one-year, two-way contract. 

Last season was arguably the best of Jeff Petry’s 11-year NHL career. With the Canadiens needing even more from him in 2021-22, will he be able to step up again and how will that affect his fantasy value?