The world is not near a contradiction. Rhode Island, despite what its name suggests, is not an island, and it is the harmonica that is the predominant instrument in Piano Man.
And in a Canadian yet rejuvenated, it was a trio of older players who attracted the attention at Monday’s training.
Martin St-Louis has indeed brought together Tanner Pearson, Sean Monahan and Brendan Gallagher within a unit. These are the only three forwards with more than 500 games of NHL experience on the Canadiens’ 2023-2024 team. On Wednesday, they should form one of the four units that will be responsible for facing the Maple Leafs in Toronto, to open the season.
“It will be a very responsible trio, with a lot of experience,” predicted St-Louis after the session.
This unit, however, is the tree that hides the forest. Monday also sees the unveiling of the start-of-season formations; teams had to, no later than 5 p.m., reduce their roster to a maximum of 23 healthy players. That of the Canadian is composed as follows:
However, if we compare the Canadian this season to that of October 2022, we see that the newcomers clearly rejuvenate the group, in particular thanks to the addition of Jesse Ylönen, Justin Barron and Cayden Primeau, the three young people who succeeded to sneak around.
If we look at the roster at the start of the 2022-2023 season, the new faces are Newhook, Pearson, Harvey-Pinard, Ylönen, Barron and Primeau. All except Pearson (31) are 24 or younger.
This sextet replaces Evgenii Dadonov, Jonathan Drouin, Mike Hoffman, Rem Pitlick and the injured Chris Wideman and Christian Dvorak. At 25, Pitlick was the youngest of that group last fall. Veterans Joel Armia and Joel Edmundson were on the injured list when the roster was unveiled last fall.
Kent Hughes and Jeff Gorton caused some surprise by preferring Barron to Mattias Norlinder in their selection.
Coming into the underdog role, Norlinder has scored three points in four games and spent last Monday’s game facing the Maple Leafs’ top forwards alongside David Savard. The fight was visibly emerging between him and Barron for the last position on the blue line, and the Nova Scotian didn’t exactly make people’s eyes widen.
St-Louis implied that experience – Barron has 46 games in the NHL – weighed in the balance. “Norlinder is still getting used to the small ice, but he’s had a damn good camp,” testified the head coach.
The argument of experience was invoked for the first time when St-Louis explained why Ylönen was retained and Emil Heineman, transferred to Laval.
“That’s Ylönen’s experience last year. He came back heavier. I think he’s ready for the next level. Not that Heineman is not ready, but […] he will play in a better chair in Laval and I would not be surprised if we see him here again this year,” said the head coach.
Ylönen actually bulked up, going from 188 to 200 lbs over the summer. His progress is even more impressive when we remember that he was a weakling 167 lb that the Habs drafted in the 2nd round in 2018. “You never want a long off-season, but there are always positives. It was good to have several months of training this year, noted number 56. Before, we had six weeks. This year we had several months, so it helped me add muscle. »
The Heinemans, Norlinders and other victims of the ax can, for their part, remain hopeful. Last year, four players sent back to Laval for the start of the campaign ended up playing more than 30 games with the Canadian: Harvey-Pinard, Ylönen, Barron and Alex Belzile. Enough to recall St-Louis’ comments last week when Logan Mailloux was fired, saying that “it takes more than 20 guys” in a season.
The most attentive readers will have noted that Armia is not part of the initial training. The big winger was in fact ignored on waivers, which will allow the Canadian to sell him to Laval. Defender Gustav Lindström suffered the same fate.
At the start of the press briefing, St-Louis was stingy with details about the future of Armia. “I don’t think he’s out of the plans anymore. “It’s a calculated decision, but it might be more of a question for Kent,” he first responded.
“He was OK in camp, but he got injured and it was hard to make up for it,” he added.
The decision that kept Quebec in suspense is now known: it is Josh Anderson who will have the opportunity to start the season as third man alongside the duo of Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki. This 2023 camp has been the scene of a plethora of experiences. Anderson, Alex Newhook, Sean Monahan and Rafaël Harvey-Pinard each had a preseason game alongside them. With three goals in three games, Anderson won the prize. “He has to go where the game commands him to go. I saw this progression last year and this year. He has speed and he needs to learn how to use it. He had a lot of escapes last year. He finally realizes how to use his speed, when to use it, and he better understands the balance to find with his two teammates,” summarized St-Louis. It now remains to be seen how long the experience will last.
The Laval Rocket announced that Gabriel Bourque will act as captain for the 2023-2024 season. The striker has obviously successfully passed his “probation” period, he who wore the C at the end of the last campaign, replacing Alex Belzile. His assistants will be defender Tobie Paquette-Bisson and forwards Mitchell Stephens and Lucas Condotta. Bourque is the fourth captain in the Rocket’s young history; Belzile, Xavier Ouellet and Byron Froese preceded him. Bourque, 33, is entering his third season with the Rocket. The Rimouski player scored 31 points in 66 games last season. Previously, he played 413 games in the NHL, with Nashville, Colorado and Winnipeg.
