The Canadian | Matches at stake from rookie camp

This Wednesday marks the start of the Canadiens’ rookie camp. Rookie camp means hope, but hope also means, sometimes, disappointment. Here we salute the generation of fans who believed wholeheartedly that Nathan Beaulieu, Jarred Tinordi and Greg Pateryn would form the new incarnation of the Habs’ “Big Three.”

That said, no matter how cynical one may be about this camp, the last few years have shown that season games are on the line. Most of the participants in this camp are certainly destined for Laval, but the rejuvenation of the team, trades and injuries mean that some prospects will get their chance with the big club during the season.

Lots of matches

This camp will be the third since the hiring of Jeff Gorton and Kent Hughes. Under their guidance, the participants in the rookie camp have had a taste of the NHL in interesting proportions. Last year, two prospects ended up playing more than 20 games with the Habs during the season: Jayden Struble (56 games) and Joshua Roy (23 games). In the 2023-24 season as a whole, the participants in the rookie camp have totaled 84 games with the big club.

Even more matches

The previous year, five players had spent more than a quarter of the season in Montreal: Jordan Harris (65 games), Arber Xhekaj (51 games), Kaiden Guhle (44 games), Juraj Slafkovsky (39 games) and Justin Barron (39 games). However, let’s remember that that year, the Canadiens’ infirmary was overflowing and the team was fully engaged in rebuilding, which inevitably opened the door to recalls. The participants in the rookie camp had totaled 240 games; that is to say that on average, Montreal had three of these players on its roster for each game.

Lean years

The contrast with the Bergevin years is clear. The context has obviously changed, since Bergevin has never presided over a reconstruction, and it was only in 2018 that he began to suffer from Diogenes syndrome at the draft. Thus, in the last three rookie camps he organized (2021, 2019 and 2018), only four players would go on to play at least 20 games with the CH in the season: Jesperi Kotkaniemi in 2018-2019 (79 games), as well as Nick Suzuki (71 games), Cale Fleury (41 games) and Ryan Poehling (27 games) in 2019-2020.

Few points

However, this is not where the core of the team, in the short term, takes shape. Last year, the players who played in all 84 games made marginal offensive contributions: 7 goals and 13 assists for 20 points. This was also the case in 2022-23; the seven rookies who made it to the NHL had amassed 74 points, including 22 goals, in 240 games. Note, however, that the overwhelming majority of these games were played by Harris, Xhekaj and Guhle, backs who are not known for their offensive play. Moreover, the last participant in a rookie camp to have amassed at least 20 points in the NHL during the subsequent season was Nick Suzuki, in 2019 (13-28—41 in 71 games).

The candidates

The presence of Lane Hutson, Logan Mailloux and David Reinbacher essentially ensures that other prospects from rookie camp will spend part of the season in Montreal. That will be even more true if Hughes trades veteran David Savard, in his final year of contract, next winter. There are few sure bets up front; Owen Beck will need an injury or two at centre if he wants to get his chance, which is still possible with Christian Dvorak around. Wingers Emil Heineman and Luck Tuch have the depth to make it in the NHL; they just have to have the skills. But there again, trades could unblock things, with Dvorak, Jake Evans and Joel Armia out of contract.