Yesterday afternoon the Montreal Canadiens finally announced their roster for their rookie camp. After medicals on September 10th, they will participate immediately in the rookie tournament taking place September 11th-13th in London, Ontario where they will compete against their counterparts from the Ottawa Senators, Pittsburgh Penguins and Toronto Maple Leafs. Following the tournament they will return back to Montreal and practice at the Habs practice facility in Brossard September 15th-16th. Those who have impressed will then be invited to Canadiens main training camp (medicals September 17th, real camp opens the 18th) while others will be sent back to their respective junior hockey teams or cut.
ICYMI: All details regarding the 2015 Rookie Camp and rookie tournament. HERE -> http://t.co/ZF2hqV9Sri pic.twitter.com/OaLhy5MqH8
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) September 2, 201516 of the 26 players that were invited to Habs rookie camp were actually drafted by the Montreal Canadiens.
2015: Noah Juulsen (1st), Simon Bourque (6th) & Jeremiah Addison (7th) are all attending. Lukas Vejdemo (3rd) is already in Sweden and under contract there for the season. Curiously, Matthew Bradley (5th) is not taking part in the rookie camp. Was he not invited or is he injured? I tried to dig for more information but could not find anything... Since Juulsen was held out of scrimmages at the Habs development camp, it will be the first time Habs fans can see him in a Habs uniform if they did not watch him in action for Hockey Canada during the Summer Showcase in August
2014: Nikita Scherbak (1st) & Brett Lernout (3rd) are both turning pro and attending camp. Fans are salivating at Scherbak's skills and this will also be the first time we get to see him in scrimmages this Summer. Lernout had a very strong last season of junior hockey, surprisingly contributing on the offensive end and was rewarded with the opportunity to finish the season in Hamilton. Daniel Audette (5th) is also participating but will be heading back to the QMJHL this Fall. Nikolas Koberstein attends the University Alaska-Fairbanks (NCAA) and would have to pay his own way, a long way to go and he would have had to miss school.
2013: Michael McCarron (1st), Zach Fucale (2nd), Connor Crisp (3rd) and Jeremy Gregoire (6th) all attending. McCarron and Fucale I already discussed yesterday. Crisp turned pro last year but his season was filled with injuries as bounced between the AHL & ECHL. The others have all graduated from junior hockey and are turning pro. Of this draft year, I think that Gregoire is a bit of the forgotten man. He had been invited to Hockey Canada Junior camp in the Summer of 2014 but got injured and was not a possibility for roster. He wore the “C… for Baie-Comeau and recorded 41 points in 32 regular season games. Gregoire’s playoff performance was impressive, scoring 10 goals and totaling 21 points in 12 games. If he can stay healthy I think he could be a real pleasant surprise...
2012: Dalton Thrower (2nd), Tim Bozon (3rd), Charles Hudon (5th). Hudon will be leader of the Rookie camp and is expected to compete for spot with the Habs during the main camp. Thrower has seemingly regressed since being drafted and was injured last season, having only played in the ECHL. This could be a make or break year for Thrower with the Canadiens organization. Bozon’s story is well known and he played last year as an overager in WHL, letting his body fully recover from his bout with meningitis. Bozon will be coming into camp with something to prove.
2011: Josiah Didier (4th) graduated University of Denver and will compete for a spot in St. John’s. He is known to be a ‘defensive’ defenceman. Nathan Beaulieu has obviously graduated, Darren Dietz has 2 seasons of AHL experience while Magnus Nygren is back in Sweden, unlikely to return to the Canadiens organization.
2010: Mark MacMillan (4th) graduated University of North Dakota and is ready to turn pro. He was always deemed to be a long term project which allowed the necessary time for him to bulk up and grow into his body. He was off to a career season last year with 25 points in 29 games but unfortunately got injured and had to miss the rest of the season. He is one of the older prospects and it will be interesting to finally see him in a Canadiens training camp.
2009: Mac Bennett (3rd) completed 1 season in the AHL and will be counted on to be a leader for the young defencemen attending camp.
Tryouts of note:
Markus Eisenschmid & Dryden Hunt, both played last season in the WHL with Medicine Hat and were teammates of Canadiens 2015 draft pick Bradley. Eisenschmid was the darling of the Canadiens development camp back in July, with many believing he had done enough to earn at least a contract with the Ice Caps. Hunt showed flashes of excellent hands but was not consistent. Both players are considered to be overagers in junior hockey and it is not know if Medicine Hat would welcome both back. Eisenschmid is from Germany and would probably turn professional there if he does not earn a contract with the Canadiens and/or Ice Caps.
Angelo Miceli also attended the Habs development camp and showed enough to be invited back for the rookie camp. Miceli played last season as an overage player with the Victoriaville Tigers. He recorded 96 points in 64 games. At 5’9… and 175 lbs, could Miceli be the next David Desharnais? He would probably at least add depth to the Habs ECHL affiliate in Brampton for the upcoming season.
The final notable player attending rookie camp, although certainly not the least is forward Daniel Carr, who signed as a free agent in 2014 following an excellent NCAA career at Union College. Carr had a very impressive AHL rookie campaign and is among those who are expected to compete for a spot with the Canadiens.
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