Habs Announce 23-Man Roster

[S Bah]

2018-19 Montreal Canadiens Opening Day Roster:

Forwards
Joel Armia
Paul Byron
Phillip Danault
Max Domi
Jonathan Drouin
Brendan Gallagher
Charles Hudon
Jesperi Kotkaniemi
Artturi Lehkonen
Matthew Peca
Tomas Plekanec
Nikita Scherbak
Andrew Shaw
Tomas Tatar

Defensemen
Karl Alzner
Jordie Benn
Noah Juulsen
Victor Mete
Xavier Ouellet
Jeff Petry
Mike Reilly

Goaltenders
Antti Niemi
Carey Price

On IR: Weber, Schlemko, De La Rose, Deslauriers

Have to hope the Habs get lots of PP opportunities, or it will be a long year.

 

[Runner77]

They've also added 2 potential playmakers with Domi and kotkiniemi plus moving Drouin to the wing where he should be better. I can see that as a potential improvement over lazy ass pacioretty and "plays like a rookie still" Galchenyuk. Instead of 1 or 2 guys providing offense and doing absolutely nothing else, maybe by adding creative players, they will allow more players to produce overall.

Lots of passers but not as many finishers. It is what it is. Hope for the best. Next off season can't come soon enough.

 

[Adam Michaels]

I think the perfect season for me would be for them to be a lot of fun to watch but still lose.

 

[Legend123]

The pp was sick last season. With chucky that PP wont be nearly as good. Habs will score less. And Petry wont ve as good as last year.

 

[Bieber fever]

Putrid line up lol

He offense is just as bad as the defense imo. I dont think Kotkaniemi ia going to be effective over 82 games.

 

[Habs Icing]

When those guys start coming back slow, slowly, I'm excited to see what Habs will do to make room. Moves will be made.

We can safely predict that aside from Weber, the others will very likely be sent to Laval for conditional stints. But as soon as they're ready to come back to the NHL, we know there will be some moves made. It's a stay of execution for a few guys to have 4 players on IR.

As for the forward group, I think it's a well balanced line-up. As you say, nothing high-end. But aside from Plekanec, who I would have preferred they never bring back, I feel good about a lot of guys in this line-up.

I agree with you. Most posters are underestimating this team. I'll go on record and say they're a bubble team. Either make the playoffs or fall short in the last two games.

 

[Tyson]

Ugh, ugly roster

 

[scrubadam]

A very tanky line up.

Lets not be fooled. We saw the Habs offense the last 2 pre season games, 3 goals in 2 games. Maybe they might score a few more but lets not kid ourselves.

Its a young team and if CJ can get them to all buy in and everyone plays like they have something to prove, along with Price turning the clock back to 2015 then maybe they challenge for a WC spot. But everything has to go right for that to happen.

But lets remain optimistic, 4-1 win tomorrow to start our 10-0 streak. GO HABS GO.

 

[Skip Bayless]

I agree with you. Most posters are underestimating this team. I'll go on record and say they're a bubble team. Either make the playoffs or fall short on the last two games.

 

[MXD]

How is Benn still on this team

Shea Weber and David Schlemko are injured.

 

[HabsWhiteKnightLOL]

Totally agree, the defence suck but people underestimate the offence IMO.

I mean really underestimate?

Danault a 3rd line center plays 1st line
Kotka i love him and all but hes still young
Armia , De La Rose , Plekanec , Shaw , Peca and Scherbak and meh offense / Deslauriers
Hudon i love him but idk... struggle to scores
Lekhonen is still suspect...
Domi scored 9 goals twice in 2 years

Tatar and Byron are 20 goals scorer

this off is really poor

 

[Milhouse40]

I agree with you. Most posters are underestimating this team. I'll go on record and say they're a bubble team. Either make the playoffs or fall short on the last two games.

You could be right......but EVERYTHING must fall into place perfectly.

1- Price going back to being Price
2- One of Mete or Reilly being a good top 4 D that can drive part of the offense
3- One of Kotkaniemi or Domi being great in a top C role.
4- They must play for .450 until Weber can comeback
5- A very good powerplay
6- Staying healthy on D and at C

If you got all that, or at least 5 out of 6, then maybe Habs have a shot.
But that's a hard sell for me...

 

[SakuKoivu11]

Hughes here we come.

 

[Dongstoppable]

Guys, I know it looks bad, but I'm cautiously optimisitc

All we need is for literally everyone to have career years and we're all set

Worked for Vegas...

 

[Seb]

Another great start for Schlemko

 

[Habs]

lol, I totally forgot Domi was on the team.

 

[Habs Icing]

You could be right......but EVERYTHING must fall into place perfectly.

1- Price going back to being Price
2- One of Mete or Reilly being a good top 4 D that can drive part of the offense
3- One of Kotkaniemi or Domi being great in a top C role.
4- They must play for .450 until Weber can comeback
5- A very good powerplay
6- Staying healthy on D and at C

If you got all that, or at least 5 out of 6, then maybe Habs have a shot.
But that's a hard sell for me...

What they showed me in pre-season leads me to think they'll be one of those greater than their parts team. The only thing that worries me is injuries to that defence. Everyone thinks it's bad but it could get worse. Just look at Laval. Aside from that I think this is going to be a competitive team especially with Weber providing the catering for the first three months.

 

[Miller Time]

What they showed me in pre-season leads me to think they'll be one of those greater than their parts team. The only thing that worries me is injuries to that defence. Everyone thinks it's bad but it could get worse. Just look at Laval. Aside from that I think this is going to be a competitive team especially with Weber providing the catering for the first three months.

this...
as bad as the NHL roster is, even the least bit of injury issues to core personnel (on top of Weber, who is already out 1/2 season) and we're talking about Lernout, Chaput, McCarron, Kulak et.

would need an epic "everything goes right" kind of season to be a playoff team & frankly i'd much rather us be out of it before christmas in such dismal fashion as the media/fan pressure causes MB to get canned and we get a competent GM in place who takes advantage of the situation to accumulate some draft assets while moving the Shaw's, Benn's, Schlemko's, Alzner's, Plekanec's out the door

 

[HabsWhiteKnightLOL]

What they showed me in pre-season leads me to think they'll be one of those greater than their parts team. The only thing that worries me is injuries to that defence. Everyone thinks it's bad but it could get worse. Just look at Laval. Aside from that I think this is going to be a competitive team especially with Weber providing the catering for the first three months.

I mean it was preseason u can look at it on both ways
They did ok but at the same time they lost to Ottawa 3-0 ,
Beat the caps with only 3 player and ovy clearly did not even try


+ Our division whos probably the strongest in Offense in the league.

MTL have 0 chance to even be close to competitive. even with Weber
The line up is not better than last season. We lost 2 30+ goals scorer for a 9 goals scorer and a 20 goals potential dude that has ethic problems.
There is no way we can even fight for a playoff spot.

Half of the roster could be traded and we wont even see a difference

 

[OldCraig71]

Ugh, ugly roster

Built in the image of our GM and then think of the remarkable fact that he still has a job.

 

[GHJimmy]

I hope we atleast improve a little this year than last year, I'm mostly going to focus on Drouin and Kotkaniemi, if Domi plays really good he'll be on my third list

 

[BLONG7]

It's going to be tough, real tough to score goals...we have to pin our hopes on capspace again...

 

[Habs 4 Life]

Are we really worse off with Depres over Benn?

No but hopefully Benn is here to play, gain a bit of confidence and then trade him!!

 

[Kriss E]

Definitely not the greatest. But I do prefer it to last year's. Only one really missing is Weber.

But Benn was part of the 6 on opening night, this year he's the 7th.

Also last year, Alzner was on the second pair, this year he starts on the third.

And don't forget, Habs started with Streit last season. Mete was there a year ago, but he's got a year under his belt now. And I'm feeling better having Reilly, Juulsen, and Ouellet there.

Understatement of the year right there. Not the greatest...it's hot garbage. Holy crap.

 

[Kriss E]

Totally agree, the defence suck but people underestimate the offence IMO.

good one.

 

[Tyson]

Built in the image of our GM and then think of the remarkable fact that he still has a job.

Amazing that after 7 years this is what Bergevin has built.