With the rebuilding going on in Montreal, expect the Habs line-up to be young next season.
Especially on defense.
Offensively, it’s not as bad, because there are already experienced players like Anderson, Gallagher, Armia and Dvorak… And there will also be guys like Evans, Caufield, Suzuki and Newhook who can be placed in the “mini” veteran category.
But on the blue line, there’s going to be some great battles for the positions that will be available at the next training camp.
And there will be several guys who’ll have to prove themselves to earn one:
- Lane Hutson
- Logan Mailloux
- Justin Barron
- Jayden Struble
- Jordan Harris
- Adam Engström (?)
- Arber Xhekaj
- David Reinbacher
I didn’t include Mike Matheson, Kaiden Guhle and David Savard because they’re already guaranteed a place in Martin St-Louis’ line-up.
As far as I’m concerned, Lane Hutson will have his place in the line-up… And we can expect Xhekaj / Harris / Struble to compete for a spot on the third pair on defense.
This would leave one available spot on the right, and it should come down to Mailloux, Reinbacher and Barron…
That said, if Reinbacher AND Mailloux perform well at training camp, it won’t look good for a guy like Justin Barron.
And in all this, let’s not forget that Barron will be eligible for waivers next fall, as Grant McCagg suggested on the Sick Podcast:
I have a hard time seeing a world where Barron is placed in the waivers and no club decides to claim him.
He’s only 22 years old, he was drafted in the first round in 2020… And even though he had a tougher 23-24 season, the potential is still there in his case.
That said, I wonder if all this will play a role in the coaches’ decisions after the next training camp.
Could the Habs be “forced” to keep Barron up there, given that they don’t want to lose their defenseman for nothing?
One thing is clear when you look at the list of defensemen, though. There are too many, even with the recent transaction that sent Johnathan Kovacevic to New Jersey.
Usually, we say it’s a “nice” problem… But this is really starting to become a serious one, because you can’t hold back the kids’ progress either.
