The Montreal Canadiens had a newsy day as they opened up training camp, and a few updates came from General Manager Kent Hughes. The first thing on the agenda is that Paul Byron officially announces his retirement from professional hockey and will join the Canadiens as a Player Development Consultant after playing 12 seasons in the NHL. Earlier last week, it was announced that Christian Dvroak wouldn’t be ready for the regular season; however, there was no timeline set on that until today, when we found out that he will be out till at least November, which will allow the Habs to put Dvorak on LTIR to open up cap room for the time being. The Canadiens also made a trade with the Vancouver Canucks as they send Casey DeSmith to the Canucks in exchange for Tanner Pearson and a third round pick in 2025.
Surprising Additions To Training Camp
Montreal has invited 72 players to training camp, which includes 39 forwards, 23 defencemen, and ten goaltenders. Of the 72 players, four were invited on a tryout basis and six are not under contract. Included in the 72 players is Montreal’s first-round pick from this season, David Reinbacher, who has a solid shot of making the team coming out of camp if not it would be expected that he starts the year in Laval. Another interesting name to make the training camp roster is Florian Xheaj, the brother of Arber Xheaj. In 68 games in his first year in the OHL with the Hamilton Bulldogs, the 19 year old put up 13 goals and 12 assists for 25 points along with 76 minutes in penalties.
