Big surprise on the Canadiens' 1st line: journalist Eric Engels has just revealed his very interesting final prediction

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Elias Edmonson
September 23, 2023 (5:24 PM)

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It is on Wednesday, October 11th, in Toronto, that the Canadiens will kick off their regular season, against the Maple Leafs.

Even if we have a slight idea of what the Canadiens' lineup could look like for this first game, it will be interesting to follow the various battles during training camp, as several young players will try to make the team's lineup under Martin St-Louis.

That said, Sportsnet insider Eric Engels has predicted the lineup the Canadiens will field to start the season, and there's a nice surprise on the attack.

Here it is:

Cole Caufield - Nick Suzuki - Alex Newhook
Juraj Slafkovsky - Kirby Dach - Josh Anderson
Rafaël Harvey-Pinard - Sean Monahan - Brendan Gallagher
Tanner Pearson - Jake Evans - Emil Heineman

Extras: Michael Pezzetta and Christian Dvorak (injured)

Mike Matheson-Kaiden Guhle
Arber Xhekaj-David Savard
Jordan Harris-Johnathan Kovacevic

Samuel Montembeault
Jake Allen
Cayden Primeau

As we can see, Emil Heineman will manage to make the Canadiens' lineup instead of Jesse Ylonen and Joel Armia.

Engels also mentioned in his article that Joshua Roy and Owen Beck could have competed for a spot, but that the arrival of Tanner Pearson somewhat threw a wrench in the plans of the two young forwards.

On defense, we note the absence of Justin Barron and newcomer Gustav Lindstrom, but the insider reminded us that there should be a good battle between these two players, Chris Wideman, Logan Mailloux, and a certain William Trudeau for a spot on the third defensive pair.

It promises to be exciting!

Even if it's just a prediction, it can give a slight idea of the kind of lineup the Canadiens will have in 2023-2024, but since training camp has just started, there will surely be some surprises to come over the next few weeks.