The 5 players who could surprise us at the Montreal Canadiens camp
The rookie camp of the Bleu-blanc-rouge will open this Wednesday, live from the Bell Complex in Brossard, and Jean-François Houle will be at the helm. A week later, the official camp of the Montreal Canadiens will be launched, which is VERY much awaited by the Habsfanatics team's writers.
Several players are very attractive, such as Cole Caufield or Mattias Norlinder, but there are also some colts that could impress the gallery, including Ryan Poehling, Rafael Harvey-Pinard, Joel Teasdale, Lukas Vejdemo and Laurent Dauphin. To these, is it fair to add a certain Josh Brook? At 22 years old, it's time for him to make his mark if he wants to play in the National Hockey League.
Poehling had an impressive season in 2021, and seems to understand the player he is and the player he wants to be for the future. With his 25 points in 28 games, he has certainly inflated his offensive confidence level, having struggled to establish himself following a concussion a few years ago.
As for RHP, we slipped a word in here last week about him... Personally, I'm one of Rafael's fans because of his hustle, work ethic, leadership and strength of character.
Teasdale, who lifted a Memorial Cup with Harvey-Pinard, was made in the same mold. A guy with character, who plays hard, is strong as a horse and can hold his own in front of the net. Vejdemo, on the other hand, has played seven games with the Habs in 2019-20, but has yet to put his finger on the player he needs to be in the NHL.
In conclusion, Laurent Dauphin has NHL experience (35 games) and Marc Bergevin likes him a lot, as does Dominique Ducharme, but he still hasn't managed to play a single game with the Montreal Canadiens. However, he came close in 2020... before hockey stopped because of the damn pandemic.
