Therrien suggests that Hughes and the Canadiens made a mistake right at the beginning of camp

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Jeff Drouin
October 8, 2022 (5:24 PM)

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Now a columnist for TVA Sports, former Habs head coach Michel Therrien is known for not being afraid to speak his mind and as Alexandre Desrosiers of Rumeursdetransaction.com reports, he wasn't very kind to the organization in his latest column.

According to him, the Habs made a mistake by inviting a total of 74 players to the team's training camp.

"The Canadiens made a mistake by inviting 74 players to training camp. That's way too many in my eyes.

The camp should normally be used to evaluate the players most likely to start the season in Montreal, including the organization's top prospects. But not all of them."

You have to say that he has a good point, because it is clear that of the 74 players invited to the camp, the majority of them had no real chance of playing in the NHL (and will probably never play regularly in the NHL).

Afterwards, Therrien said that the Habs' performance in the pre-season games was worrisome. Even though these games mean nothing in a sense, he mentioned the importance of performing well in preseason games, and he went back to his experience in these games when he returned to the CH in 2012-2013.

"It's concerning that the Canadiens lost their pre-season games. Without a win, it shakes the confidence of the group. It takes a good camp to start the season right.

When I took over in Montreal in 2012, the team had finished last in the East and 28th (out of 30) overall the previous season. After having a good camp, we started the campaign strong with six wins in the first eight games. That gave us momentum going forward. Helped by that strong start, we were able to close out the season atop the Atlantic Section, ahead of the Boston Bruins, which helped us qualify for the playoffs."

Without saying that Martin St-Louis' men will have a difficult start to the season, it is always more reassuring when the team is able to line up a few wins before starting the regular season.

But to get back to the subject of the number of players invited to training camp, the ex-coach said that the only prospects who had a chance to start the season in Montreal were Kaiden Guhle and Juraj Slafkovsky. He also opened the door on defenseman Jordan Harris, who is having a great training camp.

"Of all the kids at training camp, Kaiden Guhle and Juraj Slafkovsky especially stood out. They impressed me the most. They showed me that they can play in the National Hockey League right now. I didn't hate Jordan Harris either. All the others didn't convince me. At least not yet."

Which says a lot about the development of some of the Habs' prospects. What do you think?