How The Patrik Laine Trade Impacts Canadiens Training Camp

The Montreal Canadiens’ acquisition of Patrik Laine created quite the buzz, but it also sets up the most interesting training camp in years.

After extracting Laine and a 2026 2nd-round pick from the Columbus Blue Jackets for Jordan Harris, the Canadiens are seemingly set to take the next step in their process. Over the last few years, training camp has always been pretty predictable, with the significant amount of veterans taking up key roster spots and few legitimate prospects ready to crack the lineup.

The Canadiens were able to add a top-six forward to their lineup, mixing up the deck at forward, but they were also able to free up yet another spot on defence. There aren’t expected to be any more major roster changes, due to being over the salary cap and hoping to put Carey Price’s contract on LTIR after the start of the season.

Having made what looks like his final move of the summer, general manager Kent Hughes has set the stage for one of the most intriguing training camp in recent memory.

Here are some of the most interesting storylines impacted by the organization’s most recent moves:

A Look at The Forwards With Patrik Laine In The Mix

The Montreal Canadiens look to have the basis of their top-six pretty much set, with Cole Caufield, Nick Suzuki Juraj Slafkovsky, Laine, Kirby Dach and Alex Newhook all ready to go. That leaves veterans Brendan Gallagher, Josh Anderson, Joel Armia, Christian Dvorak, Jake Evans and Michael Pezzetta vying for the bottom-six spots in the Canadiens’ lineup, and the role of 13th forward.

One player who could be negatively impacted by the Patrik Laine trade is blue-chip prospect Joshua Roy.

After impressing during his short stints in Montreal last season, Roy was pegged by many as being a favourite to make the Canadiens’ roster out of camp, especially after Rafaël Harvey-Pinard’s recent injury.

With Laine likely snagging himself the last open spot in the Canadiens’ top-six, Roy will likely have to bump one of Anderson, Gallagher or Armia out of the third line to warrant making the team. It would be very unlikely that such a young prospect will be kept with the team in a fourth-line or 13th forward role, which makes his training camp even more interesting.

The Canadiens haven’t been shy about pushing their underperforming veterans to the side if required, having put Joel Armia on waivers at the conclusion of last year’s camp to keep Juraj Slafkovsky on the main roster. It’ll be fascinating to see if Roy or another prospect will be able to force the same outcome this time around before Ivan Demidov makes his mark in 2025.

Opening On Defence

After trading both Johnathan Kovacevic and Jordan Harris this summer, the Montreal Canadiens have opened up the door to allow some young prospects to crack their lineup this fall.

It’s fair to assume that Michael Matheson, David Savard, Kaiden Guhle and Arber Xhekaj all have their place on the Canadiens roster.

That leaves three or four spots, depending on if the Canadiens carry seven or eight defencemen, for the likes of Lane Hutson, Justin Barron, Logan Mailloux, Jayden Struble and David Reinbacher to crack the lineup in the fall. Of the lot, Justin Barron has to be the one with the most to prove, given that he will be waiver eligible this season; meaning the Canadiens could lose him for nothing if sent to the AHL. Jayden Struble would likely have an inside track to crack the lineup, given how his impressive rookie season earned him 56 games with the Canadiens almost right out of college.

Lane Hutson, who is actually fresh out of college, impressed in the Canadiens’ final two games of the season against the desperate Detroit Red Wings. It’s expected that his combination of elite skill and hockey sense will help him make the NHL roster out of camp, but his performance will likely play things out.

ON TOPIC: Canadiens Prospect Rankings – Lane Hutson The Phenom

Mailloux and Reinbacher both have outside shots of making the roster, especially Mailloux, who was a standout at last year’s camp and one of the final cuts. After one of the most impressive AHL rookie seasons for a Canadiens defensive prospect since P.K. Subban, Mailloux could look to leapfrog Justin Barron for one of the final spots on the right side of the Canadiens defence.

And then there’s David Reinbacher, who already has a good amount of experience playing against men in a professional league and has the most promising toolkit of any Canadiens prospect outside of Hutson.

With Harris now out of the picture, the battle between Hutson, Struble, Mailloux, Barron and Reinbacher just became even more open and intense.