{"id":215988,"date":"2025-09-30T03:13:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T03:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/215988\/"},"modified":"2025-09-30T03:13:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T03:13:09","slug":"st-louis-has-options-as-canadiens-roster-crunch-looms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/215988\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Louis has options as Canadiens\u2019 roster crunch looms"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Montreal Canadiens’ Oliver Kapanen, left, is pressured by Laurent Dauphin during training camp in Brossard, Que., earlier this month.Graham Hughes\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Montreal Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis has some difficult roster decisions to make before training camp wraps up \u2014 and he\u2019s not complaining.<\/p>\n

St. Louis joined the Canadiens as the franchise began a full-scale teardown in 2021-22. <\/p>\n

As Montreal prepares for another season with playoff aspirations, St. Louis can draw on a deeper roster in his fourth camp behind the bench.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel I\u2019m equipped with more options than I ever have in the past, which is a good problem to have,\u201d St. Louis said Monday.<\/p>\n

Montreal chopped its roster to 27 players over the weekend, leaving four cuts to be made before the Oct. 8 season opener in Toronto.<\/p>\n

Most spots in the opening-night lineup are spoken for with two preseason games left \u2014 both against Ottawa \u2014 but one forward position remains up for grabs.<\/p>\n

And Oliver Kapanen appears to have the inside track.<\/p>\n

The 22-year-old from Finland lined up with regulars Alex Newhook and Ivan Demidov in a red practice jersey at CN Sports Complex. Meanwhile, two-way centre Owen Beck, bruising youngster Florian Xhekaj and veterans Joseph Veleno and Samuel Blais skated as extras in blue.<\/p>\n

A centre who split last season between the NHL and Sweden, Kapanen has impressed with his two-way play, versatility and high hockey-IQ.<\/p>\n

\u201cKapi plays a very mature game,\u201d St. Louis said. \u201cHe has an NHL-level computer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve noticed that when he\u2019s played up with us before,\u201d added Newhook. \u201cHe thinks the game really well, puts himself in really good spots, makes plays all over the ice, and I think everyone in the room is confident in that.\u201d<\/p>\n

St. Louis, however, downplayed the significance of jersey colours and stressed that the season opener is only one game of 82.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe camp is going to be over and it\u2019s going to feel like it\u2019s a finish line, and it\u2019s not,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not a finish line. That finish line always moves. Can you keep sprinting, not knowing how long the distance is? Because that deadline of the first game of the regular season is a deadline, but the league keeps going.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s still a race out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The competition also extends beyond simply who makes the roster.<\/p>\n

Montreal\u2019s top line of captain Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield and Juraj Slafkovsky is locked in, as is the grinding fourth line of veterans Jake Evans, Brendan Gallagher and Josh Anderson.<\/p>\n

The second and third lines? Less so. On Monday, St. Louis swapped rookie-of-the-year favourite Demidov and off-season addition Zack Bolduc.<\/p>\n

Bolduc joined Kirby Dach and Patrik Laine on Montreal\u2019s second trio, while Demidov skated with Newhook and Kapanen on the third.<\/p>\n

St. Louis fielded question after question about his thinking behind the move. His most common refrain? \u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou think I have all the answers,\u201d he said. \u201cYou guys come to practice and you watch the jerseys today and you\u2019re thinking like, \u2019Oh, he\u2019s found it, he\u2019s got it. I don\u2019t. \u2026 Whatever I think, I\u2019m not sure that it\u2019s actually the answer. That\u2019s why we\u2019re trying it.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou take [Suzuki\u2019s] line out of the equation \u2014 it\u2019s very competitive after that. We\u2019re not sure yet how it\u2019s all going to shake out.\u201d<\/p>\n

NEWHOOK\u2019S NEW ROLE<\/p>\n

The fast-skating Newhook was drafted 16th overall by the Colorado Avalanche in 2019 after two high-scoring seasons in the BCHL, and his strong production continued at Boston College.<\/p>\n

But the 24-year-old from St. John\u2019s, N.L., hasn\u2019t come close to the same point-per-game levels in the NHL. Last season, Newhook had 15 goals and 11 assists in 82 games.<\/p>\n

Newhook, despite lining up with the high-flying Demidov on Monday, is transitioning to a more defensive role, which includes killing penalties.<\/p>\n

\u201cI definitely have it in me,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve killed my whole career except in pro, so I think with my speed, I think I can be dangerous on the kill, I think I can be pretty effective there, and I\u2019m excited \u2014 I\u2019ve wanted to kill since being here.\u201d<\/p>\n

As part of the transition, Newhook is trying to improve in the faceoff dot. He \u201cworked on it a fair amount\u201d over the off-season and canvassed known specialists like Patrice Bergeron for advice after winning just 42.8 per cent of his draws last season.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an important part,\u201d he said. \u201cIf I can raise that part of my game to be reliable there and be relied upon to take big draws, it just helps our team for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

OFF THE SHELF<\/p>\n

Noah Dobson, acquired in a blockbuster trade with the New York Islanders over the summer, and fellow defenceman Kaiden Guhle returned to practice Monday after both were listed day-to-day with groin injuries.<\/p>\n

Dobson exited Thursday\u2019s exhibition game against Toronto before the third period, while Guhle was a late scratch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Montreal Canadiens’ Oliver Kapanen, left, is pressured by Laurent Dauphin during training camp…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":215989,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5103],"tags":[1018,1001,1019,967,991,1020,19,990,1008,1009,1004,992,989,265,1014,1016,1013,1007,1000,1030,993,994,1006,5,1002,1003,997,1021,264,21,5147,998,1025,1026,4,1028,1023,1027,786,1024,995,1011,1012,333,1010,1022,86,1015,1017,1005,999,996,1029],"class_list":{"0":"post-215988","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-montreal-canadiens","8":"tag-alberta","9":"tag-arts-news","10":"tag-bc","11":"tag-breaking-news","12":"tag-breaking-news-video","13":"tag-british-columbia","14":"tag-canada","15":"tag-canada-news","16":"tag-canada-sports","17":"tag-canada-sports-news","18":"tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","19":"tag-canadian-breaking-news","20":"tag-canadian-news","21":"tag-canadiens","22":"tag-economy","23":"tag-education","24":"tag-environment","25":"tag-federal-government","26":"tag-foreign-news","27":"tag-globe-and-mail","28":"tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","29":"tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","30":"tag-government","31":"tag-hockey","32":"tag-life-news","33":"tag-lifestyle","34":"tag-local-news","35":"tag-manitoba","36":"tag-montreal","37":"tag-montreal-canadiens","38":"tag-montrealcanadiens","39":"tag-national-news","40":"tag-new-brunswick","41":"tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","42":"tag-nhl","43":"tag-northwest-territories","44":"tag-nova-scotia","45":"tag-nunavut","46":"tag-ontario","47":"tag-pei","48":"tag-photos","49":"tag-political-news","50":"tag-political-opinion","51":"tag-politics","52":"tag-politics-news","53":"tag-quebec","54":"tag-sports-news","55":"tag-technology","56":"tag-travel","57":"tag-trudeau","58":"tag-us-news","59":"tag-world-news","60":"tag-yukon"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}