Monday was the Habs’ annual charity golf tournament and as always, there was
no shortage of news coming out with training camps set to open later this week.
The team announced their plans for the captaincy this year while providing even
more denials about Martin Brodeur and rumoured interference in P.K. Subban’s
contract talks, as well as whether we should be expecting a Saku Koivu Night
down the road.
The new captain is:
For the second time in six years, the Habs will not have anyone wearing the
‘C’ for the upcoming season. The team announced that they will have four
alternate captains: Tomas Plekanec and Andrei Markov who will wear the ‘A’
full-time as well as Max Pacioretty and P.K. Subban who will each wear one
part-time. Subban will have the ‘A’ for home games in the first half of
the year while Pacioretty will wear it for the road games in the first half
before switching at the midway point.
The team also acknowledged that Carey Price will be a big part of the
leadership group even though he can’t wear a letter as per NHL rules. He
will be taking part in the ‘captain meetings’ according to head coach Michel
Therrien.
This arrangement will stay in place for the entire season; GM Marc Bergevin
noted that they will re-evaluate this setup next summer.
Other news and notes from Monday:
Brodeur isn’t coming to Montreal:
For the few of you who were still holding out hope that the Habs would bring
Martin Brodeur in, Bergevin put the final nail in the coffin for those hopes.
When asked about the future Hall-of-Famer, this was his response:
"I already have three goalies on my team. I don’t want four."
When asked, Bergevin didn’t confirm or deny that any talks with his
representation occurred at any time during the offseason.
Three goalies to start the year?
One possibility that hasn’t received a lot of attention yet with the goalies
is that the team could carry all three of Price, Peter Budaj, and Dustin
Tokarski to start the season. Tokarski now has to clear waivers and there
are some concerns that he may not clear after his performance last May in the
playoffs. Bergevin didn’t close the door on carrying three goalies to
start the year, saying that "all options are open."
If that were to happen, the Habs would likely go with three goalies, seven
defencemen, and thirteen forwards on the opening roster. That wouldn’t
bode well for the likes of Jiri Sekac, Jacob de la Rose, and Drayson Bowman, who
are vying for what looks like would be a fourteenth forward spot.
Molson didn’t intervene in Subban’s contract talks:
Given the reports that surfaced shortly after P.K. Subban signed his eight
year deal, it’s not surprising that the topic of Geoff Molson reportedly
stepping in and forcing Bergevin’s hand into giving him the long-term pact came
up. Earlier this offseason, Bergevin denied that this occurred and Molson
did the exact same thing today, saying:
"Marc was in charge and I didn’t have to step in."
Saku Koivu to be honoured:
During his media scrum, Molson also revealed that the team will honour former
captain Saku Koivu. No date for that ceremony has been announced yet.
Price is ready to go:
It was reported last month that Price still wasn’t into his full offseason
practice mode as a result of his knee injury that he suffered against the
Rangers in the Eastern Conference Final last season. Price acknowledged
that he has fully recovered and that he will be ready to go when training camp
gets underway later this week.
More injury notes:
This isn’t from the golf tournament but there are quite a few players that
are already felled by some sort of issue at rookie camp. Dalton Thrower,
Stefan Fournier, and Nikolas Koberstein all came to camp injured while Daniel
Carr, Connor Crisp, Nikita Scherbak, and Phillipe Gadoury have all missed either
time in drills, games, or both, with varying ailments as well.