Montreal Canadiens: Depth Chart And Player Movements

One week before the 2014-15 season, the Montreal Canadiens' roster is most likely settled for the beginning of the upcoming campaign, unless GM Marc Bergevin manages to shed some salary or fix the goalie situation. There won't be many surprises in training camp like last season when Michael Bournival made the team thanks to a solid training camp.

At forward, if we take into account that Jiri Sekac has all but officially made the team, the Habs currently have 14 forwards slated to begin with the season in the NHL following the departure of veterans Brian Gionta, George Parros and Tomas Vanek, among others.

On defense, the team's top five is settled, with Nathan Beaulieu and Jarred Tinordi battling for the sixth and last regular spot. Unless the Canadiens decide to sign veteran Francis Bouillon as an insurance policy, there won't be any surprise on the back end either. Currently in the lead, Beaulieu is expected to begin the season in the top-6, relegating journeyman Davis Drewiske to a reserve role as it should be. As you know veterans Josh Gorges (Buffalo) and Douglas Murray (UFA) will not be back this season with the team.

The biggest question mark right now is in net as we still don't know who will be Carey Price's back-up. So far, Peter Budaj and Dustin Tokarski have both played well in pre-season so it might comes down to whoever is the less likely to be claimed off waivers that will head to the AHL, while the winner has the chance to back-up Price.

Habs Depth chart:
Left Wing Centre Right Wing
Max Pacioretty David Desharnais Pierre-Alexandre Parenteau
Rene Bourque Tomas Plekanec Jiri Sekac
Alex Galchenyuk Lars Eller Brendan Gallagher
Brandon Prust Manny Malhotra Dale Weise

Extras: Travis Moen, Michael Bournival

Defensemen:
Andrei Markov Tom Gilbert
Alexei Emelin P.K. Subban
Nathan Beaulieu Mike Weaver

Extras: Davis Drewiske

Goaltenders:
Carey Price
Dustin Tokarski/Peter Budaj

The Canadiens really improved their AHL depth during the off-season, signing career AHLers Joey MacDonald, Jake Dowell and TJ Hensick, and adding a few more players who are making the transition from junior hockey to the AHL, namely Charles Hudon, Tim Bozon, Mac Bennett and Jacob de la Rose, to name a few.

With the arrival of new prospects, transitioning from Europe and the CHL, Hamilton will be much more competitive than last season. The team should be able to leave the basement of the AHL unless head coach Sylvain Lefebvre continue to be stubborn and hinder the players' development.

Bulldogs Depth chart:

Left Wing Centre Right Wing
Jacob de la Rose T.J. Hensick Christian Thomas
Tim Bozon Gabriel Dumont Sven Andrighetto
Nick Sorkin Charles Hudon Patrick Holland
Connor Crisp Jake Dowell Jack Nevins

Extras: Stefan Fournier, Daniel Carr, Maxim Macenauer

Defensemen:
Jarred Tinordi Greg Pateryn
Mac Bennett Darren Dietz
Joe Finley Dalton Thrower

Extras: Bobby Shea, Morgan Ellis, Magnus Nygren (Back to Sweden?)

Goaltenders:
Peter Budaj/Dustin Tokarsi
Joey MacDonald
Mike Condon (if Budaj or Tokarski is claimed off waivers or traded)

I don't expect the Canadiens to sign defenseman Francis Bouillon and forward Drayson Bowman, who are both attending the camp on professional try-out.

I hope the above gives you a bigger picture of the organization's depth chart and shows you that the team is making every effort to rebuild its pool of quality prospects through the draft and the free agency.

Follow me on Twitter @FredPoulin98 if you want to talk puck and Habs.

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Montreal Canadiens Uniform, Old Rules, Brandon Prust and More

Happy Monday Hab fans!

A few days ago, ESPN's Uni Watch released its ranking of uniforms for the four major North American sports. 

Who had the best jersey? 

The Montreal Canadiens, of course. 

Conversely, the NBA's Sacramento Kings were deemed as having the worst. As for the NHL, the Colorado Avalanche's set is considered the least appealing.

As for Canadian teams, the Edmonton Oilers were ranked 104th out of 121. Not exactly stellar. Personally, I wish they would bring back this logo. 

What do you think? Which NHL teams have the prettiest and ugliest uni's? 

Hockey and Habs news

- Our Amos Legault takes an insightful and humorous look at some of the NHL's old rules for goaltenders. Honestly, some of the rules seem pretty silly under today's standards.

- Hockey Inside/Out looks at how Brandon Prust will be missed by his former New York Rangers teammates. 

- HabsWorld's Fantasy Focus continues with looks at both Andrei Markov and Josh Gorges. 

- CBA talks will resume this Tuesday and the NHL will reportedly be tabling a new offer. Meanwhile, Adrian Dater of Sports Illustrated dissects the similarities between the 2004-05 negotiations and the current ones. 

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Revisiting The NHL Rules Of Old: Goaltending

Beginning this Tuesday, the NHL will be digging through some video of hooking, holding and interference penalties that were administered last season.

The goal for Colin Campbell — Director of Hockey Operations — as well as some select general managers and coaches is to try and determine a standard on the implementation of interference penalties.

As the "think tank"— as Campbell calls it —gets set to tighten up ship, I thought I'd take a brief trip back to some interesting rules of old.

In considering our penalties and the tweaking of them, would we do well to take a page from the history books?

Goaltending

In regards to netminding, the very first change to the original rules was in the 1917-18 season. Originally, a penalty would be called on the goalie for dropping to the ice to make a save at any time. It wasn't until that season that they were permitted to do so.

Could you imagine? Carey Price would be giving Steve Ott a serious run for his money in the PIMs department.

Concern of a decrease in action and goal scoring goes as far back as the early twenties. One of the first examples of this was in 1921, where goalies were finally allowed to pass the puck up to a player, but only as far as his own blueline.

This may or may not have coincided with defense becoming the lazy man's first choice of position in beer leagues.

A more direct approach came with the first limit set for a goalie's pad width. Starting in the 1925-26 season, twelve inches was as thick as you could have them, and it was further reduced to ten inches in 1927.

The nineteen-thirties saw some familiar first incarnations of rules we see today, including penalties for doing the Sean Avery and obstructing a goalie's vision or movement.

What's more interesting though are the strange ones, which included things like the goaltender cannot advance more than one foot from his goal-line when a shot is taken (1934-35) or each team must have only one goaltender playing at one time (1931-32).

And rightly so! Imagine two Dominik Haseks flopping all over the place? It'd be absolute mayhem.

That's using the old noodle, fellas. The NHL: always a step ahead of everyone's tricks.

As for the 'one foot from the goal-line' rule, I'd like to imagine that goalkeepers were doing all kinds of outrageous things to stop attackers from even getting shots off in the first place.

Though I suspect it was mostly frequent rushing and challenging of the shooter that lead to the rule.

More chances, more breakaways, more shots, more goals, more fans, more money.

Perhaps the most interesting item I came across in regards to goalies was that they used to serve their own penalties. So, if Price delays the game, Peter Budaj gets thrown in nets for a penalty kill— this of course being when teams were eventually required to dress two goalies, which wasn't always the case.

How interesting would that make games, especially in the playoffs ?

As goalies were penalized a lot more often then, the back-up would see more action, and on a game-by-game basis.

Oh, but there's one tiny catch...

As a rule implemented in 1939 states, if you were the back-up, you were only allowed to use a goaltender's gloves and a stick. That's it.

Food for thought!

Next up, the Attackers and Rearguards portion of our trip back in time.
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Amos is freelance writer and columnist who covers prospects for HabsAddict.com. You can follow him on Twitter and Facebook or email him at alegault@gmail.com

(Photo by Jana Chytilova/Freestyle Photo/Getty Images North America)

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