While some Canadians will be celebrating Canada Day on July 1, and others will be frantically refreshing the free-agent tracker, the young men drafted by the Montreal Canadiens last weekend will be part of the group starting its first development camp with the organization.
The camp will take place from July 1 to July 3 at the CN Sports Complex in Brossard, and a total of 31 players will participate. Fifteen forwards, 12 defensemen, and four goaltenders will be put through their paces. The only draftee from last Saturday who is missing will be Alexander Zharovsky, as he was unable to obtain his visa in time to attend.
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There won’t be any on-ice action on day one, so do not rush to Brossard hoping to get a glimpse of the action. The prospects will simply be undertaking physical testing and off-ice workouts. On Wednesday, July 2, the goaltenders will take to the second rink at 9:15 AM, while the forwards will skate at 11:00 AM on the first rink, and the defensemen will replace the goalies on rink two at 11:00 AM.
Then, on Thursday, July 3, the goaltenders will be on the ice on the second rink at 10:00 AM, and at 11:00 AM, a scrimmage will take place on that same rink. The prospects will also get their first taste of media melee in the Montreal market on Wednesday and Thursday at 1:00 PM.
Fans shouldn’t expect to see Ivan Demidov either; the young Russian will be at rookie camp, but he won’t be there for this one. In net, Quebecer Alexis Cournoyer will be battling it out with Arseni Radkov, Mikus Vecvanags, and Yevgeni Volokin. On the blueline, Maxon Vig, Owen Protz, Bryce Pickford, Luke Mittelstadt, Andrew MacNiel, Simon Lavigne, Bogdan Konyushkov, Carlos Handel, Sebastian Dell’Elce, Cooper Cleaves, Donato Bracco, and Rasmus Bergqvist will be hoping to impress.
Finally, up front, Josh Avery, Filip Eriksson, Egor Goriunov, Michael Hage, Sam Harris, Makar Khanin, Aatos Koivu, Ben Merrill, Israel Mianscum, L.J. Mooney, Hayden Paupanekis, Logan Sawyer, Tyler Thorpe, Felix Trudeau and Matthew Wang will try to turn some heads.
Avery, Goriunov, Mianscum, Trudeau, Wang, Bracco, Cleaves and Lavigne are all there on a tryout basis. Amongst the 31 players, I’ll be keeping a close eye on Koivu (former captain Saku Koivu’s son who did not attend the development camp last time around), Hage (who is one of the Canadiens most exciting prospects down the middle) and Konyushkov (a gritty blueliner who spent the previous season in the KHL).
As always, all on-ice practices and scrimmages will be open to the public; however, there is no word on whether the scrimmage will be available to stream online.
Photo credit: Rick Osentoski-Imagn Images
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