Montreal looking for results

Having not made the playoffs for the last 5 seasons, the Montreal Canadiens management is looking for a bounce back season where they aim to be in the playoff battling picture. Montreal fans have not been spoiled with past seasons of only 80 points, 61 points, 63 points, 64 points and 84 points. This next season will be one of learning struggles, but likely more offensive and excitement for the fans. 

It was a busy free agency period for GM Bélanger with the signing of Darcy Kuemper, John Marino, Anthony Mantha and Miles Wood. Some secondary free agents who were brought along are : Akito Hirose, Brian Halonen, Jason Polin, Yaniv Perets, Declan Carlile, Max Willman, Ondrej Pavel, Matt Stienburg, Clay Stevenson, Ryan Tverberg, Victor Soderstrom and Mikael Pyyhtia. Many players were let go by the organization and they are as followed : Andreas Athanasiou, Trevor Lewis, Nick Cousins, Michael Pezzetta, Olli Maatta, Tomas Nosek, Noel Acciari, Rafael Harvey-Pinard, James van Riemsdyk, Samuel Girard, Nikolaj Ehlers and veteran Marc-Edouard Vlasic. 

It was also a very productive STHL entry draft with the picks of Zeev Buium (10th), Michael Hage (12th), Trevor Connelly (22nd), Egor Surin (28th), Mikhail Yegorov (46th), Leo Wallenius (47th) in the first 2 rounds... 

At the start of training camp, here is the possible lineup : 

Mantha-Suzuki-Caufield

Lee-Beniers-Fantilli

O'Connor-Eller-Evangelista

Wood-Amadio-Stankoven

Gudas-Marino

Nemec-Sanderson

Kulikov-Struble

Kuemper

Ersson

Captain Nick Suzuki will be relied upon to lead the way along with Cole Caufield. Recently acquired free agent Anthony Mantha is going to have a bigger role than he's used to since he's going to be playing big minutes on the 1st line. His scoring touch will hopefully be back. Matty Beniers will have a bigger role and bring some secondary scoring along with Adam Fantilli. Logan Stankoven will have an opportunity to start on our bottom 6 but have some possible powerplay minutes. Luke Evangelista is also coming along nicely and will have more responsabilities from the get go. 

John Marino was signed to play top 2 minutes alongside possibly Jake Sanderson. Coach Claude Julien is juggling with the idea of dressing Nemec and Sanderson to play together on the 2nd pairing while Struble and Kulikov will be 5 and 6. 

Darcy Kuemper will be in nets and Samuel Ersson will be his second. 

Montreal Canadiens fans are thrilled to have a better team on the ice and hope to have a very long season.