The Canadiens are coming into training camp with a familiar look, and that means the pressure is concentrated on a few players who need to force their way into bigger roles.
Montreal’s offseason was light on major changes, leaving the roster much the same as the group that fell to the Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference Final in May. The biggest losses were Brendan Gallagher, who is now with the Vancouver Canucks, and Joe Veleno, who signed with the New York Rangers in free agency.
The top of the lineup still runs through Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Juraj Slafkovsky, and Lane Hutson, while younger names such as Ivan Demidov, Oliver Kapanen, Jakub Dobes, and Jacob Fowler are expected to keep moving forward. With so little roster turnover, camp matters even more for the players trying to lock down jobs.
David Reinbacher sits at the top of that list.
The Canadiens used the fifth overall pick on Reinbacher in the 2023 NHL Entry Draft, and the slow start to his pro career has only sharpened the spotlight on him. He has battled injuries since signing his entry-level deal in 2023, though last season gave him a cleaner runway.
Reinbacher played 57 games, posted five goals and 19 assists for the Laval Rocket, and later earned a call-up when Noah Dobson went down with a thumb injury. In his two games with Montreal, he picked up an assist and averaged just over 13 minutes per night.
That was encouraging, but it does not change the larger expectation: the Canadiens need a lot more from a fifth overall pick. Training camp is his chance to show he is ready to stick in the NHL full-time and to prove he can beat out Jayden Struble and Arber Xhekaj.
Oliver Kapanen is in a different kind of squeeze.
On paper, a rookie centre scoring 22 goals looks like a win. But Kapanen’s season had a split personality.
He was dependable in his own end and had a real nose for finding loose pucks around the crease, and for the first half of the year he was centring a line with Slafkovsky and Demidov that became Montreal’s most trustworthy offensive trio while injuries piled up. Then the second half hit, and the production dried up.
After the Olympic break, he went quiet for long stretches and finished the season without a point in his last 10 games. Even after spending much of the year in the second-line centre role, he found himself watching the playoffs from the press box more often than not, dressing for only seven of Montreal’s 19 postseason games.
The Canadiens did not bring in outside help at centre, so Kapanen still has a clear path to that job. He just has to show the version of himself from the first half, not the one who faded late.
Then there is Florian Xhekaj, who may have the clearest opening of the bunch.
Montreal came out of that Hurricanes series looking like a team that needs more bite on offense, and Xhekaj can supply exactly that. He was one of the final cuts from the roster last season, and Gallagher’s move to Vancouver has opened a spot in the bottom six.
Xhekaj has built his reputation on being a physical force - he led the Rocket in penalty minutes over the last two seasons - but he has also shown real scoring touch. He set a franchise record for goals by a rookie in 2024-25 with 24, then followed that with 17 goals last season.
He also had a brief NHL look with Montreal, playing five games and recording an assist while averaging just under 10 minutes a night. The Canadiens do not have many obvious physical options on offense beyond Josh Anderson, which gives Xhekaj a real lane.
Still, he is not alone in the fight for that role, and training camp will have to show that he has made the adjustments needed to take the next step.
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Canadiens Just Took A Chance On A Prospect At A Crossroads
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Poulins path has already included a notable stop in Edmonton after a trade in December 2025, adding another layer to a career that has never quite settled into one lane. He has only a handful of NHL appearances to his name, which is part of why this Montreal contract matters as much as it does, even if the real question remains the same as it was in Pittsburgh and Edmonton: whether the Canadiens are getting him at the moment he is ready to turn all that minor-league production into something more at the top level. [Read more 🡒]