Montreal Canadiens Release 26 Players From Training Camp

The Montreal Canadiens get set to face off the Washington Capitals tonight at the Bell Centre (6:00 p.m., RDS [Regional]) and have cut down their roster for the second time this pre-season.

26 players were either released, sent to Hamilton or sent to Junior in the case of first round pick Nikita Scherbak.

Among the notable players sent to Hamilton is defenceman Magnus Nygren, and forwards Tim Bozon and Charles Hudon.

The following players have been assigned to Hamilton:

Mac Bennett, Tim Bozon, Daniel Carr, Michael Condon, Connor Crisp, Morgan Ellis, Joe Finley, Stefan Fournier, T.J. Hensick, Charles Hudon, Patrick Holland, David Makowski, Jack Nevins, Magnus Nygren, Bobby Shea, Nick Sorkin, Dalton Thrower.

The following players have released:

Justin Baker, Riley Brace, Joël Chouinard, Tanner Eberle, Sahir Gill, Stefano Momesso, Evan Wardley, Zach Yuen.

There are still 35 players at camp (20 forwards, 11 defensemen, 4 goaltenders).

Not too many surprises here, and the fact that Drayson Bowman has made it this far means that the Canadiens may be looking to sign him before letting him loose. Bowman, of course, is on a try out and would require a contract for the team to assign him to Hamilton.

No real decisions made today will affect the final roster except for Scherbak. That leaves the final forward position down to Christian Thomas and Jiri Sekac, among others like Sven Andrighetto.

Here is the projected lineup tonight for the Canadiens.

67 PACIORETTY – 27 GALCHENYUK – 15 PARENTEAU
26 SEKAC – 14 PLEKANEC – 11 GALLAGHER
49 BOURNIVAL – 81 ELLER – 60 THOMAS
32 MOEN – 20 MALHOTRA – 22 WEISE

79 MARKOV – 76 SUBBAN
74 EMELIN – 77 GILBERT
24 TINORDI – 43 WEAVER

31 PRICE
30 BUDAJ

Of note: Lars Eller gets his first pre-season action, as does Dale Weise. Alex Galchenyuk will get a significant opportunity to show his meddle at center of a top line and it will be interesting to see if Michel Therrien does end up going with Markov and Subban instead of Alexei Emelin who was there before.