The Canadian | Barré-Boulet and Pezzetta will start the season in Montreal

The final training camp cuts will likely not be announced until Monday, with the Canadian. However, two players can already say mission accomplished.

If management had wanted to cut them in order to give them to the Laval Rocket, attackers Michael Pezzetta and Alex Barré-Boulet should have been placed on waivers this Sunday afternoon. However, the name of neither appears in the long list of players who can be claimed by any team on the circuit.

This means that Pezzetta and Barré-Boulet will appear on the list of 23 players that the Canadian will make official on Monday at 5 p.m. The two found themselves in a fight for the last available positions. For now, they find themselves in position 12^e et 13^e attackers.

The accomplishment is particularly noteworthy for Barré-Boulet. At 27, the Quebecer finds himself, for the first time in his career, with an NHL position in the fall, at the end of a training camp. He has been cut from each of the previous camps he has attended with the Tampa Bay Lightning, a team with whom he has played 68 games to date.

The Montmagny native showed combativeness throughout camp and visibly demonstrated that his offensive flair belonged to the NHL. We can now wonder what role we will entrust precisely to someone who, in the past, has shown shortcomings in terms of consistency.

Pezzetta will begin his fourth season in the NHL. Often a reserve last season, he has always been recognized for his commitment to the team and his teammates. His offensive potential remains limited, but he remains one of the only Canadian attackers whose main signature is robustness.

Assuming that defender Lane Hutson will remain with the big club, the management of the Habs will still have to cross out the names of three skaters. Defenders Adam Engström, Logan Mailloux, Arber Xhekaj and Jayden Struble as well as forwards Emil Heineman and Joshua Roy can be sent to Laval without going on waivers. However, it would be surprising if Xhekaj, Struble or Roy fell victim to the ax.

Striker Oliver Kapanen could also be cut, but if so, he would play the season with Timrå IK in Sweden.

It is not impossible, moreover, that Hutson or Xhekaj could be cut “on paper” without ever going to play in Laval. In a note published last week, the PuckPedia site noted that the Habs’ payroll slightly exceeds the cap of 88 million imposed by the league. By placing Rafaël Harvey-Pinard on the long-term injured list for the start of the campaign, the organization could maximize its salary space by demoting Hutson or Xhekaj and then recalling them immediately after the deadline for official training will have been completed.

Read the PuckPedia review

After a day off on Sunday, CH players will return to training on Monday in preparation for the first game of the season, which will be played at home on Wednesday against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Pelletier and Rodrigue too

Elsewhere in the NHL, Quebecers Jakob Pelletier (Calgary) and Olivier Rodrigue (Edmonton) were also placed on waivers. If no one claims them, they will likely be assigned to the minor leagues.

2019 first-round pick (26^e in total), Pelletier quickly enjoyed success in the American League, but struggled to replicate it in the NHL. Last season, two injuries limited the forward to 13 games with the Flames.

Over the last two years, Olivier Rodrigue has found himself among the 10 best goalkeepers in the American League in terms of efficiency rate. The market for masked men being less volatile than last season, and with veterans like Jiri Patera (Boston) and James Reimer (Buffalo) also finding themselves on waivers, it would be relatively surprising if Rodrigue changed address, he who has never played an NHL game before.

Among the other Quebecers on waivers, we find Samuel Bolduc (New York Islanders), Bokonji Imama (Pittsburgh) and Raphaël Lavoie (Edmonton). In Tampa, former Canadian Jesse Ylönen finds himself in the same situation.

The most famous player to be cut on Sunday is certainly Pierre Engvall of the New York Islanders. The Swedish striker still has six years left on his contract, for an annual salary of 3 million.

Read “Canadian training camp: ten auditions under the microscope”