Corey Perry and Michael Frolik will stay with the Canadiens.
Both veteran forwards were placed on waivers Monday and both were not claimed by another NHL team. That means Perry and Frolik will be on the Canadiens’ taxi squad when they open the NHL regular season Wednesday night in Toronto against the Maple Leafs (7 p.m., SN, TVA Sports, TSN 690 Radio).
After the Canadiens placed the two veterans on waivers Monday, coach Claude Julien said he was keeping his fingers crossed and hoping they wouldn’t be claimed by another team.
“We brought these guys here to give some depth to our group,” Julien said after the final practice of training camp Tuesday morning at the Bell Sports Complex in Brossard. “They’re good hockey players that can help us. So it’s sure that when you can keep them it’s certainly a positive for our group.”
GM Marc Bergevin acquired Perry and Frolik as free agents during the off-season, signing them both to one-year, US$750,000 contracts. Both bring a ton of experience to the Canadiens along with Stanley Cup rings. Perry, 35, was with the Anaheim Ducks when they won the Cup in 2007, while Frolik, 32, won the Cup with the Chicago Blackhawks in 2013. Perry also won the Hart Trophy as the NHL’s most valuable player and the Maurice Richard Trophy as the leading goal-scorer for the 2010-11 season when he posted 50-48-98 totals with the Ducks.
“He’s a massive presence in the room,” Canadiens defenceman Ben Chiarot said about Perry. “Someone who has won a Stanley Cup, individual accolades in the league. He’s been a premier player for a long time in the NHL. I know, personally, just watching him, being able to watch someone who’s been that good for that long, it’s great to have him in the room and I’m sure all our forwards will say the same.
“I mean, you watch him go through his routine and he stands in front of the net at the end of every practice tipping pucks, which has been kind of his bread-and-butter for his career,” Chiarot added. “So definitely a great presence in the room, along with Michael Frolik, too. Same thing, a Stanley Cup winner, a guy who’s played a long time. You see how diligent he is in the gym and his routine on the ice. So two guys that were great guys to bring in. Veterans in the room and still great players on the ice for us. I think they were great pickups for us.”
The taxi squad
The Canadiens announced Tuesday that the three other players on the taxi squad, along with Perry and Frolik, will be forward Ryan Poehling, defenceman Cale Fleury and goalie Charlie Lindgren. NHL teams can keep a minimum of four players and a maximum of six on taxi squads this season, which is a new thing because of COVID-19.
Julien noted that Fleury had a good training camp, adding that there could be changes on the taxi squad after the season gets started. The coach added that defenceman Xavier Ouellet, who was captain of the AHL’s Laval Rocket last season before getting called up by the Canadiens, is a good veteran with a great attitude who could join the taxi squad at a later date. But for now, Julien said Ouellet will be a leader as the Rocket players prepare for the AHL season, which is slated to start on Feb. 5 with Laval playing in an all-Canadian division, along with the Belleville Senators, Toronto Marlies and Manitoba Moose.
In the meantime, Julien said that Fleury and Poehling can gain some experience while practising with the Canadiens as members of the taxi squad, adding that if they don’t get playing time they can be sent down to the Rocket once the AHL season begins.
On Monday evening, the Canadiens assigned goalies Cayden Primeau, Michael McNiven and Vasili Demchenko to the Rocket. The Canadiens also assigned forward Jordan Weal to Laval, along with defenceman Kaiden Guhle, their first-round pick at this year’s NHL Draft.
On Tuesday morning, Fleury and Lindgren skated with Group A for the first time during training camp. Fleury was on the fourth defence pairing with Victor Mete.
In order to get under the US$81.5-million NHL salary cap, the Canadiens will only be able to carry 21 players on their roster for the season opener. Mete will be the one extra player.
According to CapFriendly.com , the Canadiens are now at $80,791,309 on the salary cap after Tuesday’s moves.
The odd man out
Three seasons ago, Mete surprised a lot of people when he made the Canadiens’ opening-night lineup as a 19-year-old and was on the top defence pairing with Shea Weber after being selected in the fourth round (100th overall) at the 2016 NHL Draft.
The fact Mete now finds himself on the taxi squad goes to show how much the Canadiens’ depth has improved since then.
“I’m just going to stay ready and we’ll see what happens,” Mete said after practice Tuesday.
“I wasn’t sure really what to expect (at training camp),” he added. “I just kind of came into camp just working my hardest and just trying to be the best I could be on the ice. I’m happy with my camp. I thought I was really good, so we’ll see.”
As far as NHL teams having a taxi squad this season, Mete said: “ I think it’s pretty good, actually. I mean, you have a lot of guys you’re allowed to carry now and you have everyone kind of working hard and you have the taxi squad guys trying to get into the squad and working as hard as they can, too. The practices and stuff have been high intensity. So I guess with the taxi squad and guys trying to be the best they can be everyone’s kind of pushing each other, so it’s been really good.”
Price tries out new mask
Carey Price, who had been wearing a plain white mask during training camp, received his new mask on Tuesday morning and wore it during practice.
The new mask was painted by Jordon Bourgeault, the owner, operator and artist at JBo Airbrush in Calgary . Bourgeault said the basic idea behind his artwork on the mask was a “Montreal Canadiens Goaltender Power System circuit board.”
“It’s sort of the history of all the past Montreal Canadiens goalies and all of their information being pumped directly into the brain of Carey Price, which is sort of this half-human, half-machine goalie beast,” Bourgeault said in a phone interview. “That’s the idea. He’s a machine/man made to block pucks and he’s got all that past information helping him.
Read much more about Price’s new mask and how Bourgeault came up with the artistic idea by clicking here .
Artturi Lehkonen was asked after practice what he thought about Price’s mask.
“I wasn’t really worried about that. I’ll try not to shoot him in the head anyways,” Lehkonen said with a chuckle. “It looks good. I mean, I was trying to take a look at it but didn’t really get that good of a look from that far away. But it looks pretty good.”
The fourth line
Lehkonen scored 18 goals in 73 games during his rookie season in 2016-17 and looked like he’d become a regular 20-goal scorer in the future.
That hasn’t happened with Lehkonen scoring 12, 11 and 13 goals in the next three seasons and now he finds himself as a fourth-liner this season, along with Jake Evans and Paul Byron.
That’s another sign of the Canadiens’ added depth this season.
When asked what personal goals he has set for this season, the 25-year-old Lehkonen said: “I don’t really have specific personal goals. I just want to make the playoffs with the team. Like that’s the most important part. I don’t really care about my personal goals. It’s just about the team making the playoffs and trying to go as long as we can.
“We’ve added some size,” Lehkonen added. “I mean, we’ve still got a lot of fast forwards who can forecheck the other teams.”
As for his line, Lehkonen said: “We know that we’re a fast line. We’re just trying to play with our strengths and forecheck the other teams. Try to spend some time in the offensive zone and just play our own game. We can’t be too worried what the other teams are going to do. If we do our jobs well we’re going to be just fine.
“Jake has been good,” Lehkonen added. “It’s fun to play with him. He’s really fast, he can use his speed real well and drive the puck up the ice. It’s fun to see and nice to play with him, for sure.”
The lines
Here’s how the forward lines and defence pairings looked for the Group A practice Tuesday morning. It was the last practice of training camp.
Tatar – Danault – Gallagher
Drouin – Suzuki – Anderson
Toffoli – Kotkaniemi – Armia
Byron – Evans – Lehkonen
Frolik – Poehling – Perry
Chiarot – Weber
Edmundson – Petry
Kulak – Romanov
Mete – Fleury
What’s next?
The Canadiens had a flight to Toronto after Tuesday’s practice ahead of Wednesday night’s season opener.
Their first six games will all be on the road — including two against the Oilers in Edmonton and three against the Canucks in Vancouver — before they play their home opener at the Bell Centre on Thursday, Jan. 28, against the Calgary Flames.
Download printable schedules
Download two-page printable schedules of the Canadiens’ 2021 season.
- For viewers in the Canadiens’ broadcast region (Atlantic Canada, Quebec and eastern Ontario), download this version.
- For viewers in the rest of Canada (B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario except eastern Ontario, and the territories), see how you can watch Canadiens game here and download this version of the schedule .
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