The Canadiens are going to begin the season with their highest-paid ahead taking part in on the fourth line.
Patrik Laine
may even have
Joe Veleno
ready within the wings to take his spot if issues don’t go properly.
Head coach Martin St. Louis maintains that he has a No. 1 line — with Nick Suzuki taking part in between Cole Caufield and Juraj Slafkovsky — and three different strains that aren’t actually numbered.
However Laine — who has a US$8.7 million salary-cap hit within the remaining yr of his contract — began coaching camp on what regarded just like the second line with centre Kirby Dach and Ivan Demidov and located himself on a line with Jake Evans and Josh Anderson Monday when the Canadiens practised in Brossard forward of Wednesday’s season opener in Toronto in opposition to the Maple Leafs
(7 p.m., SN, TVA Sports activities).
The opposite two strains had Oliver Kapanen between Alex Newhook and Demidov, and Dach between Zachary Bolduc and Brendan Gallagher with Veleno as the additional ahead.
St. Louis famous that he has to write down the strains down on the board within the locker room and that when apply begins, the strains come one after one other following Suzuki’s line, however that doesn’t essentially imply they’re the second, third and fourth strains. The coach stated it’s essential in in the present day’s NHL to come back in waves, with roles distributed all through the 4 strains and that crucial factor is having all 4 strains play five-on-five hockey at each ends of the ice.
First day on the ice Monday in Brossard for #Habs with remaining 22-man roster. Here is the strains and defence pairings:Caufield-Suzuki-Slafkovsky Newhook-Kapanen-Demidov Bolduc-Dach-Gallagher Anderson-Evans-Laine VelenoMatheson-Dobson Guhle-Hutson Xhekaj-CarrierStruble
— Stu Cowan (@StuCowan1) October 6, 2025
5-on-five hockey was an issue for Laine final season after the Canadiens — who had been determined to seek out extra offence — acquired him from the Columbus Blue Jackets, together with a second-round choose on the 2026 NHL Draft, in trade for defenceman Jordan Harris. After recovering from a sprained knee suffered in a pre-season sport, Laine began off just like the youthful model of himself that scored a career-high 44 objectives with the Winnipeg Jets in 2017-18 as a 19-year-old after being the No. 2 general choose at
the 2016 NHL Draft.
Laine scored eight objectives in his first 9 video games final season — all on the ability play. He completed the season with 20 objectives in 52 video games, together with 15 on the ability play. The Canadiens wouldn’t have made the playoffs with out Laine, as GM Kent Hughes famous on the finish of the season.
However Laine additionally had a minus-14 differential and was restricted to lower than 12 minutes of ice time in 4 of the final six regular-season video games — scoring one objective at even energy — because the Canadiens battled to earn the final playoff spot within the Jap Convention.
The 27-year-old Laine labored exhausting this summer time, skating nearly day by day in Brossard, to prepare for coaching camp. He labored exhausting all through camp, but additionally regarded gradual in contrast along with his teammates. St. Louis desires his crew to play a fast-paced sport whereas defending exhausting within the offensive and impartial zones so that they don’t should defend a lot in their very own zone. That doesn’t play to Laine’s strengths.
#Habs head coach Martin St. Louis speaks with the 22 gamers who made opening-night lineup at apply this morning in Brossard pic.twitter.com/YxxdgVj0DQ
— Stu Cowan (@StuCowan1) October 6, 2025
However St. Louis stated he appreciated what he noticed from Laine within the final two pre-season video games.
“His five-on-five play is the very best I’ve seen,” St. Louis stated in a scrum with reporters outdoors the Canadiens’ locker room after Monday’s apply. “We speak about this so much, guys. What number of minutes of particular groups are you going to have in a sport? Let’s simply faux there’s three (penalties) on all sides — that’s 12 minutes. There’s 48 minutes of even-strength hockey that we acquired to play and that’s acquired to be the principle focus.
“Are the particular groups essential? Completely,” St. Louis added. “However that 48 out of 60 — 85 per cent of the sport — goes to be performed even energy. What do you do on the ice to boost the chances for our crew to achieve success? And it’s not essentially actions on the puck, they’re actions off the puck on either side of the sport. For me, what I noticed from Patty the final two video games, I’m very inspired as a result of I need to have the ability to are available in waves and if Patty performs like that, it makes us deeper. After which, clearly, he can take his pictures on the PP, which we’d like. So I’m very inspired.”
Quelques photographs de l’entraînement de lundiScenes from Monday’s apply in Brossard#GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/FMGvcCi7kQ
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) October 6, 2025
Suzuki is the second-highest paid ahead on the Canadiens with a salary-cap hit of US$7.875 million. The very best-paid participant is new defenceman Noah Dobson, with a salary-cap hit of US$9.5 million.
Suzuki likes what he noticed from Laine at coaching camp.
“He had a extremely good summer time,” the captain stated. “I used to be skating with him and I feel he is aware of what the coaches count on from him. He’s been good on the ability play. I feel getting higher five-on-five. He’s performed with a number of completely different guys. I feel Jake and Andy are type of serving to him out defensively, which is sweet.
“I feel he desires to be right here, he desires it unhealthy,” Suzuki added. “I feel he’s simply making an attempt to do the little particulars over and over to achieve success and I feel we’ve seen that.”
We’ll see if Laine can proceed to do this through the common season.
Associated
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No surprises as Canadiens make remaining cuts forward of season opener in Toronto
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