The Hamilton Bulldogs have announced their opening day roster for the 2012-13 season:

HAMILTON, ON - Montreal Canadiens and Hamilton Bulldogs General Manager Marc Bergevin announced today the opening night roster for the 2012-2013 season, the team's 17th season in the AHL. The roster consists of 25 players which includes 15 forwards, seven defencemen and three goaltenders.

Goaltenders:
#29 Robert Mayer
#30 Cedrick Desjardins
#39 Peter Delmas

Defencemen:
#2 Greg Pateryn
#3 Antoine Corbin
#4 Brendon Nash
#5 Jarred Tinordi
#8 Nathan Beaulieu
#32 Frederic St-Denis
#44 Morgan Ellis

Forwards:
#11 Alain Berger
#12 Zack Stortini
#13 Steven Quailer
#14 Michael Blunden
#15 Kyle Hagel
#17 Brendan Gallagher
#18 Michael Bournival
#20 Louis Leblanc
#23 Joonas Nattinen
#28 Aaron Palushaj
#37 Patrick Holland
#40 Gabriel Dumont
#47 Darryl Boyce
#57 Blake Geoffrion
#67 Alexander Avtsin

The Hamilton Bulldogs will open the 2012-2013 season tomorrow, Saturday, October 13th at 7:00 p.m. when they will face the Griffins at Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, Michigan. All Bulldogs games during the month of October will be broadcast on Hamilton's Funny 820 (AM 820) and on Montreal's TSN Radio 690 (AM 690). Fans can also listen to and watch all 'Dogs games on www.hamiltonbulldogs.com. Live coverage with the broadcast team of Play-By-Play Announcer Derek Wills (all home and away games) and Colour Commentator Al Craig (all home and select away games) will begin with the Pioneer Pre-Game Show 30 minutes prior to the scheduled start time.

The Bulldogs' 2012-2013 home-opener is scheduled for Friday, October 19th at 7:30 p.m. when they will host the Toronto Marlies at Copps Coliseum in Hamilton.

Surprisingly, the Dogs have decided to carry 3 goalies to start the year, with Mayer and Delmas both backing up Desjardins. We'll see if that lasts very long, because that's usually a very stressful and unproductive situation for goaltenders.

The only other surprise seems to be that Avtsin was not cut from the team, as there were reports that he had not impressed in camp at all. After two disappointing AHL seasons, it seems that the Habs org is willing to give Avtsin one more shot to show his absurd talent level can translate to the pro game.