The first skate to touch the ice at the CN Sports Complex in Brossard on Thursday morning was unsurprisingly Lane Hutson. Also unsurprisingly, Group A had what is expected to be the team’s top two lines along with Hutson.
The Groups for the first day seem to give an indication of how the team will line up for pre-season games. On Saturday, two groups will play the Toronto Maple Leafs, one in Montreal and one in Toronto.
Group A has the expected top six of Nick Suzuki, Juraj Slafkovský, Cole Caufield, Chris Kreider, Oliver Kapanen, and Ivan Demidov.
However, they started off with a twist.
Kreider started on the top line with Suzuki and Caufield while Slafkovský was paired with Kapanen and Demidov.
That means that Kirby Dach, Josh Anderson, Alex Newhook, Phillip Danault, Jake Evans, Alexandre Texier and Zachary Bolduc will battling for the bottom six slots in Group B.
At practice, Lane Hutson skated with Alexandre Carrier while Jayden Struble and Arber Xhekaj look primed to at least start camp as the third pairing.
That means that Mike Matheson, Noah Dobson, Adam Engström, and David Reinbacher are in Group B to start camp.
