Friday Habs Headlines: Roster hopefuls hit the ice as rookie camp begins

Montreal Canadiens News and Notes

• Thursday marked day one of rookie camp for Canadiens prospects, including roster hopeful Artturi Lehkonen, who spoke about his desire to crack the lineup. [TVA | Camp | Lehkonen]
• First-round draft selection Mikhail Sergachev spoke with the media following day one of rookie camp. [NHL.com]
• Canadiens captain Max Pacioretty is unphased by the rumoured comments of Michel Therrien, and has no issue with the criticism he has faced from Team USA bench boss John Tortorella. [NHL.com]
• Carey Price commented on what he believes Shea Weber will bring to the team, touching on his shot and leadership qualities. [Twitter]
• The Habs netminder is far from the only one with positive reviews of Weber, however, as the defenceman has been heaped with praise from his Canadian teammates. [WCH]
• Despite a strong challenger in Braden Holtby, the job of starting goaltender for Team Canada is still Price’s to lose. [TSN]
• Alex Tanguay is still without a contract for the coming season, and while many thought the Canadiens may offer the veteran a tryout it turns out the club has no interest in bringing the former Hab back. [La Presse]
• In fact, it turns out that Marc Bergevin has no interest in offering professional tryouts to any players this season as training camp draws near. [Twitter]
• Bergevin did state on Thursday that the Habs have hired a new data analyst, though he gave no information on who that may be or what role they will play. [EOTP]
• Elaborating on the team’s use of analytics, Bergevin cautiously explained that it is an area in which they are trying to improve. [Twitter]
• Tomas Plekanec, who captains the Czech team at the World Cup of Hockey, spoke out about his team’s need to improve. [WCH]
• Sean Burke, who was recently hired by the Habs as a professional scout, will be the general manager of Team Canada at the 2016 Deutschland Cup. [Hockey Canada]/

Around the League and Elsewhere

• Whether or not the NHL participates in the 2018 Winter Olympics is irrelevant to Alex Ovechkin, who restated his position that he will be there regardless. [Puck Daddy]
• While the World Cup of Hockey has actually been quite enjoyable thus far through pre-tournament action, here are some reasons you can hate it. [The Guardian]
• Vadim Shipachyov - who was said to be courted by the Canadiens this summer - has confirmed he will honour his KHL contract before considering an NHL move. [Twitter]
• The coming expansion draft may throw a wrench in the plans of Marc-Andre Fleury, but the Penguins goaltender hopes to remain in Pittsburgh for a long time to come. [NBC]
• Jack Han shows why it can be a mistake to blame individual players for entire defensive zone breakdowns. [Twitter]/