The Montreal Canadiens have named forward Nick Suzuki the 31st captain in franchise history.
Suzuki, 23, replaces veteran Shea Weber who was dealt to the Vegas Golden Knights in exchange for Evgeni Dadonov as part of a salary shedding move by Vegas. In addition to Suzuki now donning the captain’s “C”, Montreal also announced that blue liner Joel Edmundson and forward Brendan Gallagher will serve as alternate captains in 2022-23.
Originally selected 13th overall by the Golden Knights in 2017, Suzuki was acquired by the Habs as part of the Max Pacioretty deal in 2018. After breaking into the league during the 2019-20 campaign, the London, ON native has accumulated 143pts (49G, 94A) through 209 NHL contests.
The former Owen Sound standout had a career year in 2021-22, suiting up for all 82 games and recording career highs in goals (21), assists (40) and points (61).
Montreal will have a distinctive new look to their roster this season as longtime players such as Shea Weber, Jeff Petry, Ryan Poehling, and Alexander Romanov were moved in the last few months. Replacing them are Dadonov, Sean Monahan, Kirby Dach, and 1st overall draft pick Juraj Slafkovsky.
Also gone, at least for the foreseeable future, is netminder Carey Price who will be placed on LTIR to begin the season, and whose future is very much in doubt as he continues to rehab a nagging knee injury.
Despite the roster overhaul, defenseman Joel Edmundson doesn’t see any reason why the young Habs can’t realistically make the playoffs this year. Edmundson told reporters Monday “Rebuilding, that was last year. We’re ready to take the next step…We have no excuses not to make the playoffs.”
The Canadiens kick off their preseason schedule with a game against the New Jersey Devils on September 26th.
-Kyle Skinner
Twitter: @JKyleSkinner
Photo: Princesse Sabrina. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.