Jeff Gorton has had pretty good views of the Montreal Canadiens since he joined the team’s front office back in November. He’s undoubtedly taken many notes about the players and prospects who’ve suited up for the team this season, through merit or necessity.
Unless you’ve been sleeping under a rock, you know the Canadiens have had to dip deep into their depth to fill roster spots in absence of injured players and those left in COVID-19 protocol. All the while, the Canadiens have had to close facilities and have their players go days without practicing or playing games due to the Omicron variant sweeping the globe and the roster.
In some cases, we’ve seen players who have shown glimpses and flashes of brilliance or at least haven’t looked out of place. In others, we’re perhaps seeing players who have truly changed their fortunes. As one unit, we’ve seen games like the Canadiens’ overtime loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Dec. 28 where they fought until the very end. But then you’ve got games like the New Year’s Day debacle against the Florida Panthers where the roster they trotted out wouldn’t even comply with NHL preseason rules for the number of veterans on the roster.
All in all, no wins for a team that hasn’t won in regulation since Marc Bergevin was fired as GM.
For this exercise, we’re going to look at a few players who didn’t start the year as NHLers and have gotten a lot of playing time considering the circumstances.
