As rebuild takes next step, Canadiens' depth extends beyond NHL roster

Jakub Dobes pushed off his left skate and sprawled over his right pad to shut down one of 11 premium scoring chances he faced on Thursday night.

We know, it’s just pre-season, that there’s only so much to take from a game that has no meaning in the grand scheme of things.

But Dobes’s highlight-reel save on Bobby McMann — along with the three he made on Mitch Marner, the three he made on John Tavares, the three he made on Easton Cowan, and the last one he made on Pontus Holmberg — rubberstamped a stellar NHL performance for the AHL-bound goaltender and helped punctuate a conclusion we can draw from the early portion of this Montreal Canadiens training camp.

This team has better reserves at all positions than it’s had in years.

It’s a reality that better equips the Canadiens to navigate the arduous 82-game journey ahead.

“There’s no way you’re going through the season with just 23 guys,” said Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis on Thursday morning. “We know there’s going to be players coming in for injuries, health issues, so for me, this year, it’s my third camp and it’s the deepest we’ve looked.

“As a coach, I like that.”

St. Louis had to like what he saw on Thursday night from Dobes, and from a Canadiens lineup mostly made up of reserves who were playing in Toronto against the entire Maple Leafs lineup sans Auston Matthews.

Several of the players the coach might have to call on over the coming months showed more of what they have since camp began one week ago.

Oliver Kapanen and Lane Hutson continued strong pushes for roster spots out of the gate, while forwards Owen Beck, Emil Heineman, Alex Barre-Boulet, Luke Tuch and Bradon Gignac, and defencemen David Reinbacher and Adam Engstrom showed glimpses of what will make them reliable replacement players if (and when) injuries hit.

Dobes, who was drafted 136th overall in 2020, showed more than just glimpses. He stopped 32 of 34 shots, including that stunning one on McMann halfway through the second period.

“He played super well, gave us a chance to calm ourselves and breathe,” St. Louis told reporters at Scotiabank Arena afterward. “He kept us in the game, and that was the goal was to keep it tight. Then you never know what’ll happen.”

We knew it probably wouldn’t result in a Canadiens win. Not against that lineup.

But a 2-1 loss under the circumstances — with so few NHL regulars dressed in bleu-blanc-rouge — only reinforced to what end those depth players will be there for this team this season.

You could see it when Barre-Boulet picked off an errant Max Pacioretty pass to set Christian Dvorak up with Montreal’s only goal. Just as it was evident in the way Engstrom confidently approached the third period to recover from a second-period mistake that allowed Nick Robertson to score what proved to be the winner for Toronto.

Reinbacher started like the rest of the Canadiens — a bit nervous and a bit on his heels against the talented Leafs.

But he, and they, finished strong.

Beck looked anything but out of place, playing heady hockey at both ends, logging just over a minute-and-a-half on the penalty kill and winning four of seven faceoffs. You’d say the same of Heineman, who had a good scoring chance and four hits over his 17:05 on the ice.

And then there was Tuch, who had four hits as well, played heavy on the forecheck and managed to notch two of Montreal’s 17 shots despite playing only 10:55.

He left the impression he’s not that far off from filling an NHL role, as he has throughout a camp that’s made it clear he knows exactly what he must do to become a Canadien down the line.

“Well, he knows what he is,” said St. Louis earlier in the day. “There’s a lot of players that come in and they’d like to be certain thing, a certain style of player and, sometimes, at that time, they’ve got to be something else. Some guys don’t like to adjust, or can’t, or don’t recognize that sometimes it’s a little bit of an identity crisis. I think Luke Tuch knows what he is.”

He’s a power forward who plays on the edge and must avoid going over it, as he did in taking an offensive-zone penalty halfway through the second period.

But Tuch will continue to develop.

All the kids will as they gain valuable experience as NHL players in waiting.

Dobes clearly got his fill in his first AHL season one year ago. He started a league-high 51 games and put up a sub-three goals against average and a save percentage above .900 behind one of the youngest teams in the league.

The six-foot-five Czech also got stronger and refined his technical game, as exhibited on the McMann save — and on the far more routine ones he had to make.

He was big, square, in control, and unfazed by the bright lights and strong opposition.

That was critical.

Like many of the players we’re referring to in this piece, Dobes came to camp facing a barrier to entry, with the route to a job in the NHL blocked by more established players. But he’s one of several of them who have done the one thing they’ve been tasked with through this first portion of camp.

“You’re constantly trying to raise your own value,” said St. Louis. “Sometimes the timing might not be right (to make the team), but you still raise your value. When I was a player, I was obviously trying to make that team I was on, but I was trying to make the NHL too. It’s a small world, people see a lot of other teams’ players…There’s timing, sometimes there isn’t room, sometimes they (force teams to) have to make room.

“So just keep raising your value, whether you think there’s a spot or not.”

Few spots on the Canadiens are available this time around because they’re more talented and deeper at all positions.

And Thursday’s game helped show that the talent and depth extends beyond the NHL roster.