Canadiens Notebook: Heineman gets first crack with Caufield, Suzuki

BROSSARD, Que. — The list gets passed around and the first thing you do, when you see it, is try to gain a sense for how the lines might shake out at Montreal Canadiens training camp. 

Four groups, 72 players, and even in spite of the sheer volume making it a complex picture to piece together, there are still a few hints you can’t ignore — like seeing Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki in the same vertical column. 

We know they’ll be leading the team’s first line this season, though no one else in their group on Day 2 of camp appears to be a realistic fit as their right winger.

Emil Heineman got the first look, and there’s actually a couple of things we took from that, even if it’s a stretch to think he’ll be the guy in that spot when the real games start in October. 

First off, Heineman’s presence with the team’s two best players signals that he’s starting off with a real chance of being on the roster come opening night. That’s the big takeaway.

It seems clear to us, and it’s definitely a message Heineman takes from the experience as well.

“It does make me feel like there’s an opportunity,” he tells Sportsnet after a successful scrimmage and a solid first practice. 

Then Heineman humbly says, “But I’m just focused on working hard and getting better here.”

We don’t think he’ll be doing that alongside Caufield and Suzuki throughout camp, but there’s something else that’s interesting about him getting the first crack at completing their duo. It’s his profile.

He’s a six-foot-two, 202-pound power forward, who possesses a heavy shot. He has skill, hockey sense and a penchant for playing aggressively along the boards and in battles for the puck. When you combine all those things, it’s not hard to conjure up the image of a player who fits ideally with Caufield and Suzuki.

They may pack a punch, but they’re far from being heavyweights, so both of them would benefit from having a player like this next to them. Albeit, one who’s probably a bit less green than Heineman currently is.

A side bar: It is interesting that this is the type of player Heineman has become despite playing all of 11 pro games on North American ice. The second-round pick of the Florida Panthers in 2020, who came to Montreal in the Tyler Toffoli deal after having already been traded to the Calgary Flames, was born and raised in Leksands, Sweden, where he took nearly every stride of his hockey career — on the bigger, wider ice surface.

But as Heineman says, the game over here just fits his style better, and it showed when he came to Laval at the end of last season and immediately scored seven goals.

“I really like to be intense, my forecheck to be close to the Ds, to kind of be intense all the time. That helps with the smaller rink for sure,” he says. “Plus, basically, you can shoot from anywhere. That makes it a lot easier. Just quicker plays, the middle is a little more open, so that helps.”

We’ll see how much it really does as the days pass by and the stakes rise. 

For now, there’s no guessing where Heineman will line up three-and-a-half weeks down the line. 

It is, however, a fair assumption that a few different players are going to be tested with Suzuki and Caufield. We think Juraj Slafkovsky could be one, as the first-overall pick in 2022 has a similar profile to Heineman. 

We think Rafael Harvey-Pinard could be another one. He may not be as big as Heineman or Slafkovsky, but he plays as big.

We projected Alex Newhook will be there when the Canadiens visit Toronto to open their season against the Maple Leafs on Oct. 11, and we still think that’s going to get an extensive look in camp and possibly end up being the case.

But something else happened on Thursday that was interesting.

Newhook was at centre with Slafkovsky and Josh Anderson in the afternoon, and we think it’s highly probable head coach Martin St. Louis put him at centre to start because he either asked him if it’s where he would be most comfortable or felt it’s where he would be. 

We think that’s at least part of the reason Sean Monahan was next to Kirby Dach. 

We know Monahan and Dach looked good together through some of the 25 games Monahan played before his last season was ended by a torn groin suffered while he was rehabbing a broken foot. And we also know that Monahan, with years of experience at centre, could take some pressure off Dach in the faceoff circle. 

But we don’t necessarily see them as a duo to start the season and think making Newhook comfortable to start was a priority.

We asked St. Louis on Wednesday about how he’d do that, and he said, “It’s just taking my time with him and doing the same thing I did with Dacher (last year) — let him play.”

“All these young guys, you have to build a relationship before you start diving into the coaching,” St. Louis added.

We could be wrong, but we think moving Newhook out of his natural position before even watching him play with the Canadiens probably would’ve gone against that.

From what we observed in the afternoon, Newhook appeared quite cozy. He made a great play to score a goal, another to help Anderson score one, and he was exhibiting his skill and vision well from the middle of the ice.

Newhook, who came over from the Colorado Avalanche for a pair of draft picks this past summer, also showed some of that competitiveness that would complement Suzuki and Caufield well. 

He wasn’t the only one.

Lias Andersson is a wild card

The 24-year-old, who was drafted seventh overall by the New York Rangers in 2017, is going to be a name that we feel will garner more and more attention as camp rolls along. 

He popped to these eyes immediately, scoring the first goal of this Canadiens training camp. 

“He’s got incredible skill, and I remember hearing stuff from my brother about him when they were together in New York,” said Justin Barron, whose brother, Morgan, is now a key member of the Winnipeg Jets. “Obviously, he’s a great player, high pick, and even last week, in the skates (Canadiens regulars held in Brossard), he looked really good. He’s got some really good skill, he’s got great vision, great hands and he sees the ice really well.”

All of that was apparent on Thursday, especially when Andersson threaded a no-look, spin-around backhand pass through traffic and right onto Mitchell Stephens’ stick for a late scoring chance in the first scrimmage.

But what was even clearer was how hard Andersson was competing. He scored that first goal from right in front of Jake Allen. As the game went along, he battled hard in the corners, forced turnovers, made several second efforts on loose pucks and won them back and, in essence, did a lot of the things he hasn’t necessarily been known for through the first 110 games of his NHL career. 

Perhaps the success Andersson enjoyed last year in the AHL, where he scored 31 goals and 59 points in 67 games with the Ontario Reign, finally gets him to where he hasn’t been able to be with the Rangers and Los Angeles Kings. 

Long race ahead for Andersson, with several players to pass, but he served notice on Day 1 he’s going to run it with legs pumping and arms chugging.

Pearson closer to 90 per cent

At first glance, Tanner Pearson didn’t appear to have any grey hair under the hat he was wearing when he met with reporters in Brossard ahead of his first day on the ice with the Canadiens, which is somewhat remarkable — less so because he’s 31 years old and much more so given what he went through last year. 

Pearson wouldn’t get into how many surgeries he had to have in order to fix the hand injury he suffered against the Canadiens last November, but there were reports out of Vancouver it was at least five and as many as seven after the initial one was apparently botched. That would be enough to turn him into a silver fox.

Pearson certainly got a kick out of general manager Kent Hughes referencing him on Wednesday to make the point that it takes some grey hair to bring experience to this young team, but he also acknowledged he’s well accustomed to being in a mentorship role.

“I think I’ve been the oldest forward on the team for two years,” the veteran of 590 NHL games said, though there were a couple of players who passed through Vancouver over that time who had a few months on him. 

Still, Pearson’s experience, his Stanley Cup-winning pedigree can’t be downplayed. It’s an element that has to help with a group this green, and with Joel Edmundson’s off-season trade to the Washington Capitals making the Canadiens a little less long in the tooth.

Touching base with Pearson’s former Kings linemate, Tyler Toffoli, who also played with him in Vancouver and preceded him in Montreal, it’s clear the Canadiens are getting a player who will fit in well with this team.

“He’s the best,” said Toffoli via text. “We also came up together in the minors, so we’ve known each other forever now. Just a good guy. Honestly. Wants to win.”

We asked Toffoli just how competitive Pearson is.

“He slashed me in the face in junior,” Toffoli responded, adding a laughing emoji. 

“Talking to him the last year a few times, I felt bad for him and his family because I can’t really imagine what they were going through,” Toffoli said. “But I’m happy he’s able to come back and be in Montreal.”

Pearson seems elated about it, especially considering he felt like his ability to resume his career was going to be a 50-50 proposition until his recovery finally took a turn for the better.

Pearson said his strength has returned to closer to 90 per cent — Hughes estimated on Wednesday it was around 80 per cent — and made it clear that he’s already exhausted with the subject. 

He wants to move on and play hockey, and we’ll allow him to do that.

Sean Farrell and Riley Kidney were the two players playing with Pearson on his first day as a Canadien. We expect he’ll be with more established players as camp rolls along.

Odds and ends

• Allen’s a mentor, a leader and an amazing teammate, but we shouldn’t forget he’s a competitor. When asked if he’d like to reclaim the Canadiens’ starting position from Samuel Montembeault, he responded, “I really love Sam. He’s a great goalie who proved himself. But yeah, no question, I feel like I want to play more games than I played last year.”

Allen made it clear he wasn’t just referring to being limited by injuries at times from last October to April, and it was good to hear him say he’s going to battle for the net.

• In his first game next to Suzuki since Jan. 19, Caufield appeared as though he hadn’t missed a beat. The lethal shooter, who had season-ending shoulder surgery at the beginning of 2023, scored two goals in less than a minute of Thursday’s scrimmage, with one of them going through a hole the size of a postage stamp.

“Had a whole summer to work on it, didn’t really lose much,” Caufield said afterward. 

It doesn’t look like he’s lost anything.

• From rookie camp to main camp, the player who appeared most at home with the Canadiens on this day was William Trudeau. Said one member of the Canadiens’ staff: “He’s going to be an NHL player.”

We didn’t take that to mean Trudeau’s making the team out of camp or anything, but we expect he’ll play games this year and agree he’s on the right path to a successful NHL career.

• Here’s Barron, on what he learned from last year’s camp, in which he put a bit too much pressure on himself: “You can’t dwell on it, it’s not going to help your game. Mistakes are going to happen out there, every game. Put it behind you, keep building shift by shift.”

He spent the summer doing what he’s been doing over the last three — skating with Sidney Crosby, Nathan MacKinnon, Brad Marchand, Drake Batherson, and his brother. 

“I get reps against them all summer — on two-on-ones and scrimmages or one-on-ones — and the thing that stands out is their work ethic, how hard they compete even in July,” Barron said.

“The other part is you get to play against these top players in the league and that was perfect for me trying to work on my defensive game and getting to see these guys multiple times a week in skates. Sid’s been pretty vocal with me. He’s really personable. He’s always giving me insight, things he thinks I can do better and things he thinks I do well. You take it right to heart coming from a guy like that. He’s still such an incredible player.”