Ivan Demidov and Aatos Koivu won’t be among the 30 players taking part in camp that will wrap up with a scrimmage on Friday.
The Canadiens’ annual development camp will start Tuesday at the CN Sports Complex in Brossard when 30 players report for physical testing.
The camp will run through Friday, wrapping up with a scrimmage at 11 a.m. that will be open to the public.
Centre Michael Hage, taken with the Canadiens’ second pick in the first round (21st overall), will be at the camp. The 6-foot-1, 188-pounder posted 33-42-75 totals in 54 games last season with the USHL’s Chicago Steel. Hage is headed to the University of Michigan next season. Hage’s father, Alain, died last July in a freak swimming pool accident.
“He was a player that really impressed us all year,” Nick Bobrov, the Canadiens’ co-director of amateur scouting with Martin Lapointe, told reporters in Las Vegas when asked about Hage. “Obviously, a tough year for Michael. A family situation with the death of his father and the start of the year was probably not as perfect as he had hoped. But he was coming into the draft as one of the biggest names coming into the draft.”
“Where we were picking (No. 26), we didn’t feel like we had a chance at him so we were fortunate enough to get up there and tried a couple of other moves that didn’t work,” Bobrov said. “Again, we were very lucky that he fell. In a normal year for a player like that, probably wouldn’t have fallen to that area.”
Other players selected by the Canadiens at this year’s draft who will be at the development camp are forwards Logan Sawyer, selected in the third round (78th overall), Tyler Sawyer (fifth round, 130th overall), and Ben Merrill (sixth round, 166th overall); defencemen Owen Protz (fourth round, 102nd overall) and Rasmus Bergqvist (seventh round, 224 overall); along with goalie Mikus Vecvanags (fifth round, 134th overall).
The players will practise starting at 11 a.m. Wednesday and Thursday. The practices will be open to the public.