By Nick Lariviere,The Sick Podcast

Copyright yardbarker

With the fact that 42 of the 60 players at camp have either a one-way or 2-way NHL contracts, chances are we know that the 18 others will be the players skating in group C come Thursday. Of the other 18 players, only 1 doesn’t have a contract (Owen Protz) and 1 is on a professional Try-out ( Kevin Mandolese).

Team B is scheduled to play Team C in a scrimmage game at Complex CN in Brossard at 10:30 am ET on Thursday. Whereas, Team A will hit the ice before at 9:15 am ET to practice on their skills.

Then on Friday, it will be Team B’s turn to practice before Team A and Team C take the ice to scrimmage against each other. Finally, on Saturday, it will be the turn of Team A and Team B to face off in a 10:30 scrimmage at Complex CN.

If someone from Team C impresses enough during his scrimmages, he could find a way into the two other teams for a chance to play a preseason game and put the organization on notice, similarly to how Brandon Gignac was able to earn himself a two-way contract bump from his original AHL deal a few years ago thanks to his training camp performance. He wasn’t signed to the 2-way deal in Training Camp, but he did enough to get noticed within the organization, so that when the time came that they needed someone, they were willing to make the move and add him to the list of NHL contracts.

It will be interesting to see if a player on an AHL contract manages to impress the Habs enough to eventually get a two-way contract throughout the season. It’s probably unlikely given the depth that is now in the organization, but if someone blows the Habs away with their play, he could manage to do that.

Every year, there is always one or two players who surprise everyone out of nowhere and I can’t wait to see who that could be this year.