Habs News: Montreal Canadiens, NHL, Stephane Waite, Christian Dvorak, Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Phillip Danault, Trois-Rivieres Lions, Jonathan Drouin

ROCKET SPORTS MEDIA | MONTREAL, QC. — This is your one-stop destination every week day for your Canadiens news capsule. Here are your Habs Headlines!

A Dose of Reality From Waite

Former Canadiens goaltending coach Stephane Waite spoke to 98.5 Sports saying that with his huge salary demands former Canadiens centre Phillip Danault “saw himself as much better than he is.”

It’s a fascinating comment as earlier this week, Marc Bergevin said this, “Sometimes players, not all of them, but they don’t quite assess their game the right way, or the way they’re really playing. And that causes different perspectives on how the player plays.”

Waite went further saying, “If you want to win the Stanley Cup, Phillip (Danault) is your third centre. And you don’t pay a $ 5.5 million to a third liner. That’s way too much. I love the guy, but you have to be realistic.”

With respect to a replacement, Waite said that “Christian Dvorak is better, younger and cheaper than Phillip.” To emphasize his point, Waite said, “Dvorak is not replacing ‘KK’, he’s replacing Phillip.”

Waite said that Jesperi Kotkaniemi is still growing physically and mentally. “‘KK’ is still an old teenager,” Waite said. “His body is not fully developed. When he reaches a certain physical and psychological maturity, look out! No doubt he will become a complete player!”

In Waite’s opinion, for Kotkaniemi, the problem “is not talent, it is maturity. One day, he will become a very good player.”

Limited Home Tickets

The Montreal Canadiens have advised season ticket holders that the Bell Centre will be limited to 7,500 fans to start the regular season, well short of the 21,302 capacity. So, due to these constraints, the team “unfortunately can’t assign tickets to all of our season ticket holders for every game.”

Tickets will be divided into monthly game packages for season ticket holders who wish to attend games. Season ticket holders have until September 13th to indicate their interest.

As we reported on August 25th, all spectators 13-years-of-age and older must present proof of being fully vaccinated via the Quebec government’s VaxiCode passport.

Drouin Will Speak

Canadiens forward Jonathan Drouin has avoided media questions in his recent public appearances. RDS announced that Drouin will finally sit down to do one-one-one interview with Chantal Macabee on September 20th.

Drouin has not yet explained his absence after taking an indefinite leave from the Canadiens on April 28th missing 12 regular season games and 22 playoff matches. The 26-year-old winger had been demoted to the fourth line after struggling all season with just two goals in 44 games in 2020-21.

Prospect Update

In the defenseman’s first career game in the KHL, Canadiens prospect Otto Leskinen recorded two assists for Jokerit helping his team beat Kunlun Red Star 6-5.

In VHL action, Canadiens prospect Dmitri Kostenko scored the game winner on teh power-play as Khimik Voskresensk beat CSK VVS Samara.

https://twitter.com/GriffingDylan/status/1435997433876598791

Lions on TVA

The Trois-Rivieres Lions, the Canadiens ECHL affiliate, announced major sponsorship agreements with Videotron and TVA Sports on Thursday.

The brand new home arena in Trois-Rivieres will now be known as the Videotron Coliseum. TVA Sports will broadcast 25 regular season home games of the Lions. The first broadcast will be for the Lions home opener on October 21st against the Newfoundland Growlers.

Backes Retires as a Blue

Veteran forward David Backes signed a one-day contract with the St. Louis Blues and subsequently retired from the NHL.

“I felt like the game was kind of done with me and truthfully, I felt like I was mostly done with the game as well,” Backes said. “So I think it felt right with the ending we were able to have. … the script seems too good to be true of how it ended, and now the Blues being interested in a one-day contract so I could come back there and end this where it all began.”

The 37-year-old forward was a second round pick (62 overall) in the 2003 NHL Entry Draft by St. Louis. Backes scored 248 goals, 313 assists for 561 points in 965 regular-season games with the Blues, Boston Bruins and Anaheim Ducks.

The Press Zone – Montreal podcast

Current Habs topics were discussed on this week’s episode of the The Press Zone – Montreal. Listen, share and subscribe!