Four years ago, training camp in Montreal was an audition. There wasn’t much of an NHL roster worth protecting, so jobs went to whoever looked best in September. That camp doesn’t exist anymore, and Jeff Gorton said as much this week, speaking to the Basu and Godin Notebook podcast (via The Athletic). “I think the difference is when other guys came in, maybe when we first got here four years ago, we gave jobs to guys to see what they could do,” the Canadiens’ president of hockey operations said. “Now we’re not necessarily in the same spot as we were four years ago to give guys spots.”

That one line explains almost everything happening in Brossard right now — on the blue line, in the middle of the lineup, and even inside the front office itself. This isn’t a team looking for answers anymore. It’s a team deciding how good it wants to be, and that changes what every camp battle actually means.

The Blue Line Isn’t a Talent Argument

David Reinbacher was the 5th overall pick in 2023, and injuries ate most of his first two pro seasons — 10 and 11 AHL games, respectively, before he finally got a full 57-game runway in Laval last year and looked like the real thing (24 points, plus-18). Adam Engström, a 2022 third-rounder, has already gone further — 15 NHL games mixed into a 35-point season across both levels last year. On pure hockey sense, either has a case to play significant minutes in Montreal right now.

Here’s the part that gets lost: the guys blocking them aren’t really the same kind of player, and they’re not on the same kind of contract either. Arber Xhekaj — 6-foot-4, 240 pounds, undrafted, nicknamed “The Sheriff” — is a physical identity nobody else in this organization replaces, but Montreal only brought him back on a one-year, prove-it deal signed September 15. Jayden Struble, on the other hand, is closer to what Reinbacher and Engström already are: a mobile, puck-moving lefty already locked in for this season on the two-year extension he signed last July, with his next RFA year not coming until 2027. So this isn’t really Skill vs. Size. It’s Proven vs. Unproven wearing a size argument as a disguise — and the contracts suggest management isn’t fully sure yet which one Xhekaj is.

Gorton framed the bigger-picture version of the question without settling it: “It’s one thing to say you need a huge blue line to win, or whatever, but then you see other teams — like I don’t think Carolina’s defense was huge. They did the job.” Fittingly, Carolina is who the Canadiens open the regular season against on October 6. His real conclusion pointed the other way, though: “Finding players that are multi-faceted is better. You need some size with guys that can move pucks. Those guys are like gold now.”

Translate that, and it means the Canadiens don’t actually want a straight swap of one style for another. They want defensemen who can be both — and until Reinbacher or Engström proves he can hit at both ends of the ice against NHL competition, a strong training camp alone isn’t going to move Xhekaj’s or Struble’s number off the lineup card. As Gorton put it flatly: “It’s hard to knock off an incumbent in a 10-day stretch.”

The Middle of the Lineup Has the Same Debate

The same “is this real or is it circumstance” question follows Oliver Kapanen into his push to be a legitimate second-line center. Kapanen broke out with 22 goals and 37 points in a full 82-game season, almost all of it next to Ivan Demidov — which is exactly why some of the credit gets taken away from him. Gorton pushed back directly: “People are highly critical because they’re like, ‘He’s playing with Ivan. Anybody that plays with Ivan’s going to score.’” His actual case for Kapanen is a hockey-IQ argument, not a chemistry accident: “One of his skills is intellect. He’s very smart. He knows where to go on the ice… he’s smart enough to let the other guys do it, go to where he has to go and make himself open.”

It’s the blue-line question all over again in a different sweater: a player who looked great next to more talented teammates now has to show it travels.

Dach Is Fighting a Different Opponent

Kirby Dach was a 3rd-overall pick before Montreal traded a first- and a third-round pick for him in 2022, and the return on that investment has been almost entirely dictated by health, not talent — a knee injury wiped out most of 2024-25, a foot injury cut 2025-26 down to 37 games. Gorton didn’t pretend otherwise: “The biggest thing has been his injuries. They’ve held him back… we saw it with (Christian) Dvorak, it took him two years to get back to the speed he was at before.” Dach isn’t fighting for a roster spot the way the defensemen are. He’s fighting to find out who he still is on the ice, and Gorton’s patience with that process is really a bet that the player from 2022-23 (a 38-point season) is still in there once his body cooperates.

Coach Frenchy’s Take

What stands out to me most in this interview is that management knows exactly where they are. Four years ago, camp was about finding answers. Now it’s about deciding how good this team can actually be, and Gorton is completely aware of that shift. He also knows the calendar is working against these prospects — a shorter camp means less time to prove anything, and if a young guy doesn’t grab his window right away, it can close fast. But the flip side is just as real: injuries happen, and a call-up can come faster than anyone expects. That’s the kind of depth problem every team wants to have.

I’ve been saying for two years now that this league is changing. The old model — needing size, toughness, a guy who can drop the gloves — isn’t how you win anymore. Gorton said it himself: Carolina won without a huge, physical blue line. They were quick, they got on pucks, and it was enough. Hockey is being won with mobility and speed now, not by knocking people over.

One word jumped out at me more than any other: competitiveness. Gorton used it in this interview, and Kent Hughes used that exact same word in his own sit-down with RDS Thursday night. That’s not a coincidence. That’s where this management group is aiming the whole organization right now.

I don’t know yet what they’ll decide on the blue line, at center, or with Dach. But one thing is clear to me: this team is in a better position than it’s been in a long time, precisely because their own prospects are pushing hard enough to make these real decisions necessary in the first place.

Camp wraps in a little over a week. The real answers — on the blue line, at center, and with Dach’s health — start showing up in games that count, not practice reps.