While he has yet to play any level of hockey higher than the Ontario Hockey League, Nick Suzuki seems to have punched his ticket to start the upcoming season with the Montreal Canadiens, rather than the AHL. Head coach Claude Julien would not make any commitments after Saturday night's game, but acknowledged the 20-year-old has done all he can to make sending him down a difficult decision.
“He keeps playing well,” Julien said. “He's showing he wants to start the season here, but we don't have any announcements to make tonight. Over the coming days we'll surely have some. We still have to reduce our roster to 23 players, so decisions will be made over the next few days.”
Suzuki played fantastically for the Habs in the preseason up to Saturday night. He then put a ribbon on his awesome play by taking the puck away from Jean-Gabriel Pageau behind the Ottawa net in overtime and potting the game-winning goal.
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Habs GM Marc Bergevin has called Suzuki's play from last year's training camp to this year's "night and day", adding Suzuki learned a lot during his OHL season in 2018-2019. It seems all that's left for the Canadiens to decide is who Suzuki will play with, and whether he'll play at centre or wing. Montreal opens its season Thursday night against Carolina.
Source: Sportsnet
