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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Knightfall" data-source="post: 2574296" data-attributes="member: 2012">All signed, Canadiens have holes to fill with young players heading into campSportsnet.caSeptember 13 @ 17:56, EST MONTREAL (CP) - In the real world, job opportunities may be scarce for young people, but that is not the case at the Montreal Canadiens training camp.There are openings in goal, on defence and up front and general manager Bob Gainey is looking to his young prospects to fill them. "We have a large group of players who are coming to an age of maturity," Gainey said Tuesday.That would include centre Mike Ribeiro, winger Michael Ryder and defenceman Mike Komisarek, who all began to make their mark before the 2004-05 season was wiped out by a lockout.After that, there's "a group of players who have been through the development phase and are ready to come in and join the group ahead of them and, I believe, participate and contribute to winning games."Who that will be is to be decided in camp, which begins in earnest on Wednesday as 47 players begin on-ice workouts at a suburban Montreal rink.Strong candidates include centres Chris Higgins and Tomas Plekanec, wingers Alexander Perezhogin, Andrei Kostitsyn and Marcel Hossa, defencemen Ron Hainsey, Mark Streit and goaltender Yann Danis.There was no free-agent signing spree by the Canadiens when the lockout ended, although they kept free agent winger Alex Kovalev for four years at $18 million US.They also picked up veteran defenceman Mathieu Dandenault from Detroit to replace the departed Patrice Brisebois and signed tough guy Peter Vandermeer to take Darren Langdon's vacated post.Centre Radek Bonk and goaltender Cristobal Huet were acquired before the lockout, although Huet is expected to be out until December with a knee injury.Huet is the only player not yet in camp. With the signing of Ryder to a $1 million, one-year deal on Monday, all their players are under contract. Their payroll sits at about $32 million, well within the $39-million salary cap.Gainey is confident that some young players, most of whom have been developing in the Canadiens system for a few years, are ready to step in.With some spending an extra year in the AHL due to the lockout, he said it was "like we have two graduating classes at the same time."Veteran defenceman Craig Rivet said the team chose the smart path."We have some outstanding young players, so it will be a very competitive and exciting camp," he said. "We have some guys coming into the line-up who are going to make us a powerhouse in future years."Gone from the side that reached the Eastern Conference semifinals in 2004 are, beside Brisebois and Langdon, goaltender Mathieu Garon, defencemen Stephane Quintal, Karl Dykhuis and forwards Andreas Dackell, Joe Juneau, Yannick Perreault, Jason Ward and Jim Dowd.Those returning include captain Saku Koivi with linemates Kovalev and Richard Zednik; Ribeiro with linemate Ryder and a third spot, possibly returnee Pierre Dagenais, to be decided; Bonk, perhaps with Jan Bulis and Niklas Sundstrom; and fourth-line centre Steve Begin with linemates to be determined, although likely including Vandermeer.The defence so far has Rivet, Komisarek, Dandenault, Andrei Markov, Sheldon Souray and Francis Bouillon, who is forever on the bubble."There's a lot of new faces, so it's too early to tell how we'll end up or what kind of team we'll have," said Koivu. "But there are young guys who showed two years ago they can do a lot of positive things."It gets us old guys going when you see young guys coming up and trying to get in the line-up."In goal, Danis is likely to replace Huet as Jose Theodore's back-up when the season opens Oct. 5. The 24-year-old was signed as a free agent out of Brown University in 2004 and spent last season as the top goalie for AHL Hamilton, where he went 28-17-6 in 53 games."Last year was like a blessing being able to work on things in Hamilton without the pressure of being in Montreal," said Danis, a native of Lafontaine, Que. "Now, I just want to make the team and get as much playing time as I can."On defence, it could be a make-or-break camp for Hainsey, a first-round draft pick in 2000 who has not always played up to his obvious talent as a big, rushing defenceman.Competition comes from Streit, a 27-year-old veteran of international hockey from Switzerland taking his second shot at making the NHL."I was here when I was 21 and it didn't work out," said the five-foot-11, 198-pound Streit. "I just want to work hard and make the team."Higgins, a 2002 first-rounder, had 28 goals for Hamilton last season and is considered a solid prospect, as is Plekanec, a smaller centre who had 29 goals for Hamilton.Perezhogin, a 2001 first round pick, was suspended for the entire AHL season from a nasty slashing incident in 2003-04, but spent last winter playing with superstar Jaromir Jagr with Omsk of the Russian league, where he had 33 points in 43 games in a low-scoring league.Kostitsyn was Montreal's first pick in 2003 and while he had a quiet first year in Hamilton with 12 goals in 66 games, some feel he is the most talented of the lot.Hossa, the younger, bigger but not as gifted brother of Atlanta star Marian Hossa, made the Slovak national team at the world championships last spring, although he didn't play much.Also to be watched in camp are goaltender Carey Price, drafted fifth overall in June, big centre Kyle Chipchura, a 2004 first rounder and Raitis Ivanans, a Latvian tough guy who had 259 penalty minutes for Hamilton,Coach Claude Julien was on hand but elected not to speak to the media. His wife Karen gave birth to their first child, a daughter, on the weekend.</blockquote>

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