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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Knightfall" data-source="post: 2625652" data-attributes="member: 2012">Habs to start season with six rookiesCanadian Press10/3/2005 7:59:25 PMThe Montreal Canadiens will begin the season with six rookies including captain of the Swiss national team Mark Streit, who beat out Ron Hainsey for the one open job on defence in Montreal.''I'm very surprised and very happy,'' Streit said after getting the word. ''The first couple of days everything was so different, the hockey - everything - but after the first week I felt more comfortable and every day was a little better.''There's still a lot of space to improve farther. I want to work even harder now.''Streit, 27, has come a long way. He was the 262nd player selected in the 2004 entry draft.Raitis Ivanans was the surprise winner of the enforcer's job over Peter Vandermeer, who along with Hainsey was assigned to the AHL farm team in Hamilton. Ivanans, 26, may have won the Habs job by taking on Ottawa bruiser Brian McGratton on Saturday.The six-foot-three Latvian arrived in Canada at age 17 to play junior hockey in Aurora, Ont. He was never drafted. He had a tryout with Detroit four years and didn't make it. He was playing in the United Hockey League for a team in Illinois just two years ago.GM Bob Gainey likes Ivanans' size.''We're not a big team compared to other teams in the NHL, but we are a quick team and I think we can handle our own in the physical areas, in front of the net and in the corners,'' says Gainey. ''I don't see us being disadvantaged in size.''Other rookies to start the season with the Habs are forwards Chris Higgins, Alexander Perezhogin and Tomas Plekanec, and goaltender Yann Danis, who will back up Jose Theodore until Cristobal Huet returns from a knee injury in late November or early December.''You always need younger guys if you're going to be successful in the long term,'' said captain Saku Koivu. ''Now we have young guys and they're hungry.''They want to show they belong in this league, and it drives us older guys to work harder to keep our spots.''iggins, 22, an American who was Montreal's first pick and 14th overall in 2002, is a strong two-way player. He got into two NHL games in 2003-2004.''I definitely knew I had the chance and that I had the ability and work ethic to grab a spot on the roster, but I had to put out a consistent effort every day,'' he said. ''Obviously, it worked out.''    Plekanec, 22, tied with Radek Bonk for the team scoring lead in the pre-season with eight points (4-4-8). The Czech left-winger adds speed to the right side.Perezhogin, 22, is the Kazakh winger who was banned from the AHL for a year after slashing an opponent across the face during a playoff game in 2004. He played on a Russian team with Jaromir Jagr last winter.</blockquote>

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