Since being traded by the St. Louis Blues to the Montreal Canadiens, Zachary Bolduc has been looking forward to playing for the team he cheered for as a kid. He’s been to Brossard to check out the CN Sports Complex and has spoken to his new coach a couple times. La Presse’s Simon Olivier Lorange caught up with Bolduc and new Habs signing Samuel Blais at the first edition of the QMJHL Foundation tournament in Terrebonne.
According to Lorange, he jokingly asked Bolduc if he was ready to kill penalties and the forward replied that when training camp comes around, he’ll be ready for any kind of opportunity. The youngster was dead serious even though he’s only played a grand total of 21 seconds on the PK in his young career.
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The forward acquired in return for Logan Mailloux added that he wants to help the Canadiens in any way possible, be it at even strength, on the power play or even when down a man. While he’s never had the opportunity to be a penalty killer, he told Lorange that he’s smart and sees the game well, playing on the PK is something he would like to had to his toolbox.
The 22-year-old has a single season of experience in the big league, but he is seen as a player who has a legitimate chance at a top-six spot. In 72 games, he racked up 36 points, 12 of which came on the power play. It will be interesting to see who Martin St. Louis elects to use with the man advantage now that Bolduc, Ivan Demidov and Noah Dobson can make reasonable first-unit cases.
Last season, Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Juraj Slafkovsky, Lane Hutson and Patrik Laine all joined forces on the top unit, but now that there have been significant new additions to the lineup, who should be on the first line unit and who should lose their spot? That’s going to be an interesting story to follow when training camp rolls around.
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