The 2017-18 NHL season kicks off for Montreal Canadiens fans with the annual Rookie Tournament. This year the event runs from September 8-10 at Ricoh Coliseum in Toronto, pitting the Canadiens’ prospects against the Maple Leafs’ and Ottawa Senators’ best young players.
The Canadiens, under general manager Bob Gainey, pulled out of the Rookie Tournament in 2007, two years after Guillaume Latendresse and Carey Price made names for themselves at the showcase event. Montreal preferred to shift to a more traditional training camp for their recruits for the next eight seasons, believing that thrusting players straight into a competitive environment out of the gate was actually detrimental to their development and would lead to injury.