Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Options Author
As coaching camp opened in September, each Joshua Roy and the Montreal Canadiens had loads of motive for optimism that the 21-year-old ahead might make a robust run for a full-time NHL roster spot.
Roy had, in any case, spent the ultimate two months of the 2023-24 season in Montreal, enjoying 23 video games, registering 9 factors (4 targets, 5 assists), and averaging 12:08 of ice time per recreation. And with the Rocket earlier than that promotion, he had put up 32 factors (13 targets, 19 assists) in solely 41 AHL video games, serving to to drive Laval again into playoff competition following the group’s troublesome begin.
Roy took a take a look at his NHL opponents and had a direct takeaway that bolstered the problem forward.
“They’re superb, they usually’re very good,” Roy mentioned.
Nonetheless, he might go into the summer season completely happy along with his first professional season after which get all the way down to his offseason coaching. Roy, a local of Saint-Georges, Que., stayed in Montreal to coach alongside teammates who might present the next pro-level customary as nicely.
Camp, although, didn’t go Roy’s approach. He dressed for 5 preseason video games with the Canadiens and picked up two assists. Was it a poor coaching camp? No. However a participant making an attempt to nail down an NHL roster spot has to do greater than that, particularly with a gaggle of different prospects making an attempt to push for that very same alternative. He was a part of the ultimate group of cuts to Laval earlier than the beginning of the brand new season.
“I didn’t have the camp I wanted,” Roy admits, “and I believe everyone is aware of it. I simply wish to show that I’m higher than that.”
Again in Laval, Roy is aware of that he has work to do. He has loads nonetheless to be taught, and new Rocket head coach Pascal Vincent might be the perfect trainer. Vincent, who spent three seasons with the Columbus Blue Jackets (together with final season as head coach), has returned to the AHL with an intensive teaching resume that goes again three a long time. That breadth of expertise consists of eight seasons in quite a lot of NHL teaching roles plus one other 5 campaigns with the Manitoba Moose, and coach-of-the-year honors in each the AHL and the QMJHL.
In junior, a commerce from Saint John to Sherbrooke throughout the 2020-21 season gave his profession a jolt. Roy improved his health, a should for anybody seeking to transfer on to the professional degree, and in addition labored to scrub up his defensive recreation and change into a extra trusted participant. These efforts paid off, together with offensively, as Roy piled up 97 targets in his closing 121 regular-season junior video games. Alongside the best way, the Habs made him a fifth-round choose within the 2021 NHL Draft, and he received a pair of gold medals for Canada on the IIHF World Junior Championship. He even earned a spot on a line with 2023 NHL first-overall choose Connor Bedard.
One situation is consistency, which is one thing that the majority younger prospects should grasp if they’re to search out full-time NHL work. Roy could be sturdy one night time and quiet the next night time. The video games come rapidly.
“I’ve acquired to be sharp each recreation,” Roy acknowledged. “Simply keep sharp each night time and produce my recreation to a different degree.”
Roy’s work is paying off early this season. He leads the Laval membership with seven targets and 12 factors in 10 video games, together with his second profession hat trick final Saturday towards Windfall. Roy has been capable of generate probabilities with 35 pictures on objective.
After falling in need of the postseason final yr, the Rocket have began way more rapidly in 2024-25. They earned their eighth consecutive win with a 4-3 shootout determination in Belleville on Friday night time, bettering to a league-best 9-1-0-0 (.900).
The offensive manufacturing is there for Roy, however constructing consistency and reliability are what’s going to push him again to the NHL. Within the meantime, he is ready to get ample ice time alongside a rising contingent of Canadiens prospects who might sooner or later skate along with the Habs.
Final season supplied an abundance of classes. So will this season. It already has.
“You need to know that nothing is assured,” Roy mentioned. “You need to earn your spot day after day.”
On the American Hockey League beat for 20 years, TheAHL.com options author Patrick Williams additionally at present covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is an everyday contributor on SiriusXM NHL Community Radio. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for his excellent protection of the league in 2016.
