There’s obviously a lot happening away from the rink that goes in to becoming a professional hockey player. But ultimately, it’s what happens on the ice that will decide if a player has what it takes to play in the NHL.
And in the opinion of former Montreal Canadiens draft pick and nine season NHL veteran Gilbert Delorme, forward prospect Joshua Roy just doesn’t appear have it.
During what has been widely viewed as the make-it-or-break-it training camp for Roy, who is entering the final season of his entry-level contract, the 22-year-old winger just has not made the impact necessary to earn a spot in Montreal. On Saturday, following a game against the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Canadiens announced their first wave of cuts, and Roy was one of two dozen players reassigned to the AHL for the start of the Laval Rocket’s training camp.
Joshua Roy Among First Wave of Cuts After Failing to Impress in Camp
A fifth-round pick in the 2021 draft, Roy was a dominant offensive producer in junior hockey, and he has scored 67 points in 88 games for Laval over the past two seasons. With just 35 rather uninspiring NHL games on his resume, Roy spent the past summer in an intense UFC-style training program to put himself in the best position to earn his place on the Canadiens’ roster.
However, when camp opened and the preseason games began, Roy just did not do enough to stick around.
“I kind of feel for the kid, man,” said Shaun Starr of Montreal radio station TSN 690. “Like, he tried to do so much work in the offseason. He recognized faults in his game. He tried to make some adjustments to fix those faults. And it’s got to be psychologically tough, man, to be a part of the first wave of cuts.”
Former Habs Defenseman Gilbert Delorme: ‘Joshua Roy Will Not Play For the Canadiens’
But in the opinion of Delorme, the analyst and co-host of “Le Club du Matin” for BPM Sports, Roy just wasted his last chance with Montreal.
“I’ll say it: Joshua Roy will not play for the Canadiens,” Delorme said during Friday’s episode, with translation provided by Google Translate.
“There’s no malice, nothing against the kid, but there’s no room for a guy like that. I’m sorry, but no, there’s no room for a guy like that.”
Particularly, RG Media’s Marco D’Amico stressed, when other up-and-comers like Florian Xhekaj are showing the team so much more. Appearing on “the Shaun Starr Show,” D’Amico praised Roy for changing his offseason routine, but unfortunately, it didn’t result in meaningful change to his “on-ice style.”
“And that to me is the most telling part,” D’Amico explained. “The reason why the Canadians are looking at Florian Xhekaj more than Joshua Roy, despite Joshua being a more skilled player, is because [Xhekaj] brings more intangibles and he brings more value to the team, because Florian could be played on the penalty kill, could be played on 5-on-5, could play wing, could play center, is a left shot – we just talked about how that’s not an abundance in the organization – and is physical, right? So that brings that other element to it as well. So the more layered your game is, the more value you bring to a team. And I think that’s why, unfortunately, there’s not enough layers in Joshua’s game.”
Canadiens’ Insider Declares Prospect’s Time in Montreal Is Over