It was a night of firsts at the Bell Centre on Thursday, with top goaltending prospect Cayden Primeau making his first career NHL start for the Montreal Canadiens. The 199th overall pick in 2017 had the unenviable task of facing down the Colorado Avalanche, one of the NHL’s elite offensive sides. While they were down Nazem Kadri, the Avalanche were bolstered by the return of Gabriel Landeskog and Andre Burakovsky.
Also making his debut was Otto Leskinen. The rookie defender slowly grew into a solid offensive contributor in the AHL with Laval and was next up to fill the void while Victor Mete was on the shelf.