The Montreal Canadiens will start their pre-season on September 25 with a game in Toronto against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
It is one of six pre-season games the team will play to prepare for the 2021-22 season. This will be the first pre-season since the 2019-20 season, and will give the coaching staff a chance to look at players like Ryan Poehling, Josh Brook, Kaiden Guhle and Mattias Norlinder, who would have not played in an NHL situation in over two years (in the case of Poehling and Brook). Guhle and Norlinder would have never had the opportunity.