After all the pre-season games had been played in September, Claude Julien made his final roster decisions. He chose to cut AHL veterans Kenny Agostino and Michael Chaput in favour of Charles Hudon and Matthew Peca, hoping to get a bit of offence from the bottom trio and balance out a four-line formation.
The head coach wasn’t satisfied with what he saw from Hudon in the opening weeks. After a decent first full year in the NHL the previous season, with 10 goals and 30 points, Hudon had trouble getting much of anything going in 2018-19, even with the more offensive deployment the line was getting.