Currently, the Habs have seven defencemen, 16 forwards and two goaltenders at the NHL level. With all these players healthy, that's 25 players when the maximum allowed is 23. Kent Hughes will have no choice but to sacrifice players, and we can imagine that the forwards will be the ones to move. In addition to the 25 players currently under contract, several young prospects are knocking on the door of the NHL and it promises to be a real headache for the managers, who will have to make important decisions. According to Jeff Gorton, there are always solutions: <q>It's not your preferred option (placing a high-salary forward in the draft), it's not something we want to do, but sometimes you don't have a choice. If all these young players are willing to help us now and it also helps them become better players, then yes, we will create space. Whether it's by trade or by ballot, we'll be as creative as we can to make it work, so we can get the right players in place. - Jeff Gorton</q> <div align='center'><blockquote class='twitter-tweet' data-lang='en'><a href='https://twitter.com/TSN690/status/1573303348782063616?t=8fNkVqO--vcK0cpG8j3EZA&s=19'> </a></blockquote></div> This is really interesting, because the prospects seem to be starving this training camp and it would be a shame to deny a youngster a chance when the only reason is that there is no room for him. Gorton's words are encouraging for the future. Credit: <a href='https://www.fanadiens.com/equipe-lnh/canadiens-de-montreal/Declaration-majeure-de-Jeff-Gorton-qui-pourrait-signifier-la-fin-de-Mike-Hoffman-ou-Jonathan-Drouin-a-Montreal' class='link_marker' target='_blank' rel='noopener'>Fanadians.com</a>