Here’s how the battle for the 12th forward position is shaping up

Last night, following the Montreal Rocket Canadien’s 4-2 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Canadiens announced several cuts from their training camp.25 players were cut from the camp, including a certain Joshua Roy, whose future in the Habs organization is highly doubtful. This leaves 34 players in the Canadiens’ training camp, which means that, normally, there are still 11 players to be cut to meet the maximum roster of 23.

With two pre-season games left on the schedule, the battle for a spot on the Canadiens’ roster will intensify, especially on the forward line. In fact, as things stand, the battle for the remaining forward spots (12th, 13th and 14th forwards) will be hotly contested. In addition to the 11 forwards guaranteed to make the team, there are eight forwards still in contention at training camp.

Of course, Alex Belzile, Lucas Condotta and Sean Farrell aren’t really in the running, and are expected to join the Laval Rocket in the next few days, after going through the waivers.The Habs will want to send them to the waivers at an opportune time (especially in the case of Farrell) to minimize the chances of them being claimed.That leaves us with five forwards, namely Owen Beck, Samuel Blais, Oliver Kapanen, Joe Veleno and Florian Xhekaj.

Here’s the current state of play.