{"id":32817,"date":"2018-07-12T10:53:20","date_gmt":"2018-07-12T14:53:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=32817"},"modified":"2018-07-12T10:54:02","modified_gmt":"2018-07-12T14:54:02","slug":"montreal-canadiens-invite-simon-despres-to-training-camp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2018\/07\/12\/montreal-canadiens-invite-simon-despres-to-training-camp\/","title":{"rendered":"Montreal Canadiens Invite Simon Despr\u00e9s to Training Camp"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonhockey.com\/nhl-teams\/canadiens\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Montreal Canadiens<\/a> announced today that they have invited defenceman <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/d\/desprsi01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Simon Despr\u00e9s<\/a><\/strong> to training camp on a professional tryout.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">The Canadiens have invited Simon Despr\u00e9s to training camp.<\/p>\n<p>DETAILS -&gt; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/9gIBsNRuhR\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/9gIBsNRuhR<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/GoHabsGo?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#GoHabsGo<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Canadiens Montr\u00e9al (@CanadiensMTL) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CanadiensMTL\/status\/1017399278606733313?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 12, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h1>Simon Despres Invited to Canadiens Training Camp<\/h1>\n<p>The 26-year-old Despres spent last season in the KHL playing for Bratislava Slovan. In 44 games with the club, Despr\u00e9s scored four goals and added seven assists for 11 points. He also added 84 penalty minutes.<\/p>\n<p>Despr\u00e9s was originally drafted 30th overall by the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonhockey.com\/nhl-teams\/penguins\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a> in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft. In 193 career games, split between the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonhockey.com\/nhl-teams\/ducks\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Anaheim Ducks<\/a> and Pittsburgh Penguins, he scored six goals and added 37 assists for 43 points. He also registered 150 penalty minutes and was a plus 31 over his career.<\/p>\n<p>Simon Despr\u00e9s signed a five-year extension with the Anaheim Ducks on October 9th, 2015 but after suffering three concussions in the span of 12 months and missing all but one game in the 2016-2017 season, the club elected to buy-out the remainder of the contract.<\/p>\n<h2>Canadiens Hoping a Healthy Despr\u00e9s is the Answer on the Left Side<\/h2>\n<p>The Habs are hoping Despr\u00e9s&#8217; concussions issues are behind him and is healthy enough to make a return to the NHL. He had a promising future until it was derailed by multiple head injuries. We have seen players who suffered multiple head injuries come back and be perfectly fine, most notably <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/c\/crosbsi01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sidney Crosby<\/a><\/strong>. A towering defenceman, standing at 6-foot-4 and weighing in at 218 lbs, Despr\u00e9s would add some much-needed depth to the Habs left side if he is able to make the club. The left side at the moment is occupied by <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/m\/metevi01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Victor Mete<\/a><\/strong>, <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/r\/reillmi01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mike Reilly<\/a><\/strong> and veteran <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/a\/alzneka01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Karl Alzner<\/a><\/strong>, which <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/v\/valieri01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rinat Valiev<\/a><\/strong> on the outside looking in. If he can bounce back and be the player he was before the concussions, the Canadiens defence will have gotten a lot stronger. They very well may have found a potential partner for <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/w\/webersh01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Shea Weber<\/a><\/strong>.<br \/>\n<a id=\"6HnWBmexTWRT6lsqWWnIQw\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.ca\/detail\/491462832\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'6HnWBmexTWRT6lsqWWnIQw',sig:'3oCS8Qioe8cAELXTYtn2QQijNfI0D2lQ-ePYaTEy_80=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'491462832',caption: true ,tld:'ca',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Montreal Canadiens announced today that they have invited defenceman Simon Despr\u00e9s to training camp on a professional tryout. The Canadiens have invited Simon Despr\u00e9s to training camp. DETAILS -&gt; https:\/\/t.co\/9gIBsNRuhR #GoHabsGo \u2014 Canadiens Montr\u00e9al (@CanadiensMTL) July 12, 2018 Simon Despres Invited to Canadiens Training Camp The 26-year-old Despres spent last season in the KHL [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2506,"featured_media":32826,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,34],"tags":[37,152,38,3497],"class_list":["post-32817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-canadiens","category-news","tag-hockey","tag-montreal-canadiens","tag-nhl","tag-simon-despres"],"modified_by":"Connor Lapalme","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2506"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}