For his part, Gallagher believes combining forces with the likes of Pacioretty and Drouin has some serious potential.
"You look at the skill sets they both have. Max, skating, shooting, the way he finds open ice, the way he's going to draw attention to himself. Same with Drouin, the poise he's going to have carrying the puck through the middle and the little areas he's going to find. It really makes it easy for me to do my job - get to the net," mentioned Gallagher, who has one goal in two preseason appearances. "When you're put on a line that is going to allow us to do that, hopefully we can have success."
Danault has equally high hopes for his new line.
"I haven't really had the chance to get to know Hemsky as a player, but he's 34 years old and he has a lot of experience. It will be interesting to see what happens. Chucky and Hemsky are both skill guys. It should be a good dynamic," praised Danault. "I think everyone wants to find their game. Claude has a history of finding winning combinations. Those are moves that are very understandable. I'm confident it will work, too."
Minutes before Sunday's skate got underway, the Canadiens confirmed three additional cuts. Forwards Nikita Scherbak and Martin Reway, along with goaltender Zachary Fucale, are all scheduled to report to the Laval Rocket's training camp, which begins on Monday at Place Bell in Laval.
During his post-practice press conference, Julien shed some light on Scherbak's status going forward, insisting that the 21-year-old Russian could very well find himself back with the Canadiens sooner rather than later.
"He might've not had the best camp, but he's a young player and even if he's in Laval, it doesn't mean that we won't see him before the start of the season. There are still preseason games and he's one of the guys we could recall," explained Julien, on the subject of the Canadiens' first-round pick - 26th overall - back in 2014. "We had to make some space. We aren't convinced that he's ready yet, but he has good skills and good size, and when he gets going, he's a good skater. We're going to continue working with him with the goal of making him the player that we thought he could be when we drafted him."
One youngster who is still sticking around and turning his fair share of heads is Victor Mete. The 19-year-old defenseman was patrolling the blue line with Shea Weber again on Sunday.
"He's played just one preseason game so far, but if he's still here, it's because we'd like to keep watching him," insisted Julien. "We're keeping him here because we feel it's the best spot for him right now. He's a young guy who has impressed us and we're giving him the chance to show what he can do."
