Brossard, QUEBEC—The Montreal Canadiens are hoping Nathan Beaulieu can seize the opportunity he’s been given to start the season alongside Shea Weber on the team’s top defensive pairing.

It would allow everything else to fall neatly into place on the club’s blue line.

Beaulieu, 23, is entering his third full season with the team and although he’s shown flashes of brilliance, he has yet to develop into the consistent producer the Canadiens were hoping for when they drafted him 17th overall in 2011.

Beaulieu has performed exceptionally well through the majority of training camp in preparation for the second year of his $2-million show-me campaign that will determine his value as a pending restricted free agent next summer. He has logged upwards of 25 minutes of ice time per game while leading the league with seven points in just four pre-season contests.

He’s done well enough to earn a crack at playing alongside Weber.

“I think I got off on the right start,” said Beaulieu Wednesday. “Just going into the season without wanting to have any regrets. I knew it was a big year for me, I just wanted to go in full steam and not let opportunities pass me. The biggest thing is now that I feel like I got the ball rolling it’s just important to keep it going, not to get comfortable, not to sit back.”

Canadiens coach Michel Therrien said on Wednesday that Beaulieu will benefit from the experience of playing with Weber, but cautioned (in French) that “he had better perform well because it’s a demanding role playing on the top pair.”

If Beaulieu can stick on the top pairing with Weber, it will allow Therrien to stick to his plan of limiting 37-year-old Andrei Markov to 20 minutes per game.

Due to the number of injuries the Canadiens suffered last season, Markov averaged 23:50 per game — a heavier workload than the team would have liked for the Russian rearguard, who has 928 NHL games under his belt.

The plan for Markov this season is to pair him with a strong skater and solid puck-mover in right-handed shot Jeff Petry.

From there, Therrien has several options to choose from for his third defensive duo.

The Canadiens placed defenceman Mark Barberio on waivers Wednesday, leaving 2016 first-rounder Mikhail Sergachev in a battle with Greg Pateryn and Zach Redmond for a spot alongside veteran Alexei Emelin.

Montreal could keep rookie Sergachev with them for nine regular season games before deciding whether or not to send him back to junior. He’ll audition on the right side of Emelin during the team’s final pre-season game against the Toronto Maple Leafs Thursday night.

Would a strong performance from Sergachev Thursday force Therrien’s hand?

“I want the kid to go there, perform, and not think too much ahead,” said Therrien. “I don’t want him to put extra pressure on himself—he’s only 18 years old.”

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Here are some other storylines from training camp:

Price set to return to Canadiens crease

Thursday’s game at Bell Centre will also be an important one for goaltender Carey Price, who will see his first action in a Canadiens uniform since spraining the medial-collateral ligament in his right knee on Nov. 25, 2015.

Price, who missed 70 games last season, is fresh off backstopping Team Canada to a perfect record at the World Cup of Hockey.

“It was definitely intense, you’re kind of right into the boiling pot,” Price said Wednesday. “But I thought it was a good experience and it didn’t really give me a whole lot of time to think about things; you just get in there and do it. It was a good start.”

Price’s Team Canada teammate, Weber, is set to make his debut in a Canadiens uniform on Thursday after June’s trade.

Therrien is anxious to see both players in action.

“First of all I’m sure those guys are really excited, and it’s nice to see [Price] back,” said Therrien. “We haven’t seen him in our uniform for a long time and the fact that he did so well in that competition—in the World Cup—was great for him. He’s healthy. He looked good. He looked fresh. As we all know, he’s an important player for our hockey team and we’re excited that he’s going to wear a jersey [Thursday].”

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Picture becoming clearer up front

Just as Montreal’s defence is starting to take shape, so are Therrien’s forward combinations.

The opportunity to wear a Canadiens sweater in Thursday’s game has also been extended to forward Artturi Lehkonen, who’s doing everything he can to force the Canadiens into keeping him on the roster.

Lehkonen scored his first goal of the pre-season in Tuesday’s 4-3 win over the Boston Bruins, and he seemed to fit in well on a line with Tomas Plekanec and Alexander Radulov.

“I really like the way that he let that puck go and it was a nice pass from Radulov,” said Therrien. “His hockey IQ is right there; he understands the game. He’s got skill in plays, he’s got speed and he can make plays. So far we really like what we’ve seen.”

Therrien’s top-six, as currently constructed, includes the Plekanec trio and a line featuring Max Pacioretty, Alex Galchenyuk and Brendan Gallagher. The third line appears set with Daniel Carr and Andrew Shaw centred by David Desharnais. And the fourth line, which Therrien said last week he’s committed to, will have Torrey Mitchell between Paul Byron and Phillip Danault.

Byron is currently sick with pneumonia, sidelining him indefinitely.

A minor neck injury to presumed 13th forward Brian Flynn leaves Sven Andrighetto and Michael McCarron jockeying for the final spot on Montreal’s roster.