For some players, training camp is merely a way to begin the slow progression towards regular season competition, a time akin to bringing the car in for a tune-up to prepare for the rigours of winter.

But for others, particularly young players, it is a time to re-establish momentum gained at the end of the previous season.

At Montreal Canadiens camp two months from now, several key players will fall into the latter category.

P.K. Subban will want to show off all the summer training he's been bragging about on Twitter and also stake his claim to the important minutes he played last season in the absence of Andrei Markov and Josh Gorges, who will both be looking to reclaim them.

Max Pacioretty will want to show that his horrific injury that ended his season is fully behind him, and that he's poised to take the next step in his progression toward becoming an elite forward in this league.

Similarly, David Desharnais will want to pick up where he left off in the playoffs while also recovering from a knee injury over the summer, armed with a two-year, one-way contract that he'll want to prove he is worthy of.

But the player for whom I feel training camp is the most important is the one who risks missing it altogether: Lars Eller.

However, Eller told Denmark's Sporten.dk on Monday that his recovery from surgery on his right shoulder is ahead of schedule, and that he hopes to be ready for the season opener Oct. 6 in Toronto (big tip of the hat to the blog Your Canadiens for finding the link).

Now, a disclaimer is required on this news, because as far as I can tell this is simply a case of Eller giving a self-diagnosis of his progress. This is not coming from the Canadiens medical staff.

Still, the original timeline when he underwent the operation on his right shoulder May 13 in Toronto was an absence of four to six months, which creates a window from mid-September to mid-November.

That's a huge window for Eller, because it means the difference between participating in training camp from the very start and missing upwards of 20 games.

Progression continued all season

I can't think of very many rookies who entered a season with the kind of pressure Eller did last fall, the primary returning player in a trade for a playoff hero in a town that hasn't had too many playoff heroes of late.

Things didn't start all that well for Eller and coach Jacques Martin did not always exude confidence throwing him on the ice late in tight games. But if you break Eller's season down into 20-game quarters, you'll see that Martin's confidence in him grew as the team moved towards the spring.

In the Canadiens first game of the season, Eller was given a plum spot replacing the suspended Mike Cammalleri on the team's top line, logging 16:27 of ice time that night in Toronto. It would be three months before he saw the same amount of minutes again.

Over the first 20 games on the Camadiens schedule, Eller was a healthy scratch once, and in the other 19 games he played an average of 9:41 and had no goals, one assist and was a minus-3 (though he and his linemates Tomas Plekanec and Andrei Kostitsyn were a minus-2 on opening night).

Over the next 20 games, Eller was again scratched once but played an average of 11:10, had two goals and three assists and was a plus-2.

The third quarter of the season was Eller's toughest as he was scratched three times, but his ice time still climbed to 11:25 per game while producing a goal and two assists with a minus-4 rating.

But over the final 22 games Eller began to show his growth, playing every game at a rate of 12:08 a night and producing four goals and four assists with a plus-1 rating.

Over the seven games of the playoffs, Eller played 13:05 per game – including 16:10 with an injured right shoulder in Game 7. 

To have an opportunity to pick up where he left off by beginning training camp with his teammates, or at least being ready for the season opener, would be a big boost for Eller.

It just remains to be seen whether or not his own diagnosis of his recovery is reality or rather the typical optimism every player has when discussing an injury.