The Montreal Canadiens are Building a Perennial Powerhouse!
The Montreal Canadians were one of the biggest pleasant surprises in the NHL this past season. Putting together a very respectable 40- win, 91 point campaign that found them in the second wildard spot in the Eastern Conference in a year where very few people thought that they would even sniff a playoff birth. The young team under head coach Marty St. Louie and young studs like captain Nick Suzuki, sniper Cole Caulfield, rookie sensation Lane Hudson, and goalender Sam Montabo among others battled hard all season long and prove that they could beat any team in the league on any given night. They’d end up getting taken down by the one-seated Washington Capitals in five games in round one, but anyone who actually watched that series knows the Habs did not make it easy for the Caps to get past them. Pretty much all those games were extremely close down to the very end. The Canadians organization has been hard at work all off seasonason thus far, making some brilliant moves and giving this roster a chance to really take the next step next year, setting themselves up to be a perennial powerhouse in the very near future. The first big move GM Kent Hughes and the Havves made came at the NHL entry draft. And after Islanders defenseman Noah Dobson’s name kept coming up in trade talks and with New York not wanting to sign him to a long-term deal, Montreal decided to move both of their mid first round picks, the 16th and 17th overall selections, as well as 23-year-old depth winger Emil Heinman for the 25-year-old right defenseman Noah Dobson, who they quickly locked up to an 8-year contract that pays Dobson 9.5 million per year. I absolutely love this move for Montreal. Dobson is coming off of a down year production-wise, but he is just two years removed from a 70point season. And as a guy who’s consistently scored 10 plus goals and 50 plus points, and still being just 25 years old and potentially playing with a dynamic D partner like Lane Hudson, those numbers can certainly go up. The main drawback in Dobson’s game that I’ve seen people talk about is his play on the defensive side of the puck, but I would argue that stems from him being the main offensive defenseman on the Islanders over the past few seasons, and it’s something that he can still get better at in a different system and potentially playing with a guy like Hudson, who is as dynamic as they come. Another key move the Canadians made this off season was trading for 22-year-old winger Zachary Buluk from the St. Louis Blues. Buluk is coming off of a season where he scored 19 goals and 36 points in 72 games while averaging just 12 minutes and 48 seconds of ice time. He’s a guy that was the 17th overall pick in the 2021 draft and scored 50 goals in two separate seasons in the QMJHL. He’s got loads of potential and could very well play his way into a top six role in Montreal. The Havs did give up young offensive defenseman Logan Mayu, but after acquiring Dobson and still having David Rybacher in the system kind of made Mayu expendable. The main reason why Montreal and their fans should be excited for the next several years is because of what they already have on their team and in their system. Starting it off at the top with their captain, Nick Suzuki, the number one center who turns 26 in August and is just now starting to enter the prime of his career. He had a career-high 89 points this year, which was tied for 13th leaguewide. And he’s also a very responsible two-way center. On the top line, you also have 24-year-old goalc scoring winger Cole Coughfield, who’s also coming off of a careerhigh with 37 goals and 70 points. Coughfield is an incredibly talented player who’s starting to gain a ton of confidence and is a guy who I could easily see hitting 50 goals one day. The other player who spent a lot of time on the top line with Cfield and Suzuki is the first overall pick from 2022, Slovakian winger Yi Slavkovski. Slaf, the 6’3 forward, is still just 21 years old and just had his second straight 50point season. I think he’s a guy that still has a lot of room to grow and a lot of untapped potential at the NHL level. He has an absolute rocket of a shot and size that few skilled wingers have at his position. If his confidence continues to grow and he starts shooting the puck a bit more, he could eventually become a 30 plus goal 70 plus point player in the NHL. I think a huge X factor for the Canadians on offense could potentially be the true emergence of Ivan Devidov. The fifth overall pick from 2024 joined Montreal late in the season and played with them of course during the playoffs. But this is a guy who is dominant as a teenager in the KHL with St. Petersburg. And after seeing what Russian playmakers like Hero Kapa Prizov and Matt Ve Mitchkov did in their first full NHL seasons, there’s reason to be excited about what Demidov could do. The Habs also will have Patrick Li in his second season with the team. The 27-year-old just scored 20 goals in 52 games with Montreal. Moving on to the defense, we have to talk about the CER Trophy winner, 21-year-old defenseman Lane Hudson, who’s quickly becoming one of my favorite players in the league. Hudson had an historically good rookie season for a defenseman. His 66 points are fifth most by any rookie Dman in NHL history and the most since Quinn Hughes had 53 his rookie year in 201920. The sky is the limit for this kid. He’s as dynamic as anyone in the league and is likely a future Norris Trophy winner. And if you watch him play, he can 100% hold his own on the defensive side of things. Kaden goalie is also a big part of this Montreal blue line. He averaged just over 21 minutes a night in his 55 games this year. He’s still just 23 years old and is a key cog in that top four. And David Ryan Bacher, the Havs fifth overall pick in 2023, has a shot of potentially making the team this year after spending parts of the last two seasons in the AHL with Laval. Now, finally, the Canadians also have some strong goalenders in the system and on the roster as well. The 28-year-old Sam Montibbo played a career-high 62 games this season, broke 31 wins in a 90-2 state percentage. And in the playoffs before getting hurt, he did not look scared or out of place at all. If he continues to get better this year, he could very well be the number one guy that this team relies on heavily for the next several years. Jakob Dobis was a strong young backup throughout the season and appeared dominant at times, but he did struggle a bit in the playoffs coming in after Montau got hurt. The other key piece of the Hav’s future is stud goalie prospect Jacob Valor, who is arguably the best goalie in college hockey each of the past two seasons. He played his first few pro games for Laval at the end of last season and will likely spend the full year with that AHL squad, but he’s certainly a guy to keep an eye on going into the future for this team. The Montreal Canadians are locked and loaded with young players hungry to give this city something to cheer for and potentially their first Stanley Cup since 1993. Let me know what you think of this promising Habs team and like and subscribe if you want to see more videos like
In today’s video we talk all about the Montreal Canadiens. The Habs unexpectedly made it to the postseason this past year and have made some strong moves this offseason to add to their already stacked roster filled with young talent. This team is poised to become an NHL powerhouse very soon and have all the potential to be contenders year after year heading into the near future. Lane Hutson, Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Ivan Demidov, Juraj Slafkovsky, and Noah Dobson are just a few of the young studs they have in their lineup and they are going to be very fun to watch over the next decade or so.
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