2025-2026 Montreal Canadiens Bold Predictions

2025-2026 Montreal Canadiens Bold Predictions

They’ve improved on paper, but have they improved? That’s not a crazy statement. I’m not crazy. I have some bold predictions about the Montreal Canadians that uh you’re going to want to stick around to hear. So, grab your favorite drink. Was that whiskey? Okay. Whiskey. Maybe your favorite flavor of chips. Actually, get me a couple bags of chips dressed all over in zesty Morton. And let’s talk about it. Hot dogs. Just get your hot dogs. Come on, get your hot dogs. All right, first of all, take this one with a grain of salt. I have like surface level stats for all of these takes, but that’s kind of fun, right? Like going off a feeling. I got into a conversation earlier today with my father-in-law who his birthday was yesterday. So, happy birthday. And the conversation started about the Montreal Canadians and a little bit about how on paper they’ve improved, but have they improved? And we said you can look at the stats, you can drill down on them hard, and that’s all good and well, and you could kind of predict how many goals everyone’s going to achieve and how many goals teams typically need in order to get how many points in order to reach the playoffs. But sometimes it’s not about that. I mean, my opinion literally is that it’s usually about that, but sometimes a team digs deep. like the Washington Capitals last season. That was a team where everyone on the team, they were firing on all cylinders. Kind of like this channel. There’s no hockey, but people are still craving the hockey content like mad. Thank you so much for your support. Thank you new subscribers for joining the community. I’d also like to What’s subscribers in French? Anyway, comment. Thank you. Uh thank you for showing up and showing support even though I don’t you know speak your native language very often anyway or well but let’s get into this and again take this with a grain of salt. A lot of these are basically guesses and it’s going to go from the least bold take to the most. So starting off with uh the least spicy take. The penalty kill will decline significantly. In 24-25, Montreal posted an 80.9% penalty kill, ranking ninth in the league, and they led the NHL with 208 kills. That’s probably the most remarkable thing about the 24-25 ABS. Everything altogether was, you know, mind-blowing. But what a stat they put up for penalty kills. And of course, they’ve lost some PK pillars. David Sevard retired. D’vorak gone to Philly and he got that bag. and Yoel Arma, who I recently put a membersonly video up about. They they all played critical roles on that PK. Without those veterans, I I predict the efficiency is going to go down significantly, at least in the early season. They’re probably going to experiment a little bit and try to find some chemistry, which brings me to my next take. We’re adding a little bit of spice here. This might be like a regular Frank’s Redot on the Scoville scale. Alex New Hook breaks on to the penalty kill. Suzuki, Evans, Anderson, they’re going to be lockins for the PK. I think there’s a lot of chatter online that Bul Duke would be a good fit. And I don’t disagree, but I think that Alex New Hook will earn maybe more consistent PK shifts. He’s shown strong defensive awareness five on five and some early death charts show him slotted into the PK with the potential to be on the first PK unit with either Anderson or Evans or potentially on the second PK with Suzuki. Personally, I think that he’ll probably land with Suzuki on the second PK and only be used when maybe they need a wash completely. you know, Suzuki I think is still preferred and maybe when they get a partial change, Suzuki will come on and then New Hook will get the last nod. My third one, and uh I don’t know if this is that spicy if you take into consideration uh my other videos like the one I did about Ivan Demidov, but I believe that Kirby Doc will have a major bounceback year after another tough injury marred his 2024 2025 season. I think that Kirby Do is poised to regain his role and confidence on the second line with Ivan Demidov set to inject that second line with youthful speed, creativity, and a scoring punch. I think that that line finally works. They find their key and wouldn’t you know it, it was with a highly offensive weapon and current Calder Ivan Demidov. So, if that line gels, expect Doc to anchor it and deliver some consistent secondary scoring. I think it’ll change the perception of him. It will galvanize his reputation a little bit. And it’s a it’s a contract year, so it could mean long-term plans with Montreal. At number two, this feels like a long time coming, but it shouldn’t be. Two 50point seasons, 21 years young. He’s proven enough for me anyway. But we will say goodbye to your eye, Slumpsky. No more short slumps. This is the season that Slavovsky fully rounds into a reliable offensive driver. We could all use a clean sheet sometimes. I’m calling 60 plus points and line stability night after night. He plays with passion. He gets really frustrated when he does poorly. He has size. He has confidence. And we’ve seen him do it before. You know, he he has the ability to do it. He just doesn’t do it consistently. I think he gets put into the weeds a lot. He has different missions and he just needs to focus on offensive punches. He tries he tries to do it all and he just needs to be tough along the boards or check hard. Get the puck in front of the net for both of his offensive weapons or you know whoever’s on defense at this point. Yeah, I just I can’t see him getting worse this season. 21 turning 22. I also think that uh some of the talk around him not panning out fuels him and he’s seeing new shiny toys show up on the team that are taking a little bit of the limelight away. So because of all that I really think that Slafkovski is going to have an excellent year. And my boldest take of all, I kind of have to say this, and I don’t even necessarily believe it, but with all I’ve said and all the good stuff I said, aside from the penalty kill, I I still think that the Canadians miss the playoffs this season. I know, I know that’s not a popular one, but it’s not going to be because of lack of effort. It’s going to be because the Atlantic and the the Eastern Conference is just stacked. I think a slow start because of all the experiments that they’re going to have to perform. Couple that with a declining PK and I even think that uh they’re going to experience some pain in the defensive region as well. I love Noah Dobson. I love Hudson. I love Mat and I think that Ghouie, Strubel, and Cavier are all defensively sound defenseman. I just feel that uh it’s a little bit loaded offensive defenseman. But again, that’s that’s all feeling, right? That’s that’s really all feeling. I have no idea how the chemistry is going to work. I think maybe I could look at stats a little bit more and provide probably a more accurate opinion about that. But again, getting back to it, I think even with a lot of good effort and flashes of brilliance this season, they’re going to get edged out by teams that improved more. and maybe improved more not by acquiring new pieces but improved more as a team as development as they grew. And I think that there’s going to be initial heartbreak but it’s a I think it’s a painful step in what might be necessary before the true window opens in 2627. I I don’t feel I don’t feel right about this one. I really hope I’m wrong. Let me know how you feel in the comments. But there they are. my bold takes ranked by uh spearmint gum all the way to Ghost Pepper. How bad did I do? Tell me tell me how bad I did. I truly do feel like the the penalty kill one is kind of a a no-brainer. And then I I really like New Hook and I really like uh the doc prediction as well. But that’s going to do it for me guys. Again, thank you so much for your support. I’ve uh I’ve been having rough days lately, but it’s mostly at work. Again, not to mention members videos very often, but I did a video recently talking about that and it it’s uh it continues. There’s some pain points and uh I don’t know. I’m really on edge. I really hope that you’re all doing well and having a good summer. I know that there’s a lot going on. There’s a lot of noise out in in the world and I don’t know about you, but I think I use hockey as an escape from that. And without hockey, I mean, how about them Jay’s, huh? That’s going to do it for me guys. Once again, take care. Like the video. Helps me out with probably something. Subscribe if you’re not already subscribed. I would love to have you. And as always, I will see you down in the comments.

In this video, I’m breaking down my Top 5 bold predictions for the Montreal Canadiens’ 2025-26 season. From a penalty kill regression to Juraj Slafkovsky’s breakout and a possible playoff heartbreak, these takes might ruffle feathers—but they’re realistic. We’ll talk PK struggles, Alex Newhook’s potential new role, Kirby Dach’s bounce-back, Slafkovsky hitting 60+ points, and why the Habs could still miss the playoffs despite improving. Agree or disagree? Let me know in the comments!

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