In a perfect world, Montreal Canadiens forward Alex Newhook’s second goal against the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday would have at least held up as the game-winner. If it had, maybe Habs fans would be singing his praises instead of lamenting the refereeing, which, by just about every account, overreached in favour of the home team en route to a 5-6 loss.
Which Newhook Are Habs Getting?
However, as much as the Canadiens arguably deserved better, Newhook deserves some flowers for the seven points he has so far this season (nine games), largely playing on a line with Calder Memorial Trophy favourite Ivan Demidov (and Oliver Kapanen). Granted, it’s just eight games in and, two full seasons into his tenure with the Habs, it’s hard to determine down which road he’ll go in 2025-26. To illustrate:
Debuting for the Canadiens in 2023-24, Newhook scored career highs in goals (15) and points (34), but in just 55 games (a 51-point pace).
The following season, he effectively halved that production, with 26 points (still 15 goals) over a full 82 games.
It could admittedly go either way or even some weird hybrid of the two. However, initial signs point to a repeat of the former, hopefully just without the high-ankle sprain that kept him out of action for 2.5 months. Therein lies the rub, in that, as much of a success 2023-24 was for Newhook, it still represents a relatively small sample size, during which he scored at an unsustainably high 17.6% shooting percentage, when his career average is 13.3%. He has one of 27.3% so far this season. So, there’s an admittedly decent chance his game against the Oilers, during which he scored two of his three goals on the season, is an aberration.
Montreal Canadiens forward Alex Newhook – (Amy Irvin / The Hockey Writers)
However, consider the alternative, that Newhook is simply benefitting from Demidov’s undeniable skill. Ignoring the fact that Demidov didn’t assist on either of his goals against the Oilers and that Demidov actually has one less point than Newhook this season, let’s just establish right here and now for the sake of simplicity and sanity that the former is the superior talent and could eventually develop into the best player on the team. Someone’s got to benefit from Demidov’s ungodly playmaking ability. Why can’t it be Newhook?
Demidov’s Got to Play with Someone
The time may come for Demidov to get first-line minutes. However, it’s fairly clear Nick Suzuki between Cole Caufield and Juraj Slafkovsky, even if only by virtue of Suzuki’s team-leading 12 points and Caufield’s league-leading seven goals, still works and the status quo there should remain intact for the foreseeable future. That makes Demidov a logical mainstay on what should be called the second line for all intents and purposes. Any line that features the offensively gifted Demidov should only be considered a top-two line. If Kapanen is the logical centre on it, if Kirby Dach is deemed no longer to be a serviceable option down the middle for one reason or another, Newhook is the logical third member.
Related: Canadiens’ Dach, Demidov and Laine Experiment a Disaster in Waiting
There may be alternatives, but Newhook’s speed is an asset, enabling him to keep up with Demidov. There seems to be a misconception that Newhook lacks finishing ability, but, based on his career shooting percentage, it’s more so simply that he doesn’t take enough shots, with just 11 so far this season. That could admittedly spell trouble, seeing as Demidov only has eight, speaking to a need for a legitimate trigger man to ride shotgun instead.
Zachary Bolduc (19 shots) is another option. However, if the Canadiens are looking to roll three if not four lines, which is what it takes to compete consistently in the NHL, spreading out the offense as much as possible and playing Bolduc in a middle-six role makes more sense, especially if Newhook remains as productive as he has in this season’s early going.
It would be disingenuous to say this is the first time Newhook has played with this level of talent, in that he played with Suzuki and Caufield on the top line for over 100 minutes last season. However, now that he’s going on 25, this might be what an in-his-prime Newhook looks like, as a legitimate top-six forward, when many had concluded after a single down season that he’s more a third-liner. Considering he’s had one good season and one bad while with the Canadiens, that seems like recency bias may be rearing its ugly head, at least a tad.
Let’s call it 50-50 at this point that Newhook pans out playing with Demidov. That may be stacking the deck to some, but, if Newhook can score on 17.6% of his shots over 55 games in 2023-24 en route to a largely successful first season with the Canadiens, it’s entirely possible he does similar in 2025-26 under these circumstances. Something that hasn’t been talked about nearly enough is he’s at least earned a longer look where he is. Here’s hoping he stays, because that can only mean good things for the team as a whole.
