It may have been a tough stretch for a certain aging sports writer who spent more than half of 2025 on crutches and emerged even crankier than usual.
In the wider world, however, there were the usual thrills and chills and spills, from Canada’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander winning MVP honours and leading his team to an NBA title to Summer McIntosh shattering records in the pool to the Alouettes coming ever so close in the Grey Cup.
But in 30 years of writing year-end stories on the world of sports, I can’t recall one year that had a single, overarching theme from start to finish, a story that dominated the news in Montreal like no other. We are, of course, talking about The Rebuild — the comprehensive, thorough, brilliantly planned approach the Canadiens have taken to rise from the ashes of the fall of 2021.
It’s a sports story, but it’s so much more than that. It’s a business story, it’s a management story and it’s a communications story.
The John Molson School of Business at Concordia doesn’t offer a sports management major, but the school is ideally positioned to offer a graduate course looking at how The Rebuild has come together with key individuals like Rob Ramage and Adam Nicholas in player development, Nick Bobrov and Martin Lapointe in scouting, John Sedgwick in capology and Pascal Vincent coaching the Laval Rocket.
Along with Geoff Molson, France Margaret Bélanger, Jeff Gorton, Kent Hughes, Martin St. Louis and every player who has worn the jersey, 2025 has been their year. Not a year when the Canadiens seized the league by the throat and announced they were ready to win a Stanley Cup, but a year when it all began to come together despite a series of injuries and setbacks that might have derailed many a more experienced team.
Sportsnet’s Eric Engels caught up with Molson following the NHL’s board of governors meetings in Colorado Springs for an interview that brought much of the club’s redefined approach into sharp focus. The key to the Canadiens’ approach, which has been apparent for a while, is to sign their core players long-term, avoiding the crippling losses that have hit the Leafs with the loss of Mitch Marner and the Canucks with the departure of Quinn Hughes.
The approach will cost the Canadiens US$26 million in signing bonuses to four players come next July 1 and US$5 million to Mike Matheson early next season, contracts carefully constructed by Kent Hughes to offer incentives to players to take a bit less overall in exchange for greater security now and a chance to be part of something big.
That is not standard operating procedure across the league. Engels points out that according to PuckPedia.com, five owners refuse to pay even a dollar in signing bonuses and six others pay less than US$5 million each. It’s not the whole picture — Hughes is uniquely able to explain to players and their agents the advantages of the situation they’re in, with a young core maturing all at once in a hockey market like no other. Without financial backing from the top, however, the approach would have been pointless.
Instead, it has been a stunning success in business terms, with the value of the franchise climbing from the US$575 million paid to George Gillett Jr. in 2009 to US$1.6 billion when Molson made the decision to go for the rebuild to a Forbes valuation of US$3.4 billion in 2025.
We won’t be holding a GoFundMe for Geoff Molson, but it’s important to understand that in today’s high-octane world of professional sport, it’s vital to have a solid financial underpinning to compete.
It’s also vital to have the right people in charge of your hockey operation and the way the money is spent. On Jan. 1, 2025, the Canadiens were sixth in the Atlantic Division with 37 points — and that came after a hot streak that had squared their record, more or less, at 17-17-3. They were 12th in the conference, 23rd in the NHL and outside the playoffs looking in.
Canadiens right-winger Cole Caufield celebrates his goal against the Washington Capitals during Game 4 of Eastern Conference quarter-final in Montreal on April 27, 2025.
By the trade deadline on March 6, Martin St. Louis’s charges were 30-26-6, good for 66 points and a tie with Detroit for fifth in the Atlantic, a point behind Ottawa and two points ahead of Boston. Captain Nick Suzuki had pleaded with Hughes to retain a veteran presence to give the club a shot at a playoff spot, and Hughes listened — another reason he is so successful at his job.
The Canadiens finished at 40-31-11 for 91 points, good for the last playoff spot in the East and a first-round date with the big, powerful and experienced Washington Capitals. Not surprisingly, the Canadiens were overmatched, but they won a game and they learned.
This season, the Canadiens go into the holiday break with a 20-12-5 record and 45 points, very much in the hunt despite the complete meltdown of former starting goaltender Samuel Montembeault and injuries that have knocked at least four and perhaps five regulars out of the lineup, depending on the status of Jake Evans and his injured left knee. Obviously, the acquisition of former centreman Phillip Danault could not have come at a better time. Danault slots in perfectly.
With the apparent arrival of goaltender Jacob Fowler, the Canadiens have three players, drafted fifth, 62nd and 69th overall, who may be among the brightest young stars in the game. You can have the money, you can have a plan. But without brilliant drafting and trading, it’s hard to climb out of mediocrity — and the choices of Ivan Demidov, Lane Hutson and Fowler were brilliant.
Obviously, the Canadiens are not the only game in town. The PWHL’s Montreal Victoire completed another successful regular season in 2025, but again came up short in the playoffs. We thought that might prompt a coaching change, but the Victoire opted to stick with Kori Cheverie and a team led by 34-year-old Marie-Philip Poulin, the greatest player in the history of the game.
The Alouettes in 2025 saw their fortunes rise and fall with quarterback Davis Alexander’s troublesome hamstring. When Alexander was healthy, they were all but unbeatable. When he wasn’t, they were all too easy to beat.
In the end, Alexander was able to summon enough to get his team to the Grey Cup game against the Saskatchewan Roughriders before his leg let him down and the team fell short. Their off-season task is to get Alexander healthy and to find a backup QB who can actually play.
Yes, we’re aware that CF Montréal is still playing Major League Soccer, though it would be more accurate to say they’re playing minor-league soccer within MLS. The club won only six games in 2025, drew 10 and lost 18 while finishing 38 points behind league-leading Philadelphia and with a playoff spot no more than a distant mirage.
What are the Saputos doing with the club for 2026? We haven’t the foggiest idea. But they could do worse than to watch Molson and his staff in action and learn. Because right now, the Canadiens are setting a standard of management that is unsurpassed anywhere on this continent.
Happy 2026, folks.
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