![\"Nick](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1755985452_801_960x0.jpg\")
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Nick Suzuki and Lane Hutson were two key catalysts for the Montreal Canadiens’ return to the Stanley Cup playoffs in 2025. (Photo by Jeff Vinnick\/NHLI via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
NHLI via Getty Images<\/p>\n
The Montreal Canadiens were one of the best feel-good stories of the 2024-25 NHL season. A 15-point improvement in the standings saw them return to the post-season for the first time since their improbable run to the Stanley Cup Final in 2021, while Lane Hutson\u2019s runaway Calder Trophy win was the first major award for a Canadiens player since Carey Price ran the table with the Hart, Vezina, Jennings and Ted Lindsay Award in 2015.<\/p>\n
With Atlantic Division rivals Buffalo Sabres and Detroit Red Wings still mired in mediocrity as they search for the right formula to snap their long playoff droughts, \u2018rebuild\u2019 has become a bit of a dirty word in NHL circles. But the Canadiens have embraced it \u2014 putting it front and center in the title of their docuseries on Canada\u2019s Crave streaming service: \u2018The Rebuild: Inside the Montreal Canadiens.\u2019<\/p>\n
After Season 1 became Crave\u2019s most-watched documentary series<\/a> in Canada in 2024, the first two episodes of the show\u2019s second season premiered on Thursday.<\/p>\n The tone is similar to Season 1, offering insights into all aspects of the team\u2019s operations. There\u2019s another look at the careful decision-making process that goes into mounting the game presentation for the team\u2019s home opener. There\u2019s the merchandise snarl that ensues when Cole Caufield decides to swap out his No. 22 for No. 13 to honor the memory of Johnny Gaudreau.<\/p>\n Montreal Canadiens right wing Cole Caufield reacts after scoring a goal against the Washington Capitals goalie Logan Thompson (48) during the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs. (Photo by David Kirouac\/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)<\/p>\n Icon Sportswire via Getty Images<\/p>\n But the most striking element is the team\u2019s bumpy start to the season \u2014 all-but-forgotten after how well things turned out.<\/p>\n After center Kirby Dach suffered a season-ending knee injury in October of 2023, fans were fearful that new offseason acquisition Patrik Laine had suffered a similar fate after a knee-on-knee collision in just his second pre-season game. Defenseman David Reinbacher, the fifth-overall pick in 2023, also suffered a knee injury in pre-season that prevented him from joining the AHL\u2019s Laval Rocket until late February.<\/p>\n Then, when the regular season began, the results didn\u2019t come. After winning two of their first three games, Montreal then won just two of the next twelve. By Nov. 10, they\u2019d slipped to the very bottom of the NHL standings, but then the tide began to turn.<\/p>\n Episode 2 of the docuseries captures coach Martin St. Louis telling his players they\u2019re ready to \u201ctake off\u201d when they rally from a 5-4 third-period deficit to snap their six-game losing streak with a 7-5 win over the Buffalo Sabres on Nov. 11. After going pointless in Montreals\u2019s previous four games, 2023-24 leading scorer and captain Nick Suzuki was named the game\u2019s first star thanks to a four-point night, and Caufield\u2019s power-play game-winner vaulted him into the league lead with 12 goals in his first 16 games.<\/p>\n But it\u2019s hard to make up ground in the National Hockey League standings. A subsequent 9-7-1 run left them in 26th place at the Christmas break, still seven points shy of a wild-card spot. But the call-up of rookie netminder Jakub Dobes<\/a> on Dec. 27 helped spark a 10-2-1 run. By late January, they\u2019d made it into the wild-card mix.<\/p>\n Hutson had also begun producing at a point-per-game rate, and would finish the year with 66 points. That led all rookies in 2024-25 and was the fourth-most ever by a rookie defenseman \u2014 behind only 1980s stars Larry Murphy, Brian Leetch and Gary Suter. After his strong finish to the season, Hutson became first Montreal player to win the Calder Trophy since Hall of Fame goaltender Ken Dryden in 1972.<\/p>\n Once the playoffs arrived, Hutson also led his team with five points in five games.<\/p>\n Suzuki also caught fire in the second half of the season, finishing with a career-high 89 points. Caufield cracked 30 goals for the first time, leading the Canadiens with 37 tallies. And Laine made it into the lineup by early December, finishing the year with 20 goals in 52 games.<\/p>\n Off-Season Moves<\/p>\n With the future looking bright, GM Kent Hughes<\/a> and executive vice-president Jeff Gorton did more shopping during the off-season. On draft weekend, they acquired 25-year-old right-shot defenseman Noah Dobson from the New York Islanders in exchange for forward Emil Heineman and two first-round draft picks, then promptly made him the team\u2019s highest-paid player by inking him to an eight-year contract extension with a cap hit of $9.5 million.<\/p>\n A native of Prince Edward Island, Dobson spent significant time in Quebec during his development years. He attended prep school at Bishop\u2019s College in Sherbrooke spending three years in the QMJHL, winning back-to-back Memorial Cups with New Brunswick\u2019s Acadie-Bathurst Titan and Quebec\u2019s Rouyn-Noranda Huskies.<\/p>\n With their newly acquired defensive depth, the Canadiens made an accompanying move. Four days after trading for Dobson, they dealt 22-year-old defense prospect Logan Mailloux to the St. Louis Blues in exchange for fellow 2021 first-round pick Zach Bolduc. A 19-goal scorer on right wing last season, Bolduc is a native of Trois Rivieres, Quebec. He won the Memorial Cup with the Quebec Remparts in 2023.<\/p>\n Outlook for 2025-26<\/p>\n Heading into the 2025-26 season, PuckPedia<\/a> shows the Canadiens as being nearly $6 million over the salary cap ceiling of $95.5 million. That\u2019s easily fixable, as this is the last season that Price\u2019s $10.5 million cap hit remains on the books, even though he hasn\u2019t played in more than three years.<\/p>\n The question now: can the Canadiens take another step forward? The team\u2019s young core has gained another year of experience, injury concerns have eased somewhat, and there\u2019s another top-ranked rookie ready to contribute as 2024 fifth-overall pick Ivan Demidov is set to step into a full-time role.<\/p>\n But progress in the NHL is not always linear, and nothing is guaranteed. The Canadiens were able to hold off the Columbus Blue Jackets to seize the final Eastern Conference playoff spot last spring, but the Jackets are also a team on the rise. Meanwhile, perennial playoff participants like the New York Rangers and Boston Bruins will be looking to re-claim their spots with new coaches<\/a> in place, and the New York Islanders are looking for better results under new GM Mathieu Darche.<\/p>\n As their fans wait to see if the Montreal Canadiens can maintain their positive momentum, they can re-live their team\u2019s thrilling second half as documented in \u2018The Rebuild.\u2019 New episodes will drop each Thursday for the next four weeks, through Sept. 18.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nick Suzuki and Lane Hutson were two key catalysts for the Montreal Canadiens’ return to the Stanley Cup…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168858,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5103],"tags":[265,971,5,3550,1749,502,412,264,21,5147,4,975,778,640,29231],"class_list":{"0":"post-168857","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-montreal-canadiens","8":"tag-canadiens","9":"tag-cole-caufield","10":"tag-hockey","11":"tag-jeff-gorton","12":"tag-kent-hughes","13":"tag-lane-hutson","14":"tag-martin-st-louis","15":"tag-montreal","16":"tag-montreal-canadiens","17":"tag-montrealcanadiens","18":"tag-nhl","19":"tag-nick-suzuki","20":"tag-noah-dobson","21":"tag-patrik-laine","22":"tag-the-rebuild-inside-the-montreal-canadiens"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115080269948516788","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}