So what are the Montreal Canadiens for 25-26?

I did my 2025-2026 Likely Wrong NHL Regular Season Predictions already so you can take a look at that. I really should have figured to do a Canadiens preview solo because that Youppi! photo would have worked much better for this than that. Anyway!

I’m thinking back to all of my years as a Montreal Canadiens fan (including the time I wasn’t) and there are probably three distinct years I was most excited for the team:

92-93: I really started following hockey around this time. I knew what hockey was around 1989/1990 because my friend Matt told me about it. He was a dirty Toronto Maple Leafs fan. My dad told me that in this household? We cheer the Montreal Canadiens. That’s all it took. But I didn’t really get into the team until the summer of 1992 when they traded for Vincent Damphousse. I picked a good player to become a big fan of because the team won the Stanley Cup that year. It was the last time they won it too.

10-11: Montreal the year prior had a Cinderella run to the Eastern Conference final off the back of Jaroslav Halak having an incredible playoffs, Jacques Martin playing a stiffling defensive strategy forcing teams to take bad angle shots, and the timely scoring of Mike Cammalleri. I was all in on Mike Cammalleri. I think at the time I had similar features/haircuts to him. But it was going into the next season I was so hyped. Montreal had just traded Halak to go all in on Carey Price. I felt this was the right move. I thought the youth of the team was super exciting, especially Carey and rookie defenceman P.K. Subban who I had been following since he got drafted. Add in Max Pacioretty, Lars Eller, and I was revved up for the year. And then Andrei Markov got injured.

24-25: Yes. This year.

92-93 worked out. 10-11 did not. We will find out if this year goes in time, but I want to first talk about why this team could have issues.

Double Edged Sword: Youth

The Montreal Canadiens are the youngest team in the National Hockey League. They were almost the youngest last year, but with David Savard in his final year and Carey Price still on the books, that brought up the age average. This year both are gone and their oldest player is 33 years old in Brendan Gallagher. They have two other players at 31 in Josh Anderson and Mike Matheson. Alex Carrier just turned 30 today. Nobody else is in their 30s. Sam Montembault will turn 30 later this October and then you won’t have another 30 year old unless they make a trade until Jake Evans turns 30 in June.

They currently have on their roster 12 players at age 25 or younger. It’s not just a bunch of bottom liners either. Lane Hutson is the future on the backend and just won the Calder and he’s 21. Ivan Demidov is their dynamic potential Calder trophy winner this year and he’s only 20! Slafkovsky is only 21, their other new rookie in Oliver Kapanen is 22, and new forward by trade in Zachary Bolduc is 22. Their captain in Nick Suzuki is only 26 years old.

This is an extremely young team and this isn’t the end of their prospect pool. David Reinbacher is 21 and maybe a year or two away from making the club. Jacob Fowler, their starter in the AHL right now, is only 20 years old and I feel like he will be their future franchise goalie. The kid they drafted this year, Alexander Zharovsky, has had a fantastic start to his KHL career especially as an 18 year old in the league. He might not be over for another 3 years and he already looks like a potential top NHLer. I’m super excited for Michael Hage, drafted same year as Demidov, and he’s in the NCAA with 7 points in 2 games. He’s 19 still.

All this youth is an incredible thing to have when it’s top end skill, and there’s probably other guys who could make the team one day. Florian Xhekaj, Hayden Paupanekis, L.J. Mooney, Tyler Thorpe, Aatos Koivu, Adam Engstrom, there’s so much depth and potential here.

The problem is that there isn’t a lot of veteran leadership there to balance it out, and either these kids develop properly or they have nobody to get them out of the gutter if things go wrong.

As the youngest team in the league that means you can’t expect any veteran leadership to push them back on track should the team stumble or struggle. It all falls upon the shoulders of the coaching staff led by Martin St. Louis. And yes, Marty is an incredible motivator, and a former NHL star himself, but it’s different to be the silver fox coach and being one of these players teammates.

The youth is what makes them a potential Stanley Cup favourite soon but it could also be their downfall this season.

If the club doesn’t make the playoffs? It won’t be because everyone is a failure and the team sucks. It’ll be because the Atlantic is a tough division to land a playoff spot in, they got very lucky last year, and this time that youth ended up a detriment instead of an advantage.

Handle My Heart

All that said, my excitement for the team? That’s due to all of this youth. This was a rebuild done correctly and it didn’t take a half decade to do it. They didn’t give up halfway through like the Toronto Maple Leafs did. This team is built up in prospects at every position. They have players that provide every potential element. If they lose someone they can add someone later.

The club also handled the salary cap well by giving contracts to young players early. Locking up the likes of Nick Suzuki (one of the few good things Marc Bergevin did), Cole Caufield, Juraj Slafkovsky, and Kaiden Guhle early they’ve saved a lot on the cap. That cap savings allowed them to bring in Patrik Laine at $8.7 million without needing cap held back, and it allowed them to recently acquire Noah Dobson from the New York Islanders and pay him $9.5 million for the next eight years.

The club does have a few big contracts to sign by next summer, especially Lane Hutson. Kirby Dach needs to prove he can be a 2C and Arber Xhekaj needs to make this the year he solidifies a spot on the blueline. Summer of 2027 will be when the contracts of Brendan Gallagher, Josh Anderson, Alexandre Carrier, and Sam Montembeault all come up. Four of their oldest players. That money will absolutely go towards the likes of Ivan Demidov and paying for the new deal of Lane Hutson, but they are doing this all with the cap shooting up and already having $5.5 million in cap space open after trading Carey Price.

I don’t know when the NHL will start doing expansion teams again but that’s right now their only fear, is in losing a good young player to the expansion draft. But that’s why you have so much depth in your prospect pool!

When you can afford the team you built and you built a great young team it’s hard not to think you’re going to be a competitor soon for the Cup.

Everything will go right and everyone will be happy

When I watch this team and I see the potential they have, it’s crazy to think if even half of them meet that potential.

I am so hyped for Zachary Bolduc. I don’t care if he had a weak preseason. As Carey Price said in 2011? “Chill.”

I watched a lot of Bolduc highlights on the St. Louis Blues and he’s exactly what this team needed. He’s strong, he’s willing to do what is asked, he plays fantastic defence as a forward, and he knows how to get into the right places on the ice during a powerplay. Instead of making the powerplay force everything to shots on the wing, he can skate right to the middle of the ice and find a lane to shoot. His one timer and wrister are deadly and I think he does far more than some expect him to do. He’s absolutely my guy for this season. He is also only playing his second full NHL season. He had 36 points in his rookie campaign with 19 of them goals. I don’t think 25+ goals is impossible.

Bolduc is my guy, but I should actually be more hyped for Ivan Demidov. He truly does look like he could be that elite Russian forward I’ve always dreamed for Montreal. Every time they’ve had a Russian it’s usually in their 30s with only a few years left to squeeze. Alex Kovalev and Ilya Kovalchuk come to mind. They got Alex Radulov at a good time but blew that. Defenceman Andrei Markov is of course the best Russian to ever play for the Montreal Canadiens but do you know who after Kovalev is the highest scoring Russian in Habs history? Oleg Petrov with 190 points in 385 games. My favourite as a kid was Valeri Bure who only played three and a half seasons for 112 points. Demidov could be better than all of them. I don’t know if he wins the Calder when he’s the favourite but I do think he gets close.

There’s a lot of worry about Noah Dobson since he had a huge 70 point season with the New York Islanders then followed it up with a worse season, but I think he had too much expectation as their number one defenceman at a young age. Going to Montreal they have Lane Hutson to take a lot of that offensive burden off. Dobson is absolutely paid like a number one defenceman but I think he ends up a slot under Hutson and that allows him to relax a lot more. It’s hard to relax in a market like Montreal but guys who choose it? They want that pressure. I think Noah knows whats in store for him.

And god damn what if Nick Suzuki gets better and hits 100 points? What if Cole Caufield finally scores 40 goals? What if Patrik Laine is great again? What if Juraj Slafkovsky becomes the power forward we dreamed of? What if Kirby Dach can stay healthy and be a second line centre? What if Lane Hutson gets better and signs a great contract? What if Arber Xhekaj finds his slapper? What if Alex Newhook stops frustrating me? What if Martin St. Louis sets up the lines exactly how I think they should be? What if it all happens? IT’S ALL HAPPENING!?

Four Headings so you know this wasn’t written by AI

I hope I’ve made it perfectly clear why I think so highly of this season. Why I’m so excited for this team. I think they got so much going for them.

If they have a weakness? I don’t know if Sam Montembeault is their goalie of the future. I know he was invited for Team Canada but that’s because goaltending in Canada has become a miserable failure. He wouldn’t be getting invited 20 years ago when Luongo, Brodeur, Giguere, Turco, and Theodore were around. He’s a good goalie for now, but it feels like in 2008 when Montreal had Cristobal Huet in net with Jaroslav Halak and Carey Price in the wings. I think that’s Jakub Dobes and Jacob Fowler today.

They also need a veteran presence. The hope for all Habs fans is the idea of Sidney Crosby coming here to play his final seasons. That’s the perfect veteran presence to ask for. Having Suzuki, Crosby, Dach, and Evans down the middle with winger depth of Caufield, Slafkovsky, Demidov, Bolduc, Laine, Newhook, Gallagher, and Anderson? It’s just perfect. It also feels like a fairy tale that won’t happen.

I don’t hate Mike Matheson the way a lot of other Habs fans do but I’d prefer a better veteran defenceman on the back end for the young guys. If Lane Hutson is set at the right defence position as a left handed defenceman I’d love a veteran on his other side. Someone like Colton Parayko is likely way out of the question but that’s where my brain goes. Maybe someone more realistic, whoever that is. I really wish Josh Manson in Colorado didn’t re-sign but he ended up signing for less so there was no way he was leaving the Avalanche.

Honestly that’s the only holes for me. Veteran presence and a better starting goalie. Sammy Bolduc would have been a good vet to have around but he got picked up on waivers when they tried to send him down to the AHL. I’m sure they could find someone else.

I don’t fret as much about the centre position because I know that there’s a dozen teams chasing a 2C and Montreal has the 1C solved with Suzuki. I hope the best for Dach and I see Michael Hage as coming in soon. I’m not so worried about that spot as others are.

I have truly never been this excited for the Montreal Canadiens in a long time. I actually put it over when I was excited for rookie P.K. Subban. Subban made me feel in ways no other hockey player has, but the reality is he isn’t better than Lane Hutson. Hutson is the best young Habs defenceman since Chris Chelios. He’s got a great chance to be the greatest Montreal Canadiens defenceman since Doug Harvey. We’re talking elite of the elite. Suzuki is already the best centre Montreal has had since Pierre Turgeon, and arguably the best since Jacques Lemaire when it comes to two way responsibility. Slafkovsky is on his way to being the first true power forward of the Montreal Canadiens. Ivan Demidov might be the most talented Montreal Canadiens forward since Guy Lafleur. These are major names I’m talking about here.

There’s so much potential in this club that it’s hard to stay patient. But I will be. If they miss the playoffs with all this potential? It’s not the end of the world. It’s just a bump in the road. But as I said in my prediction? I predicted a top three finish in the division. If they reach their potential, if they avoid too many injuries, if they get Hutson locked up soon, and they stay focused on their goals? I see this team as the crown jewel of the Atlantic, and a serious Stanley Cup contender soon.

“Montreal Canadiens 3, Ottawa Senators 4, Centre Bell, Montreal, Q” by Ken Lund is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 .