With the 2024 NHL season starting in just over a week, I'm here to preview your 2024 Montreal Canadiens.
The Canadiens enter the season looking to build on the positives from last year. Barring injury, the Habs had a successful year of growing young talent, capping it off by acquiring even more at the draft and during the offseason. In this season's preview, I will be focusing on four storylines in the upcoming season. Young players, offseason acquisitions, issues within the team, and a season prediction.
Young Players
The 2023 season saw serious advancements from almost all of the Canadiens' young talent. Cole Caufield took a step forward in his goalscoring and defensive play before his season was cut short due to a shoulder injury. Nick Suzuki showed that he was the right choice for captaincy, showing great poise, maturity, and proving he can step up in key moments to win games. Kaiden Guhle showed that he has legitimate top-four potential, playing a seriously solid two-way game. Kirby Dach proved that Chicago mishandled his development and that his potential is a top-six scoring forward. Arber Xhekaj burst onto the scene as a physical defenceman with a blistering shot from the point. The young man from Hamilton, ON. showed he may have more offensive upside than anyone imagined. Of course, the biggest story from last year was first-overall pick Juraj Slafkovsky. The 18-year-old hailing from Slovakia had trouble getting accustomed to the fast, physical play of the NHL before a knee injury cut his season short. Slafkovsky put up 10 points in 39 games, not the number Habs fans wanted to see.
The story that connects all of these players (except Suzuki) is that none of them finished the season. In fact, none of them played more than 60 games (once again excluding slick Nick). If these players and the Canadiens are going to find any success this year, it will rely on these future keystones staying healthy through an entire NHL season. Even though there were positives for all of these players mentioned, games need to be played in order for them to progress.
*note Jordan Harris was left off this list purely because he got very little media attention last year. He had a great year and will be an NHL defenceman for many years.
Offseason Acquisitions
The two-headed monster of Kent Hughes and Jeff Gorton certainly weren't sleeping this offseason. The duo made some fantastic moves, all on the theme of asset management. Being a facilitator in the Eric Karlsson trade. Re-acquiring Jeff Petry, as well as Casey Desmith, just to flip both of them, all while acquiring a horde of middle-round picks.
Alex Newhook
The most exciting acquisition this summer (Other than Mr. Reinbacher, of course) was Alex Newhook. Drafted 16th overall in 2019, the 22-year-old centerman was a staple on the Avalanche's bottom six for the last two seasons. He scored 14 goals and 30 points in 2023 while playing just under 14 minutes a night.
Newhook struggled slightly with the Avalanche, as a contending team is not always the best place for a prospect to develop. Newhook had to battle to be a part of one of the best top-sixes in the league, and he oftentimes was not up for the task. The Avalanche have a system ingrained in their forwards, and is not easy to come into that system as a rookie and find success.
The Habs will look to keep Newhook in the top six all season, but if Anderson and Slafkovsky both break out, Newhook may have his work cut out for him.
Tanner Pearson
Tanner Pearson is an interesting pickup for the Canadiens. He was acquired from the Canucks for Casey Desmith in September. Desmith of course, was acquired from the penguins along with Jeff Petry and Nathan Lagare. Petry was flipped days later for defenceman Gustav Lindstrom.
Pearson has not played since November 2022 due to a post-surgery infection in his left hand. The 31-year-old winger is a two-time 20-goal scorer and has broken the 40-point plateau three times. Pearson is looking to reignite his career with the Canadiens. Expect to see him jumping around the middle six.
Issues with the team
The most obvious issues in this team are the over-saturated center position and the question mark around goaltending. Too many centermen is not a bad thing per se but it's certainly not ideal. As for goaltending, Habs fans are acutely aware of how important a solid goalie is.
Too many centermen
Montreal currently has six active centermen. Nick Suzuki, Kirby Dach, Sean Monahan, Jake Evans, Alex Newhook, and Christian Dvorak (currently injured). At least four of these centermen are good enough to play in the top six consistently. Suzuki is a natural center, as is Monahan. Manegment has expressed their desire to have Dach playing the middle, and Alex Newhook has been playing center for most of his professional career. Unfortunately, this means that at least one of these centermen are going to have to switch to the wing to stay in the top nine. Newhook is the first and most obvious choice, he played the wing for periods of time with the Avalanche and seemed fairly comfortable doing so. The biggest issue is figuring out who the 2C is going to be this season. With both Dach and Monahan, the Habs have a bit of an issue on their hands. Monahan is a natural center, one of the best draw-takers in the league, and an excellent two-way player. Kirby Dach has struggled mightily in the faceoff dot but plays the position excellently. I don't have the answer when it comes to who should start, but I will say that Monahan WILL be taking draws for the Canadiens this season. The move may be to make Monahan into a hybrid center. He can play the wing 5-on-5 but can be the go-to guy for defensive draws and penalty kills. The downside with this agreement is that Dach's confidence may take a hit if Monahan takes over for him in big moments. This is not ideal.
Do we have a goaltender?
Yes? No? Maybe so? Yes. We do have a goaltender, just only for the foreseeable future. Jake Allen has continued to impress during the preseason, but it's obvious that he is playing the back-nine of his career. Samuel Montembualt is a huge question mark. If he can take serious strides forward from last year then he may be a solid number one, but I think it's been proven that in order to win the cup, you need all-star-level goaltending. Montembeault will never be that. Cayden Primeau also comes into question, but he continues to disappoint in big moments. To me, the most interesting name is Jacob Fowler. The kid from Florida grabbed the Habs' fans' attention with his post-draft interview and with the draft video released by the Canadiens. Fowler is a goaltender who just seems to win at every level. Fresh off an incredibly successful season with Boston College of the NCAA which saw him win the USHL championship, USHL playoff MVP, as well as USHL goaltender of the year. The 6'2 goaltender uses his lateral movement to make extremely acrobatic saves. He posted a .952 save percentage through nine playoff games to secure the Clark Cup for Boston College. Fowler looks to have the potential to be a legit NHL starter but that will remain to be seen. For now, it seems like Allen is 1A, and Montembeault is 1B.
Season prediction
I'm sure that everyone wants the Canadiens to compete for a playoff spot this year. No matter the circumstances of the season that will not be the case. This is not a playoff team, nor is it a bubble playoff team. Odds are, this is a bottom-10 team in the NHL. And that's okay! It takes years to build a contending team, and we are only entering year three of the build. My biggest worry, though, is that the Canadiens lack true all-star talent. I believe the Habs may need another bottom-three finish in order to pick up a true number-one winger. I think Reinbacher was a great pick; would I have preferred Fantilli or Carlson? Absolutely. Both Fantilli and Carlsson look to be future all-stars, cornerstones of their franchise who will put up 80 points a year. Currently, the Habs are missing that. Yes, big right-handed defensemen don't grow on trees, but neither do point-per-game players. I believe the Canadiens will finish 27th in the NHL this year and eighth in the Atlantic division.
Conclusion
Even though this may not be the most positive season preview, Habs fans should still be excited. Whether the Habs win or lose, it will most likely always be exciting. It appears as though we will have the youngest top six in the league and one of the most talented as well. Inexperience will result in poor defence but exciting offence, even if the Habs struggle to finish chances. It will be another season of learning.
Go Habs Go
The Beer League Benchwarmer,
William Shoukri
X: @shoukri_will
