We are back for another year for the 2024-25 season of our annual Puck Drop Previews here at Last Word on Hockey. As the regular season approaches, Last Word will preview each team’s current outlook and stories to watch for the upcoming year. We’ll also do our best to project how things will go for each team throughout the campaign. Today, we’re previewing the team from La Belle Province and the 2024-25 edition of the Montreal Canadiens.
Puck Drop Preview: 2024-25 Montreal Canadiens
Montreal has been in a rebuild for sometime. The pressure cooker that is to play in Montreal is going to boil over soon without playoff games to watch. It is a bit unusual that the last time the club made the playoffs, in 2021, that they reached the Stanley Cup Final. Moreover, since that time, for each of the three seasons, they finished eighth in the ultra-competitive Atlantic Division. They have turned it into a deep prospect pool, in particular with their top pick in each of the past three drafts Ivan Demidov, David Reinbacher, and Juraj Slafkovsky. The fans can only wait so long. Some of the talent has kept the fans eager, but talent needs to translate into wins by next year.
Reviewing the Montreal Canadiens 2023-24 Campaign
There’s really not much technical to dive into for the Canadiens based upon last year. On forward, the early season injury to Kirby Dach really sent a wrinkle to the forward group’s depth. Moreover, their defence was young, but developed well. Similar things can be said about the goaltending. One takeaway from last year, was Nick Suzuki seemingly establishing himself as a premier two-way, centre in the NHL. It has put him in the conversation for Team Canada, on their fourth line.
But overall, it was yet another difficult campaign for the Canadiens in terms of the standings. The major upsides were the development of their young players, as well as landing Demidov fifth overall. The big hope heading into 2024-25, is that those young players are ready for elevated roles with the club. Of course, carrying the caveat of being strong enough to make Montreal a competitive team in the Atlantic Division.
The Montreal Canadiens Off-Season Highlights
Quite possibly the main off-season highlight, along with drafting Demidov, was acquiring Patrik Laine. Laine is an excellent goal-scorer, and will be a great fit for their second line. Moreover, with all the youthful talent in Montreal, it has meant that general manager Kent Hughes didn’t feel restricted by salary cap constraints. Signing necessary restricted free agents well ahead of training camp like Arber Xhekaj and Juraj Slafkovsky was a big sign of support for the process. The signing of a player like Alex Barre-Boulet is further evidence of Hughes’ commitment to the organization.
Projected Lineup Starting with the Four Forward Lines
| LW | C | RW |
| SLAFKOVSKY | SUZUKI | CAUFIELD |
| NEWHOOK | DACH | LAINE |
| ANDERSON | DVORAK | GALLAGHER |
| ROY | EVANS | ARMIA |
Top Six Forward Group
The Canadiens four lines are solid, and fans are especially optimistic about their top six. The group is beaming with confidence. Just who among them will reach career-levels in 2024-25 is exciting to ponder over. Cole Caufield, Slafkovsky, and Dach have had career highs of 65, 50, and 38 points, respectively. If each of them can hit more than achievable career levels in 2024-25, that would add to the Montreal Canadiens perceived skill among the forward group. Captain and top-line centre Nick Suzuki has established himself as an elite two-way forward in the NHL. When will the rest of the group catch up? The top six are rounded about by Laine and Alex Newhook. Laine has scored 22 or more goals six times in his NHL career, or each of the six NHL seasons he has played in more than just 46 games. Quite remarkable really. In addition, Newhook, the Pride of the Rock, won the 2022 Stanley Cup championship.
The Bottom Six Guys
As much potential as the top six has this year, the bottom six has its own advantages. The veteran of the group, Brendan Gallagher, remains a significant player in the matchup game. Jake Evans has proven himself with fourth-line minutes, and the five-year NHLer deserves the shot at third-line minutes. Josh Anderson is always a bit of an unknown. He could put up 30 with the right chemistry, or if injuries have him playing up in the lineup.
Moreover, Joshua Roy is a bit of a wild card. In 2021-22, Roy led the QMJHL is scoring with 51 goals and 68 assists for 119 points. However, he was only a fifth round draft pick of the Canadiens back in 2021. Scoring is kind of his game and fourth line minutes might hurt his development as a scorer at the NHL level. Therefore, he is the type of player that would benefit greatly with power play time. Alternatively, he could switch or develop his NHL role as a solid two-way, checker. All this of course, if he is to stick as an NHL regular.
Besides those options for the club’s bottom six, there is a good amount of internal competition pushing for spots. For example, Michael Pezzetta and Owen Beck are a couple names not shown in our four lines.
The 2024-25 Montreal Canadiens Preview on Defence
| LD | RD |
| MATHESON | GUHLE |
| HUTSON | SAVARD |
| XHEKAJ | BARRON |
Extras: David Reinbacher and Logan Mailloux
Top Four
The top pairing is more the capable. Mike Matheson has good numbers when compared league-wide. Furthermore, Kaiden Guhle is a gamer, and put it on display for Canada at the 2024 Men’s World Hockey Championships. Outside of those two, there is questions among all the defence, including the second pairing. Could the second pair of Lane Hutson and David Savard have a big season? Of course they could. But it is tough to put those type of expectations on these players. More relevantly, big picture, the club’s playoff hopes hinges on them having multiple defence pairings with shutdown capabilities.
Bottom Pair
Arber Xhekaj is an ideal third pair defender, and has the toughness to hold his own. Like the most of the rest of the Habs defence, Barron is young at 22 years old. Xhekaj is 23, and the other two, Hutson and Guhle, are younger than him. This is a bit of randomness involved in whether or not the Habs young defence is developed enough at the NHL level. However, if they are, there’s no reason they can’t power the club to spring hockey.
Goalies
- Montembeault
- Primeau
This tandem of Montreal Canadiens goaltenders played decently enough last season. Yes, a couple of goals-against-averages of 3.14 and 2.99 for Sam Montembeault and Cayden Primeau, respectively, isn’t great. In contrast, neither of the pair was more than a game below .500 for a winning percentage. As a team, they finished with a .902 SV%, only one off the league-wide pace of only .903. As a note, the league-wide SV% of .903 hadn’t been that low since it was .901 in 2005-06. That’s a strange trend for some hockey purists, as it has shifted so much in the past few seasons. In any sense, Montembeault and Primeau have shown to be capable in not being the reason their club loses. Now, can they take the next step, and consistently factor in on wins for the club?
Two Canadiens to Watch in 2024-25 and First Up Sam Montembeault
Not commonly is it a goalie, and besides we just mentioned him. However, he needs to be in this conversation. Montembeault is not as household name outside of Montreal that you would expect to hold such potential as a top NHL goalie in a market synonymous with greatness. This is a historic franchise, who’s fanbase enjoyed the likes of Jacques Plante, Ken Dryden, and Patrick Roy. Carey Price was the most recent goalie to carry the torch. Can Montembeault be the next to take the baton? Only time will tell.
Next Montreal Player to Watch
The next player up is Cole Caufield. Who you might ask? How is he a player to watch, we know to expect excellence from the newly named number 13 (in honour of his recently deceased friend Johnny Hockey Gaudreau). Caufield is looking to finally breakout in 2024-25. He’s been busting at the seams, and this year he puts it over the top. It’s hard to imagine Caufield not putting up a point-a-game in 2024-25. However, he was only at a 0.79 PPG last year, and is at 0.73 for his career. With Slafkovsky’s development into a premier NHL goal-scorer, the top line of Suzuki, Slafkovsky, and Caufield has very high expectations entering this season. As a result, look for the talented right winger, Caufield, to have a big season and reach heights not yet seen in his thus far wearing the Bleu, Blanc, and Rouge.
The Best Part of Our Preview and the Prediction For 2024-2025 Montreal Canadiens
In a process of elimination, it seems that the Leafs, Bruins, and Panthers are the class of the east. So, just where does that leave the Canadiens? The Tampa Bay Lightning are a different club from when they won consecutive Stanley Cup championships in 2020 and 2021. They are a team the Habs have a chance at leapfrogging. Conversely, they still have to deal with the other teams looking to get over the hump. Buffalo, Ottawa, and Detroit all want to prove they are not a perennial team on the outside looking in. Each made positive changes to their club in the off-season to show their fans they want to improve upon 2024-25.
Prediction: Fifth in the Atlantic
Main Photo: David Kirouac – Imagn Images
