Three Reasons To Still Be Excited About Upcoming Canadiens Season

We won’t sugarcoat the current Montreal Canadiens health situation. With David Reinbacher missing five to six months, and newcomer Patirk Laine expected to be injured for a significant stretch, much of the excitement regarding the potential in the Canadiens lineup has gone the way of the dodo.

With that in mind, there are several reasons why Canadiens fans should at the very least maintain a modicum of excitement as the team prepares to open the 2024-25 season.

Lane Hutson Is Still Lane Hutson

Few players have produced such hype in Montreal, and even fewer deserved it. When it comes to Hutson’s potential, the sky is the limit, and given how good he looked in the last two games of the 2023-24 season, not to mention his dominant play in preseason matchups, it’s fair to say Hutson is the most important addition to the lineup since the team begun their rebuild in earnest.

Not only should he help the team’s anemic powerplay, his ability to drive offence on the rush should be quite the boon for Nick Suzuki, as he was tasked with generating controlled entries on most nights in the last three seasons. It’s a taxing role when you’re also expected to quickly make your way to a high-danger scoring area after dragging your team to the offensive zone.

With Hutson in place, Suzuki should be in a better position to exploit open ice and passing lanes, particularly now that those passing lanes should multiply quicker than a horny Tribble in a space station.

Lane Hutson the one man zone-entry pic.twitter.com/A998fEtpYJ

— Cam Weitzman (@Cweitz99) September 24, 2024

The Canadiens Have One Of The Top Prospect Pools In The NHL

Losing Reinbacher is far from ideal, but the fact that the Canadiens still have highly-touted defensive prospects such as Hutson, Logan Mailloux, and Adam Engstrom in the mix speaks to the depth and talent involved in their prospect pool.

It’s also worth remembering half the team’s top prospects are currently developing in other leagues, and should provide important reinforcements down the road once the lineup is ready to compete for a playoff position. With Ivan Demidov in the KHL, as well as Michael Hage and Jacob Fowler in the NCAA, not to mention a laundry list of other talented, young players in the organization, the prospect cupboard is far from empty.

Potentially Adding Another Top Prospect

Fans were looking forward to a year in which the Canadiens finally took a step toward climbing out of the NHL’s basement, and rightfully so. The fanbase has been quite patient as the team has engaged in a long-term rebuild. But if we’re being realistic, playoffs were a far-fetched proposal in 2024-25, even with someone like Laine in the lineup.

That’s not to say the season is already lost. Everyone in the lineup is a year older, and a year wiser, which means individual growth is to be expected. The Canadiens also have one of the youngest lineups in the NHL, which connotes the best is yet to come.

But if the Canadiens do happen to add someone such James Hagen or Matthew Schaefer to the prospect pool, they’d be in much better shape when it comes to their long-term Stanley Cup aspirations.