Canadiens Analysis
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.
I held no illusions of making the playoffs this year to begin with. The Reinbacher injury won’t have any impact in Montreal this season because he was destined for Laval based on what he’s demonstrated so far (and common sense). I am concerned that he’s going to miss basically another season of development though. The loss of Laine definitely hurts. I didn’t believe we’d make the playoffs with him in the lineup, so nothing changes there for me. I’m greatly disappointed that we won’t get to see what he could have achieved this season though and whether or not we added a tremendous piece for the future (assuming we could get him to resign here if all had turned out as we hoped).
I’m aligned with the Habs leadership players and management who have been openly talking about being in the mix this year. I’ve been saying for 18months they would be a bubble playoff team with the goal of playing meaningful games late in the season. Add Laine and I think they make it. It’s Dach and Roy and Hutson as well as Laine as full time players they didn’t have last season. It’s a better version of Armia and Anderson and Gallagher over a big chunk of the season. It’s a better Sheriff and Strubble and possibly Barron. That’s a lot of upside from last year! Likely 5 wins? Matheson will regress statistically as sharing the pp with Hutson will reduce his numbers but that may allow him to improve his overall performance.Who else regresses? Slafkovsky and Caufield will also be better than last year , more like last years second half for the full season. These guys are hungry, all of them. I expect Marty will improve tge powerplay. Not sure if pk will be better. There is excitement and expectation. No guarantees but a lot of reasons to think these guys are on the verge of taking the next step. Instead of comparing them to Ottawa and Buffalo which I see many commenters here make , look at Jersey and Vancouver as better comparables.
For those that don’t think the team will be close to making the playoffs, why won’t they make it or play meaningful late season games?
I don’t think the other rookies not named above contribute a whole lot, and I still believe the top priority this year is player development as the kids need to learn. Goaltending stats will improve a bit too.
Shame about Reinbacher, I feel bad for the young man.
He hasn’t done much for the power play so far, and he has stated repeatedly that he was the one in charge last year too. No idea what Burrows was doing, it was supposed to be his job.
The pp is abysmal, no matter who they put on the ice these 5 games 0 for the preseason. Needless to say, I don’t share your optimism there.
I see bottom 10 again. Every other team improved as well, and it’s not just our players that will get better. The only thing that kept us from worst last year was San Jose and our goalies.
The Reinbacher injury messes with his development for sure, hardly ideal after the terrible team he was on last season. Let’s be honest though, he had zero chance of making the team based on his preseason play til then.
And that’s not a bad thing. Some players need time in the AHL, and he’s is clearly unready.
I wasn’t drinking the in the mix Kool-Aid anyways, I see another bottom 10 finish.
Worst pp I’ve ever seen, 0 for the preseason.
There are always surprize teams like how bad Ottawa was last year. I think Laine may benefit by slowly easing into the lineup without heightened hype. Will our two goalies be improved? Savard on defense is great. This will be a fun season😊