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Habs Wrap: Dobes Shines, Evans Contract, Trade Talk, Hutson

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MONTREAL — There’s always Montreal Canadiens content to absorb, but there are only so many hours in a day. On Sundays, we recap the most exciting and relevant NHL news stories that you may have missed throughout the week so that you can stay in the Canadiens loop.

Monday

Top prospect Ivan Demidov continues his dominant ways in the KHL.

Let me rephrase that.

Top prospect Ivan Demidov continues dominant ways in the KHL now that he’s receiving a reasonable amount of ice time for an incredibly talented 19-year-old.

To be perfectly clear, he was only given 14:49 TOI on Sunday, but that’s much better than the ridiculous stretch that saw him receive between three and five minutes per game.

Demidov scored another very nice goal, though instead of cutting through the entire opposing team like a hot knife through butter, he set up the play with a few nice moves, made a very nice pass to Sergei Plotnikov, and then waited until his linemate returned the favour.

His two-point effort extended his scoring streak to six games (7G, 4A), while pushing his season totals to 13 goals and 18 assists in 40 games. It’s a great scoring rate for a rookie, especially since he was used very sparingly for roughly half the season.

The video below is timestamped to his goal, but do me a favour and check out his assist at 1:01. It looks like a goal to me, but I guess we shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth.

Rookie goaltender Jakub Dobes followed up his impressive shutout performance to start his NHL career with a great effort against the Colorado Avalanche, including two key saves in the shootout, to secure yet another win for the Canadiens. The 23-year-old is sporting a .982 save percentage in his first two NHL games, and according to some that’s not a bad number. [Montreal Canadiens Highlights: Dobes Great, Caufield Goal, Slafkovsky Benched]

With Dobes’ recent play, there’s a debate about which goalie should start on Monday night versus the Vancouver Canucks. Even though Dobes has played quite well, Samuel Montembeault is still the team’s starter, and it’s probably too early to suggest Dobes should be given the reins.

The Los Angeles Kings placed forward Arthur Kaliyev on waivers, and while there’s still some potential left to be tapped in his case, the lack of production is a concern. He projects more as a middle of the lineup player, and the Habs already have their fair share of those skaters.

Lane Hutson’s brother, Cole, joined the World Junior Championship Gold club on Sunday, as the United States defeated Finland 4-3 in overtime. With two goals and seven assists in six games, Hutson was tied for the tournament lead in points.

Shockingly, sending your best players seemed to be a sound strategy, as evidenced by the USA’s win. On the other hand, picking names out of a hat while indulging in bourbon was not a great roster-construction strategy from Hockey Canada. Go figure.


Michael Hage produced points in back-to-back games against Ohio State. He had a goal and an assist on Friday, and followed it up with an assist on the University of Michigan’s first goal of the game on Sunday. After losing 4-3 in the first matchup, the Wolverines took their revenge, defeating Ohio State 3-2 in overtime in the second leg.

The Laval Rocket enjoyed a solid weekend, beating the Canucks’ AHL team on two occasions. Saturday’s 6-2 win over Abbotsford featured goals from Filip Mesar, Sean Farrell, Rafael Harvey-Pinard, Joshua Roy, Gustav Lindstrom, and Vincent Arseneau.

As per usual, the AHL game was quite physical, including a late-game fight between Make Friedman and Jared Davidson. Arseneau really wanted to participate, but Friedman made sure to avoid the bigger opponent.

We call that a business decision.

Tuesday

With a three-point effort against the Vancouver Canucks, Lane Hutson leads all rookies in scoring. His 30 points give him a one-point lead over Matvei Michkov and a two-point lead over Macklin Celebrini. The Habs won’t play until Friday, which means there’s a decent chance one of the forwards will pass him, but you’d be hard-pressed to say the Canadiens defenceman is not in the midst of a special season, and given that it’s just his first, the best is yet to come.


Don’t look now, but the Habs are tied for the last wildcard spot in the Eastern Conference. Or maybe do look now, because we don’t know how long it’ll last. Either way, their latest well-deserved win came against the Vancouver Canucks in overtime, and though Hutson certainly played his part, so did team captain Nick Suzuki. [Habs Highlights: Lane Hutson Powers Habs To Another Win]

Speaking of Suzuki, he also enjoyed a three-point night. He’s now back to producing at a point-per-game pace, with 12 goals and 29 assists in 40 games. Hopefully the level of respect for Suzuki around the NHL will one day rise to a reasonable level, because he has been the epitome of consistent as the Canadiens’ captain.

I’d also like to point out the type of action that has led to Suzuki being among the most respected players by the referees, as he went out of his way to congratulate Eric Furlatt for officiating his 1500th NHL game. While some prefer to run their mouths endlessly all game, in the long run, that type of respect pays off in spades, and Suzuki knows it.


Here’s the most recent impressive stat producing during Hutson’s Calder-worthy season. On that note, no rookie defenceman has reached 60 points since the legendary Nick Lidstrom. Hutson is currently on pace for 61 points.

St-Louis is giving the Canadiens the day off tomorrow, something he’s done with frequency during the last stretch. Not only have the Habs dealt with a lot of travel, they’re also playing incredibly well, and there’s a point of diminishing return when it comes to forcing hot teams to practice.

Besides, it’s clear the Habs are in the zone right now. Rewarding them for their hard work is a sound strategy.

Just in case you aren’t already completely spellbound by Hutson’s on-ice play, he’s also a great person off the ice.

Some sad news to report, as former Canadiens head coach Al MacNeil passed away at the age of 89. The Nova Scotian won the Cup for the Canadiens during his only season at the helm of the bench (1970-71), and was the winningest coach in AHL history. [NHL]

Wednesday

Frank Seravalli published his first trade bait board of the season, and it features two Montreal Canadiens players. Forward Josh Anderson, who has enjoyed a resurgence of sorts due to his solid play on the third line and the penalty kill, checks in at No.22, while centre Jake Evans is listed as the top Habs trade target at No.15.

As we noted the last time we discussed Evans’ contract situation, there’s a lot to consider before the NHL Trade Deadline. [Canadiens Analysis: The Jake Evans Contract And Trade Situation]


Lane Hutson has earned 30 points in his first 40 games this season, quite the scoring pace for a rookie defenceman. Consequently, Hutson’s name has to be included in any Calder Trophy discussion. To get a better idea of how impressive his production has been, we took a look at some historical and modern NHL comparables. [Calder Talk: Canadiens Defenceman Lane Hutson Historical Scoring Comparison]

General manager Kent Hughes is set to meet with the media around 11:30 am ET for the traditional mid-season press conference. The tone should be interesting as the Canadiens are “in the mix”, just as Hughes hoped they’d be at the start of the season.


Prospect Oliver Kapanen had an assist in Timra’s 3-2 shootout win over Vaxjo. He’s now sitting at five goals and eight assists in 15 games. Fellow Habs prospect Filip Eriksson was given a little over 10 minutes of ice time for Vaxjo in the losing effort. He’s scored just two goals and two assists in 31 games.

Cat Toffoli and Julie Petry are set to take part in a behind-the-scenes podcast hosted by the NHl.

Thursday

General manager Kent Hughes met with the media on Wednesday to discuss a myriad of topics, including the team’s recent surge in results, his trade philosophy, top prospect Ivan Demidov, Juraj Slafkovsky’s recent play, the brilliant Alexandre Carrier trade, and much more during his mid-season press conference. [Kent Hughes Discusses Trades, Contracts, Slafkovsky]

The Montreal Canadiens have a plan, and it looks like they’re going to be sticking to it, no matter where they are in the standings. Despite playing well above their expected finish, the Canadiens are still very much in a rebuild, with the best still yet to come. [Canadiens In Unique Spot Heading Into NHL Trade Deadline]

Marie-Philip Poulin scoring a big goal in Vancouver? Is this a rerun?

Captain Clutch scored her third and fourth goals of the season on Wednesday night, leading the Montreal Victoire to a 4-2 win over the Toronto Sceptres. Her third goal, in particular, was impressive, as she scored from her knees. With the win, the Victoire are now sitting alone atop the PWHL standings.

Forward Joshua Roy (29GP, 13G, 12A) and defenceman Logan Mailloux (27GP, 5G, 11A) will represent the Laval Rocket at the AHL All-Star game. This is the second year in a row that Mailloux will participate in the All-Star festivities. Roy leads the team in scoring, while Mailloux trails Adam Engstrom by one point(31 GP, 3G, 14A) among Laval’s defencemen.

Friday

According to Pierre LeBrun, the Edmonton Oilers are considering a trade to add a right-handed defenceman, while floating David Savard’s name as a possible target. He also said Edmonton could pivot and add a puck-moving defenceman on the left, which sounds a lot like Mike Matheson’s music. To be clear, LeBrun didn’t mention Matheson by name, but he does fit the bill. [TSN]

Seeing as teams such as the New Jersey Devils are interested in trading for Jake Evans, and the Habs have also expressed their interest in a contract extension, it’s time to take a look at some comparable deals that could serve as a baseline for negotiations with the impending free agent.  There’s no way to avoid it, his shooting percentage will lead to a big raise this summer, and that’s a risky proposal for a team offering a long-term deal.

While discussing the NHL trade market on the latest episode of Insider Trading, LeBrun suggested the Canadiens won’t break the bank for the 28-year-old centre. [Jake Evans Extension Discussion: Finding Comparable Contracts]

Even though he has only played 13 games this season, forward Patrik Laine has scored more goals from his sweet spot than any other NHLer.


Speaking of Laine, he and Paul Byron took some time to discuss mental health with youth hockey players from the region.

Laine was present at practice on Thursday, but he will not travel with the team to face the Washington Capitals on Friday.


Thanks to his fantastic production, rookie Lane Hutson is starting to earn some well-deserve respect when it comes to his bid to win the Calder Trophy.

Saturday

Captain Nick Suzuki once again led the charge, scoring yet another game-winning goal in overtime. This time around it was against the Washington Capitals, and it came shortly after a great defensive read by rookie Lane Hutson. Jakub Dobes stood tall, keeping his immaculate NHL record intact with a 15-save effort, but it was Montreal’s staunch defensive play that truly stole the show. [Jake Evans Extension Discussion: Finding Comparable Contracts]

The Montreal Canadiens have played half of their 2024-25 hockey season, and have an over-500 record to show for it. Kent Hughes took some flack earlier in the year for floating the idea that this team could be in the mix for a playoff spot, but as things stand, this team is right on the bubble, looking in. With a sufficient body of work for most Habs players, let’s look back at individual performances and see how they fared in the first 41 games of the season. [Canadiens Analysis: Mid-season Tiered Habs Player Rankings]

I learned to skate by latching onto my older cousin’s legs, but I get the sense Carey Price’s technique is a little more refined.

This is very rare. Jared Davidson actually scored on a one-timer. And by rare, I actually mean incredibly common, because all Davidson does is smash high-velocity one-timers toward unassuming goaltenders. That, my friends, is high-level hockey entertainment.

Davidson enjoyed the first three-point game of his AHL career as the Laval Rocket steamrolled the Cleveland Monsters 5-0. Cayden Primeau made 16 saves to record his 12th career shutout.

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Dana

Over the past 10 games Hutson is plus 9. He’s learning how to defend people!! For perspective, only Makar at plus 10 had a better plus rating on the blue line. He’s trending towards the Calder.

1
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Harry

So many players on this team that need to be gone focusing om 1 or 2 is delusional.

-4
Reply
Tyrone

Hey Marc,

The Evans, Armia, Heineman line have been playing fantastic lately. Any possibility of doing an analytics comparison article about them vs other 4th lines in the league?

Also, it seems we’ve been playing a lot of top teams lately. Does that mean we have an “easier” schedule coming up? How about an article comparing the strength of schedules between us and the teams we’re hoping to leapfrog into the playoffs? I think playoffs are still a pipe dream, but the article would help clarify the picture a little more.

Keep up the great work! Love this site (except for the refresh/wipeout everything I write issue that has been happening again, thankfully not today though). 😁

1
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Marc Dumont

No word of a lie, I jotted down ‘is the 4th line really the best in the NHL?’ on my ideas list this weekend, but it will take a fair amount of work before I can reach any semblance of a data-driven conclusion.

SOS piece is a good idea, we haven’t done one since last year.

I really hope the refresh thing stops, and not only because I always appreciate how active you are. We’re out of ideas/solutions, and can’t seem to replicate the issue on our end. I’m genuinely sorry.

2
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Tyrone

No rush at all. Quality takes time.

0
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