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Habs Wrap: Bolduc Trade, Dobson Trade, Prospect Highlights

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Montreal Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes

MONTREAL — There’s always Montreal Canadiens news to be absorbed on a daily basis, 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

L.J. Mooney may be the smallest player at development camp, but there’s also a healthy chance he’s one of the most talented. The 5’7″ forward stole the show as the prospects took part in an intrasquad scrimmage on Thursday morning. [Highlights – Mooney & New Habs Prospects Standout At Camp]

Aatos Koivu’s shootout goal was a nice homage to his father’s classic move.

Michael Hage and Owen Protz were among the prospects invited to take part in Hockey Canada’s World Junior Summer Showcase.


Okay, so the Habs don’t necessarily have a bona fide No.2 centre in the lineup, but they do have options, and those options improved with the fantastic trade that saw Zachary Bolduc join the organization. In our (very early) projection, Bolduc serves as a second-line forward. [Projected Canadiens Forward Lineup Including Bolduc]

Tuesday

The Habs let Joel Armia, Christian Dvorak, Michael Pezzetta, and Rafael Harvey-Pinard walk in free agency, and though they weren’t the team’s most popular players, there’s no doubt the team lost a little depth. Fortunately, there are plenty of players waiting in the wings to take advantage of the liberated ice time. [Former Canadiens Players Find New Homes in Free Agency]

A highlight video featuring Montreal Canadiens prospect LJ Mooney through the years is ample evidence to suggest he was always one step ahead of the curve. [Habs Prospect – Mooney Impressive Youth Hockey Highlights]

Speaking of Mooney, he did well when presented with a fairly ridiculous question.

Wednesday

It’s funny how quickly Noah Dobson lost his elite lustre according to certain fan bases. The good news is that the numbers do not lie (across the board).

With Dobson and Hutson in the mix, the Habs will certainly enter 2025-26 with much more mobility on the back end, but how will the actual defensive pairings shake out? For the first time in a long time, head coach Martin St-Louis has some options. [Projecting Canadiens Defensive Pairings Including Dobson]

Thursday

The Habs still have some salary cap space available should they want to upgrade their lineup prior to the start of the 2025-26 season. If we look beyond next season with the help of Cap Wages’ Build A GM Mode, the salary cap situation is actually quite healthy, even if we include the Lane Hutson mega extension.  [Montreal Canadiens Salary Cap Projections For Two Seasons]

It seems like new Montreal Canadiens prospect L.J. Mooney is stealing all the summer headlines. The talented forward was among the forwards invited to Team USA’s World Junior Showcase in late July. [Habs Prospect – Mooney Impressive Youth Hockey Highlights]

Did Michael Pezzetta steal Ryan Reaves’ job in Toronto?

Friday

Zachary Bolduc is excited to join the Habs, but there was a certain amount of ambiguity involved as he said goodbye to his teammates in St-Louis. He was also quick to mention he’s ready to play any role with the Habs. As for Simon Gagné, he suggests Bolduc could hit 30 goals if he reaches his potential, a rather lofty prediction.  [Bolduc Excited To Play Any Role For The Canadiens]

The NHL enjoyed its most exciting and popular drafts in years when they held it at the Las Vegas Sphere in 2024, whereas this year’s draft was easily the worst in recent memory from a production standpoint. According to Elliotte Friedman, the NHL is likely to maintain the decentralized format. From what I’ve heard, it has more to do with some teams complaining about the costs, which is classic NHL.

Saturday

It’s time for the yearly Montreal Canadiens prospect vote! As per usual, we ask Habs fans to help us out by identifying the top 10 prospects in the organization. Once the votes are registered, we will roll out our in-depth Habs prospect rankings. [Habs Fan Vote – Ranking Top 10 Montreal Canadiens Prospects]

Laval Rocket general manager John Sedgwick was named the AHL’s outstanding hockey operations executive for the past season, on the back of the team’s franchise-best regular season. Laval finished the year as the top team in the AHL, with a fantastic 48-19-3-2 record. Sedgwick was one of the lone holdovers from the Marc Bergevin era, and though he doesn’t necessarily enjoy basking in the spotlight, it’s only fair to say he’s been a key part of the organization in recent years.

At some point, another team will come calling with ambitions to offer Sedgwick a general manager position in the NHL, but in the meantime, fans can rest easy knowing there’s a very smart executive in place who is helping Kent Hughes and Jeff Gorton look good on a daily basis. He also happens to be a Bluenoser, and though that has no bearing on his hockey decisions, it’s never a bad idea to have a few Nova Scotians in the mix.

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Harry

We just can’t shrug off the 2nd line C. Sure real good = Bolduc and Dobson but they don’t get this team over the hill. Neither will Demidov by the way. Habs should do everything they can to land Kyrou. Laine/Dach/Carrier//Struble/Newhook/Reinbacher/throw in a goalie……all of ’em. Get it done!

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