Canadiens Areas In Need Of Improvement – Defence

Now that the regular season is just around the corner, it’s time to assess the Montreal Canadiens’ strengths and areas of weakness.

With a surprise playoff appearance under their belts, there’s a certain sense of optimism in Montreal. It’s the driving force behind the upbeat attitude from most fans, however, it’s also fair to say the upcoming season will be paired with a new set of expectations.

It’s a particularly delicate situation, as the Habs needed the help from half a dozen Eastern Conference teams to qualify for the playoffs in the first place, and there are no guarantees clubs like the Columbus Blue Jackets, New York Rangers, and Detroit Red Wings will stumble down the stretch, allowing the Canadiens to once again plot a Mr. Magoo-style path to springtime hockey.

The good news is the team did improve the roster throughout the summer, with the addition of important players like Noah Dobson and Zachary Bolduc.

Regardless of whether they make the playoffs next year, fans should rest easy knowing that the rebuild is still very much on track.

Montreal Canadiens Defensive Situation

Before we get going with the specifics of Montreal’s defensive numbers, it should be noted that replacing David Savard with Dobson is the epitome of a high-end upgrade. With all due respect to Savard, he was tasked with playing minutes that were beyond his abilities in the last seasons of his career, and the numbers were far from encouraging.

Dobson, on the other hand, tends to produce underlying numbers that are usually associated with top-pairing defencemen.

For example, Savard only managed to control 42.5 percent of the shots during his shifts in 2024-25, whereas Dobson was in the 53 percent range while playing for the New York Islanders, a team that finished almost 10 points behind the Habs in the Eastern Conference Wild Card race.

The same phenomenon repeats when discussing their control of expected goals (xGF%).

Savard’s expected goals percentage was 43 percent, while Dobson hovered around the 54 percent mark throughout the season.

It’s a crucial improvement, seeing as Montreal’s defensive numbers last year were poor, to say the least.

Only four teams managed to control fewer shots than Montreal (47.5 percent): the Chicago Blackhawks (44.1 percent), the San Jose Sharks (45.5 percent), the Anaheim Ducks (45.9 percent), and the Toronto Maple Leafs (47.4 percent).

As for their expected goals share, the Habs (47 percent) once again found themselves near the basement of the NHL, alongside Chicago (43 percent), San Jose (44 percent), Anaheim (45.1 percent), and the Seattle Kraken (46.2 percent).

If the Habs are to avoid a stressful final stretch of the season, they must improve their ability to defend the rush, not to mention score off the rush. It’s much easier said than done, but with Dobson in place, and Lane Hutson a year wiser, Montreal should be able to do a better job when it comes to quickly corralling pucks and driving the offence 200 feet away from their own goaltender.

Dobson’s ability to generate offence from the blue line was particularly evident in 2023-24, when he managed to earn 60 assists, the first Islanders defenceman to do so since Denis Potvin.

BIENVENUE À MONTRÉAL, NOAH DOBSON 🔥

WELCOME TO MONTREAL, NOAH DOBSON#GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/ZuFCJGLs0C

— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) June 28, 2025

His assists dried up to a certain extent last year, but it’s important to remember the Islanders had very few talented forwards in the lineup, and Matthew Barzal missed over 50 games with an injury, mitigating Dobson’s production rate. Not a single Islanders forward managed to crack the 60-point mark last year, connoting that there’s a healthy chance Dobson will experience an uptick in offence by playing with talented forwards such as Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield.

I may be labelled as arrogant, but I’m not overly worried about Hutson or Dobson. They both have the skills required to improve the lineup, and they’re young enough that we can anticipate yet another solid season in the NHL, filled with impressive offensive plays.

WOW!

End-to-end beauty!!

It’s Lane Hutson’s world, we’re just living in it.

2-1 #GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/kdPirGJei2

— Marc Dumont (@MarcPDumont) April 6, 2025

While Hutson and Dobson make their greatest impact in the offensive zone, the bulk of the defensive-zone duties will once again fall on Kaiden Guhle’s shoulders, just as it has since he joined the league in 2022. The numbers suggest that Guhle is outshot and outchanced on a regular basis, even if we focus on his relative stats, but it must be said that he endures some of the most hellish minutes available in Montreal. With that in mind, it’s fair to say that Guhle treads water better than most, including newcomer Alexander Carrier.

Carrier’s arrival in Montreal was a blessing, especially since Guhle suffered a serious injury in late January. At first, the underlying numbers were beyond encouraging, as Carrier managed to control over 50 percent of the shots and high-danger scoring chances while facing the opposing team’s best players on a nightly basis.

However, the difficult minutes eventually caught up to the former Nashville Predators defenceman, leading to underwhelming numbers compared to his first stretch with the Habs.

The goal is not to denigrate Carrier, but rather, to put Guhle’s hellish minutes in the right context. On that note, Carrier did form an excellent pairing with Guhle prior to the injury, controlling almost 51 percent of the shots, and 53 percent of the high-danger chances, a very respectable result for a pairing that was covered in barbecue sauce and thrown to the wolves.

Excellent play by Kaiden Guhle to step up in the NZ, and he gives Brandon Gignac his first NHL goal! pic.twitter.com/LSioSU81hM

— Matt Drake (@DrakeMT) February 14, 2024

Montreal Canadiens Brass Tacks

The defensive situation in Montreal will once again be dictated by health. If Guhle can stay healthy for 82 games, there’s a chance he can once again re-ignite the instant chemistry produced alongside Carrier, which, in turn, would give head coach Martin St-Louis at least four defencemen who have the ability to dictate the play on a nightly basis.

The Habs may also want to consider regularly using a few more defencemen on the penalty kill, including Jayden Struble and Arber Xhekaj, to alleviate some of Guhle’s workload, and compensate for the loss of Savard, their second-busiest penalty killing defenceman last year. Xhekaj and Struble did feature on the penalty kill, however, they were restricted to an average penalty kill ice time of 58 and 28 seconds per game, respectively.

Simply put, while most of the focus will be given to the team’s excellent puck-moving defencemen, I’d argue it’s the rest of the defensive squad that will likely dictate Montreal’s playoff hopes.

Montreal Canadiens defensive statistics via Natural Stat Trick.