Offseason Doesn’t End The Montreal Rebuild

Just when it started to look like it would be difficult for the Montreal Canadiens to make moves to improve their roster as many teams were offering the same kinds of assets (picks, prospects) to acquire the same kind of players (top-six centre, top-four RHD), general manager Kent Hughes managed to defy the odds. He gave the team one of its most impactful offseasons in recent memory.

From the outside looking in, it may be weird to see Montreal, a team clearly in its rebuilding phase, part ways with so many assets that could easily be part of their future success. First round picks are essential to acquire young talents after all, so are big, young and talented players under 24 years old. So why on earth is Montreal trading these away? Does it mean the rebuild is over?

Well, riddle me this, Batman: Is Montreal now ready to compete to win the Stanley Cup? No? The rebuild is still ON!

But they certainly decided to move into another phase of their rebuild, a phase that might be the hardest part, which is team building.

Montreal is not just acquiring assets anymore

When the Habs began their rebuild, they did what most teams do in these situations: they traded away players to acquire future assets. It doesn’t really matter what these assets are (picks, prospects, players), what position they play or how they fit in your lineup. You just want to acquire as many assets as possible, to eventually turn them into pieces that will help your team be competitive when the rebuild is over.

I think it’s fair to say Kent Hughes and Jeff Gorton handled that part beautifully. With all the picks they acquired Montreal drafted 39 players since 2022, including three top five picks in Juraj Slafkovsky (1st overall in 2022), David Reinbacher (5th overall in 2023) and Ivan Demidov (5th overall in 2024) and most recent Calder Trophy winner Lane Hutson (62nd overall in 2022). The Canadiens acquired both the quantity and quality of assets allowing them to even trade some away to either move up in a draft to get the player they want like they did with Michael Hage in 2024 or acquire a young player that might be part of their core in the long term as they did with Kirby Dach and Alex Newhook.

Despite making their prospect pool one of the most interesting in the NHL, we need to remind ourselves that the majority of these players will not end up becoming NHL players, let alone impact players, and even from those that do, some of them will likely flourish elsewhere. Hoping to fill every single one of your needs through the draft is utopic. That’s when you start looking for pieces from outside of your organization that can be part of your core when you are actually ready to win. And that’s exactly what management started this summer by trading for Noah Dobson and Zachary Bolduc.

What they have and what they need

I simply cannot diminish how thrilled I am by the addition of Noah Dobson and what it represents for the Canadiens. Adding a 25 years old, 6″3 first pairing right handed defenseman to your team is the dream of every general manager in the NHL. If David Reinbacher (20 years old) eventually becomes the player Montreal projected when they drafted him, that would give Montreal one of the best top 4 defensemen in the league in a few season as Lane Hutson (21 years old), Kaiden Guhle (23 years old) and now Noah Dobson can grow together with the rest of the team and help them take the next step towards contention.

The acquisition of Bolduc also gives Montreal something they desperately lacked: A physical, fast skating winger with enough of a scoring touch to be considered a potential 2nd line winger. The fact he’s only 22 years old and therefore can be part of of the future, even if he ended up not completely living up to his potential and became a bottom six forward, which is something he already proven he can do last season in St-Louis, means he instantly becomes another piece of the team management is trying to build, unlike the player they gave up to acquire him (Logan Mailloux) who still represented a project and only a potential NHL player.

What other glaring holes remain in Montreal? Well, the most obvious one remains the infamous good second line centre that half the league seems to be chasing. Despite Michael Hage currently showing off his skill at the Habs development camp, he’s still at least a year away from signing his first NHL contract, let alone be ready to carry such an important role on the team. Kent Hughes already confirmed he was still very open to the possibility of another trade to fill that need. Until such a thing happens, the only option remains to give one more chance to Kirby Dach as he enters the last season of his four-year deal with Montreal. Many have written off Dach in that role because of a lackluster 2024-2025 season but I’m very curious to see how he’ll look next training camp. Dach might not be the centre we’re looking for, but he’s still a player with an interesting mix of a size and skill that he’s worth holding on to for at least one more season.

Thank you all for reading and have a nice day!