For Montreal Canadians, things started to merge. With their first playoff appearance since reaching the Stanley Cup final in 2021, the Canadians are making everyone’s followers stand out, another championship series in their not-far future, based on several factors:
- Governments that grant the task of rebuilding teams, rather than rebuilding year after year
- They’ve experienced growth every year since the bottom fell, and they ended in 2021-22
- Since then, their inventory of high draft picks and high-end talent
- The young core is one of the youngest cores in the league and there is little risk of aging soon
Although the Canadians were eliminated in only five games in the first round, it was obviously just the beginning. The general consensus is that they will have more success in 2025-26. Success should be followed by the following table, on the best list of Habs fans can expect next season:
5) Gallagher’s pursuit of 500
Hopefully, Brendan Gallagher’s professional resurrection continues, with the highest total since the 2019-20 season after he scored 21 goals and 38 points. Since then, the 33-year-old has fallen a lot, dropping the depth map after being a mid-stream on top line as an elite winger (mainly viewing analysis). So from a simple feel-good perspective, fans should all want to see him rewarded.
Although at 464 points, Gallagher technically reached 500 points in his career (Bob Gainey, if he replicates the total of last season, he owns 501 territory). And, not all, but another 20-goal season goes over the mat Naslund, Claude Provost, Dicky Moore, Hoy Morentz and Howie Morenz and Mario Tremblay make the top ten in the category in the category.
Fans may not like Gallagher’s contract, but they should love the man. It’s easier to separate the two and cheer for men in pursuit of immortality. Objectively speaking, he is winning a lasting position for himself in Canadian legend (if he hasn’t yet obtained a lasting position).
4) The last season of the price
Speaking of great men of all time, no one should hope that the injured Kaili price retires. However, seeing him not playing in the competition since 2022, everyone is beyond his career, especially as the Canadian has had to permanently put his $10.5 million long-term block with a long-term injury reserve hit rate, which is handcuffing them relative to performance performance.
The tradition ended in 2025-26 and received an eight-year contract from Price. In the best case scenario, these situations may facilitate trades to teams looking to surpass the block. If that is not the case, then Canadians can make greater volatility in free agents and trade than they already have a bigger season.
3) Dobson’s first season with the Canadians
This is saying something, considering the wave created by the Canadians by acquiring defenseman Noah Dobson before the NHL entry draft. It’s not common to be the first pair of defenders (even free agents) in a game. So Habs won the raffle here, by trading their two first-round picks and the bottom six to the guy on New York Island.
Critics could point to defensive trouble and say the Canadian paid too much for the first time and then signed him (eight years, $76 million). But, at the end of the day, what you’re talking about is that the Islander succumbed to the most ice time in the past two seasons, ended at .500 in the past one and scored his third metropolitan playoff in 2023-24, when he scored a career-high 70 points.
Needless to say, the Islander would re-sign him if he could, but the initial requirement he reported ($11 million) was too high. So consider Canadians’ $9.5 million block hit rate on hook Relative For a very talented player, he adds another necessary dimension to the team’s defense.
Related: Canadainens’ 5 worst contracts for the 2025-26 season
The Canadians need to replace David Savard, who is retired on the right, on defense. It’s safe to say that they did it and there’s more. One season after Lane Hutson scored 66 points on the left, the Canadians now have similar high-power weapons on the right, which should do miracles for the team when transitioning to offense. Everyone loves attacking.
2) Demidov’s rookie season
It’s not just something that Hutson won Calder Memorial Trophy as the NHL’s best rookie, it’s an alternative. While that itself is worth looking forward to, fans are coveting more of the achievements of rookie Ivan Demidov throughout the season, as surprisingly, standing out in the Kontinental Hockey League last season, ending last season and paying tribute to fans, a time in his work when he started a goal and assist for his NHL career.
Demidov followed Hutson’s footsteps, making the Canadians second-combo Calder as odds favorite possibility, which is away from the range of possibilities, for the first time since 1966-68 (Bobby Orr, Derek Sanderson for the Boston Bruins). This idea alone is enough to overload fans’ feelings, thinking about the two Habs playing magic together on the power game (with Dobson and everyone else). Habs fans can present awards here and now, as the whole season needs to be presented here, so imagine over the next decade or so.
It begins now.
1) Playoffs?
Abandon negative concepts of negative expectations for a minute. On the surface, Canadians reportedly should improve themselves organically as the youngest team in NHL history. They are objectively, undisputed, a rising team. Any advice to the contrary is an offense to common sense and may stem from bias towards the organization.
Canadians may still be incomplete, and in a sense they have a widely publicized loophole at the center of Line 2, at least in the mid-July. Kirby Dach hasn’t exercised so far and after finishing a second straight knee injury, it’s unlikely he will be in the future. But if Dach is so disappointing, it says the chance for Habs to move forward that they made it to the playoffs with him. Critics can’t really have two ways.
Dach should go back to next season in time. Where he ended up in line was almost irrelevant. If it were on the wing, he would increase the depth there, and Alex Newhook or Oliver Kapanen could replace him with the middle and actually experienced similar success. The Canadiens are a team that proved that they could continue to win over the long game last season. The extra experience of the young core should work wonders that will allow the entire Habs to take the next step.
So the playoffs are no longer a goal or just an expectation. They are even more so, after just gaining a small taste last spring, Canadainens fans are already and reasonably looking forward to it. In the past, if you only played in the playoffs, everything would have happened. Now it’s “once they do it.”
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