With the 2025 outdoor season until an end and the seasonal camps of 2025-26 that will open soon, there are questions that the Montreal Canadiens and General Manager (GM) knows Hughes. How they are answered will go a long way when taking the next step of the rebuilding. Here is a look at some of the most urgent questions that the 2025-26 season will start.
Who will be the first Canadiens player to be traded?
Although Montreal was much more competitive than expected last season and made the play-offs, they are still building a long-term Stanley Cup company. That is why they are open to the loss of picks, prospects or even NHL schedules if it brings them closer to their goal. So who will be the first player to be treated in 2025-26?
For some, the answer can be Mike Matheson, who was somewhat replaceable with the addition of Noah Dobson and the stellar game of the 2025 Calder Trophy winner as the best Rookie of the NHL, Lane Hutson. A glance at a future top four of Canadiens shows that the time of Matheson in Montreal could end as Hutson, Dobson, Kaiden Guhle and eventually David Reinbacher develop into a Stanley Cup-Contributing Blue Line. Even without adding names for the bottom link, such as Adam Engstrom, Arber Xhekaj and Jayden Struble, and those are only the NHL-ready prospects under contract; There are more prospects that can eventually take a NHL task along the line.
For Hughes, Matheson could be the cornerstone in a deal to finally acquire the second line center that many NHL clubs hunt. But it will probably have to wait at the earliest for the Trade Deadline, because NHL clubs in the rankings are separated among buyers and sellers. The value for an experienced defender who can play a role and can play this more than 24 minutes per game is high, especially when he gets $ 4,875 million. Just like many defenders in the first place, he comes with a number of defensive blunders, but he is still an excellent skater who uses that mobility to cover many of those mistakes. But at the age of 31, along with decreasing opportunities in Montreal, he may be willing to walk away as a free agent.
Related: Montreal Canadiens News and Rumors: Dach, Mctavish & More
That makes it even more important for Hughes to maximize the value of such an active, especially if it can help to fulfill a need. For now, Matheson is a stabilizing force on a young and inexperienced defensive corps. He has proven that he can and is willing to fulfill every role with every link, including the power play and the fine.
Play -offs? Did you say play -offs?
The burning question: Can the Canadiens make the play -offs for the second season in a row?
The 2024-25 season was a great success and a step in the rebuilding, because the team ended with a record of 40-31-11, and earned 91 points. This meant that they names the fifth in the Atlantic Division and achieved a play -off berth with the last wildcard spot in the Eastern Conference.
This summer Hughes was able to add different pieces through trade or graduates. The most transforming addition, in the long term, will at least be a full season with their 2024 fifth general draft choice, Ivan Demidov. After drawing up records in the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) for Rookie scoring and winning the KHL Rookie of the Year Honors last season, the young Russian attacker is an early favorite of Calder Trophy. Already arranged with the top line of the Canadiens, because Demidov was closed on a second line and had given pp time, it can score no less than 70 points this season.
Hughes added a best mating puck-moving right-handed defender in Noah Dobson in a profession with the New York Islanders. This will immediately improve the blue line and the Power Play (PP). He followed that with the addition of a large, physical scoring winger in Zachary Bolduc in an exchange with the St. Louis Blues. The expectation with him after a Rookie season of 19 goals is that He will break out With the Canadiens. So that is two scoring ahead and a top -offensive defender has been added to an already developing cast of attacking players. However, they are missing in the physicality department. Heavy on Josh Anderson trust because the only real ‘heavy body’ between the attackers means that they need Juraj Slafkovsky to increase his Power Forward game. This is something the club is aware of, as executive vice -president Jeff Gorton has tackled the issue in him press conference at the end of the year.
“While we build the team, we try to get better in all areas. We are not an end product and there is not one part of our team where we say:” We’re done there. ” So we keep looking at everything and try to build it up.
– Jeff Gorton
The additions to the club and the internal competition will be essential to take the next step and compete for a play -off place as a team that other clubs are ready every night. That is where the added competitive level will be important, but also special teams. On the Penalty Kill (PK) internal competition will be important because players have to rise in roles that are abandoned by players who retire or continue as free agents. The PP will see improvements of the new additions that are all offensive and are ideal to play with the benefit of the man.
The greatest control in a run to the play -offs will be target differences. Montreal will be the Most back-to-back games planned In the NHL, which means dependence on their backup goalkeeper, Jakub Dobes, to fill in and keep the start of Samuel Montembeault to around 55. His 31 wins last season were a career high, but a season of 35 win is feasible. Montembeault was one of the best in the NHL when he finished fourth under NHL starters with 40 or more starts with a 24.6 in goals that have been saved above. Only Logan Thompson, Andrei Vasilevskiy and Connor Hellebuyck ended for him last season. Also the starter of the Canadiens in the past three seasons is in fifth place of all NHL goalkeepers In goals that have been saved above. With Load Management available for coaching staff in the season, Montembeault will have the tools to offer more quality started, which in turn should give him better statistical results.
Can the Canadiens fall short of the play -offs? Of course, they could, but with a young and confident team that now has some experience with what is needed to force their way to a play -off place, I will not bet against them.
Will Kirby Dach be ready for his role?
Will Kirby Dach end his recovery on time before the start of the season? Will he have a start like 2023-24 or will it be a painful one like in the 2024-25 season?
There is a very good reason why this is perhaps the most burning question with which the Canadiens starts the 2025-26 season, because Dach has the skills to become a good second line center, and that is the greatest need of the team. Montreal needs Dach to be healthy and 100 percent ready for this season. Dach still has to see a complete, healthy season, so that a substantial line jong location for head coach Martin St. Louis has ensured. The Canadiens conquered Dach from the Chicago Blackhawks on the NHL design of 2022 in Montreal. She signed him with a four -year contract That pays him $ 3.36 million per season that ends at the end of this coming season 2025-26. Although he has shown a big promise, he never played more than 58 games in one season with the Canadiens and played only 117 games of the 246 regular season matches that Montreal played at the time, which means that he missed more than half of the planned games.
Online discussions about his health started in the season. However, Eric Engels from Sportnet Pour cold water on the rumors that Dach has had a setback.
“It was never guaranteed that Kirby Dach would be ready for the start of the training camp, and it is also premature to suggest that he will not be. Suggestions that Dach has had a setback in his recovery is completely incorrect. Not only he has not had a setback, he is really good and, according to my sources, crushing his summer retreating.”
– Eric English
Dach is called injuries-sensitive by some fans because of the enormous number of great injuries he has sustained in his NHL career. But I would claim that he has more bad luck than injury sensitive; Going on a couch on the wrong side and in an uncovered wrist are checked in a pre-tournament game. There is a nice line between a few unfortunate accidents and being sensitive, but that is a difference without distinction because the end result is the same: he is unable to play and develop his game. Dach has so much potential, but it is untouched because of the injuries.
Although the Canadiens have made significant additions to their selection that will enter the 2025-26 season, the middle position on the second line is essential if they want to cement themselves as a real play-off candidate. After missing the majority of the last three seasons as a result of injuries, and the fact that this is the second time that he injures this specific knee, Dach is in the “I will not believe it until I see it” Territorium on his potential performance. The Canadiens hope that Dach can have a revival, or at least a complete, healthy season with some consistency for his game.
If Dach can find some consistency, even if it is only an average performance attacking with 40 points (which would be a career high), it will be his defensive game that can have a significant impact, but that depends on his health. But if (this is a big one if he can consistently play an average game, it would go a very long way to offer the support that is needed to bring the other centers into their right role. For Jake Evans, this means that he can concentrate on the penalty kill and the bottom six roles. For Joe Veleno (or whatever young center makes the line-up) she would, she would make the line-up), she would make the line-up), before), before), she would make the line-up), before), before), before), for the line-up), for nick-up the line-up, she would make the line-up), for nick-up), she would make the line-up), for nick-up), she would make the line-up), for nick-up), for nick, for nicky-up. It finally meaning that he should not be familiar with the entire offensive charge in the middle of the question of whether Dach can finally be the center that the franchise needs will now decide that the next large move management.
Many more questions will be asked in 2025-26. The Canadiens have many options to approach that they answer, and although we do not have the answer to who is first traded or to one of the other questions so far, we are in store for a wild ride in the fourth season of this rebuilding.
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