Anyone watching the Montreal Canadiens last season could tell many young players have improved since the previous season. The good news is that it also happened to players who will be very important pieces of a future contending team in Montreal.
We saw Slafkovsky take a big step towards justifying his number one overall selection.
We saw Cole Caufield round up his game and finish the season with a career high 65 points despite a shooting percentage that can only rise next year.
We saw Nick Suzuki have the best season of his young career, both in points and overall contribution, looking more and more like a number one centre in the NHL.
We saw Alex Newhook step up after the Sean Monahan trade, going at a very interesting pace for the last few months of the season.
There are likely other examples of significant improvement or growing pains from last season but overall, there seems to be a consensus that the team’s players have shown noticeable improvement last year.
And yet, they still finished in the bottom 5 of the league, they still finished 8th in the Atlantic and they still had basically the same problems they had the year before. Granted, they got 8 more points because they found a way to lose 16 games past regulation (2 short of the NHL record) but they actually won one less game than the previous year.
For this next season to be considered a success, General Manager Kent Hughes said himself the objective is to be “in the mix” of the playoffs when we’re near the end of the season.
Montreal adding Patrik Laine to the team will help. The return of Kirby Dach will help.
But just like every rebuilding team, Montreal’s hopes will rest mostly on development and improvement from the young players currently on the team.
While we’d like all of them to “take a step”, when reality sets in, it’s likely only a few of them will actually do so over the next year.
I’ll avoid making predictions about rookies since they can hardly improve in the NHL without having played in it. So, here are a few players from last year’s roster I expect (or at least hope) to take on a bigger role next season with significant improvement on their play:
Arber Xhekaj: The Sheriff is as tough as it comes but he’s had a very uneven season in 2023-2024. His physicality is an important piece of the puzzle moving forward and it’s important to see him become a steady presence on the Habs third pair next season as someone we can rely on every game, with perhaps an improved role on the penalty kill since he’s likely to be removed from the second powerplay unit.
Justin Barron: When first acquired by Montreal in 2021, Justin Barron was pretty much the only interesting prospect we had on the right side. Fast forward to 2024 and competition is starting to heavily breathe on Barron’s very long neck with Mailloux playing a very successful first season in the AHL and Reinbacher coming to North America last spring. Barron has played stretches of games where he looks like a capable NHL defender able to bring some offence and a very good transition game… but he’s also looked extremely soft and lost in the defensive zone at times. This might be the biggest year of Barron’s young career as he cannot be sent down on waivers anymore. If he’s to be part of Montreal’s defense moving forward, we need to see him play well enough, consistently, so that sending Mailloux and Reinbacher to Laval doesn’t sound like an injustice to both players.
Joshua Roy: It is still unclear where in the lineup Joshua will play next year, but it’s obvious from his rookie season that he has enough talent to play in the NHL. Montreal needs more goals across the board and If he can bring some offense to the Habs bottom 6 next year (with the occasional stint on the top 6 perhaps) and contribute on the second powerplay unit, it would greatly help a team that seriously needs more goal scoring. A full season in the NHL, without being sent down, would already be a great sign in Joshua’s development at such an early stage of his career.
Juraj Slavkofvsky: Yes, I’m putting him on this list. He played extremely well from the middle of Decembre until the end of the season but I think that’s just the tip of the iceberg for Montreal’s power forward. If we can see him improve again and maintain this level from the beginning of the season until the end, it will only confirm Montreal has a star player on their hands at a very reasonable cost for the next 9 years.
What about you? Who do you see as the players that should/could/will show significant improvement next season?
Oh and if you didn’t know already, Cole Caufield changed his number to the lucky #13 in honour of Johnny Gaudreau. A very nice gesture from one small talented player to another who inspired him.
Thank you for reading and have a nice day!
Hugo Brossoit (Scabeh)
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