TheHockeyNews.com's off-season rankings has the Montreal Canadiens slotted in 25th place. Montreal needed help putting them over the top as a Stanley Cup playoff front-runner, but they didn't get it. What must the Canadiens do to win it all?
An NHL team doesn’t always need to make a slew of moves just to get positive press regarding their off-season.
However, sometimes you want to see more from a team as they look to take that next competitive step. That’s where TheHockeyNews.com is at with team No. 25 in our new series ranking each NHL team’s off-season, the Montreal Canadiens.
The Canadiens have been expertly constructed by GM Kent Hughes and president of hockey operations Jeff Gorton and made it to the Eastern Conference Final this past year. The future is extremely bright for the Habs’ core of young talent, but these rankings are not based on what's there – it’s based on what’s changed.
Let's explore the Canadiens' quiet off-season and discuss why they ended up in this position in the rankings.
Arrivals:
Brett Berard (LW), Sasha Pastujov (LW)
Berard and Pastujov are both fringe contributors Montreal is taking a chance on, and with $9.7-million currently in Montreal’s salary cap space, you ideally wanted to see much more than we’ve seen thus far.
Yes, Montreal locked up star winger Ivan Demidov with an eight-year extension worth $9.15-million, and that is a significant win for Gorton and Hughes. But off-setting that progress is the fact the Canadiens are essentially the same team that finished the 2025-26 season.
If there’s not notable internal improvement, the Habs could have major trouble replicating that success, let alone improving on it.
In a perfect world, the Canadiens needed experienced players to bolster their top-six group of forwards and their overall depth. Hughes still has cap flexibility, and there's potential for him to use it if there are any in-season needs they feel they have to address.
The additions this summer are thoroughly underwhelming. Montreal hasn’t necessarily gotten weaker, they’ve just not gotten any better.
Departures:
Patrik Laine (RW), Brendan Gallagher (RW), Luke Tuch (LW), Joshua Roy (RW), Sean Farrell (LW), Sammy Blais (LW), Joe Veleno (C)
If you didn’t notice the pattern above, the exodus from Montreal is on the wings.
Laine was an experiment that didn’t work out, and Gallagher was a distressed asset who wanted a fresh start – and he’ll get one with the lowly Vancouver Canucks.
Otherwise, it’s mostly fringe players who’ve left the Canadiens, and until Hughes makes a trade for a needle-moving forward, the overall depth condition on the wings in Montreal means they’re not as well-equipped to handle a potential injury crisis.
Under Gorton and Hughes, the Canadiens have steadily taken steps forward, but their departures put the organization in a place where they should be spending every cap dollar available to them to replace what’s left.
Just as the arrivals in Montreal are underwhelming, so are the departures. Laine wasn’t able to stay healthy, and the gamble didn’t pay off. Gallagher is now 34 years old, and he was no longer the player who endeared himself to Montrealers with his robust physical game.
The rest of the players who weren’t retained by the Habs are fringe NHLers at best. So all the Canadiens get from parting ways with those fringe players is a boost to the salary cap.
The Bottom Line:
While they didn’t need to make a trade for the sake of doing so, the sheer number of forwards the Canadiens have lost this summer should raise concerns that the injury bug could hamper what they are capable of in 2026-27.
At a time when the Canadiens should be putting pieces in place to put them over the top in the 2027 post-season, they simply maintained their overall talent.
There’s no question that Habs fans were hoping for a more-eventful summer. While there’s still plenty of time for Hughes to pick up players with skill and championship pedigree, the goal has to be getting beyond the Eastern Final next spring and into the winner’s circle.
The Atlantic is going to be one of the most competitive divisions in the league once again this season, and the Canadiens can’t be satisfied with the status quo. Hughes and Gorton have provided excellent results, but there’s still a long way to go before they reach their ultimate goal.
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