The Montreal Canadiens are on the verge of making it to the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs just four and a half years after the new administration was brought in, twice as fast as it took the Toronto Maple Leafs, a good sign for the Habs.
On Friday night, the Montreal Canadiens will have a golden opportunity to qualify for the second round of the playoffs by beating the Tampa Bay Lightning for a fourth time. If they do manage it, it will only have taken four years for the Kent Hughes/Jeff Gorton/Martin St-Louis regime to win a playoff round. That would be remarkable.
If you compare them with the Canadiens’ long-time rivals, the Toronto Maple Leafs, they hired Brendan Shanahan and Kyle Dubas to mould their rebuild in 2014. They missed the playoffs in their first two seasons, just like the Canadiens did in their first two seasons with the new administration at the helm.
Both franchises made the playoffs in their front office’s third season at the helm. That was in 2017 for the Leafs, when they lost in the first round to the Washington Capitals in six games. For Montreal, that was in 2025, when they too lost to the Caps in the first round, but in five games.
Then, for the next two seasons, Toronto lost to the Boston Bruins in seven games. The following year, they lost to the Columbus Blue Jackets in the qualifying round. In 2021, they lost to Montreal in seven games after leading the series 3-1. In 2022, they lost to the Lightning in seven games. It took the Shanahan/Dubas duo nine years to finally win a round in the playoffs.
The Canadiens could potentially do it in four and a half years, half the time. Why? Because the Habs have been built the right way. They did not focus solely on the big names and handcuff themselves with big contracts and no movement clauses. The Leafs had Morgan Reilly, William Nylander, Mitch Marner, Auston Matthews and John Tavares from 2018 onwards. There was a lot of star power that faded when it really counted, and Toronto couldn’t overcome it.
This year in the playoffs, Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield and Juraj Slafkovsky have been struggling to put up points at even strength. Suzuki has five points, four of which have come on the man-advantage; Caufield has four points, all on the power play, just like Slafkovsky’s three points.
Still, the Canadiens lead the series. Why? Because of their depth, which they have because Hughes was able to sign his top guns to reasonable contracts with team-friendly cap hits. The way he handled the negotiations for Caufield, Slafkovsky, Guhle and Hutson has been exemplary, and he’s been able to add good complementary pieces along the way like Mike Matheson, Zach Bolduc, Noah Dobson, Alexandre Texier, Alexandre Carrier, Alex Newhook and even Kirby Dach of late has stepped up.
Of course, you can’t call a rebuild an unmitigated success until a Stanley Cup has been won, but if the Canadiens manage to reach the second round in such a short time, it will be further evidence that they are doing things the right way.
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