The days when Martin St-Louis struggled to put two very competitive power play units are long gone. Last season, the Montreal Canadiens’ coach was forced to play Nick Suzuki on both waves of the power play, and as good as the captain is, he’s not a robot, and being overused isn’t great.

This year, the coach will have plenty of options, and he said himself at the golf tournament that he’s not ruling out any possibilities just yet, including having two defensemen on the man-advantage. GM Kent Hughes’ acquisition this offseason has given St-Louis multiple scenarios to work with, and it will be interesting to see how things work out.

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Acquired for Emil Heineman and two first-round picks from the New York Islanders, blueliner Noah Dobson was a mainstay on the New York Islanders’ power play. Last year, 12 of his 39 points came with the man-advantage, the year before, 24 of his 70 points came in such circumstances, and in 2022-23, it was 18 of 49. In other words, that’s roughly between 30 and 35% of his production that resulted from the power play. His average time on ice when up a man varied between 2:59 and 3:18 in those three years.

As for Zack Bolduc, even though the former St. Louis Blues player has a small sample in the NHL, a third of his 36 points came on the power play last season, and he spent an average of 1:18 per game on the ice with the man advantage.

Ivan Demidov can also be considered a new acquisition, after all, this will be his first full season in North America, and the first time St-Louis can count on him from the get-go. In his two regular-season games with the Habs last year, he averaged 2:25 of ice time on the power play. At the Prospect Showdown, he made the Canadiens’ power play look absolutely lethal and created a goal for Oliver Kapanen. On Sunday, without the Russian, the power play was ineffective.

Last season, St-Louis took his time before putting Lane Hutson on the first power play unit. He didn’t want to give the youngster too much to do too soon. Will he have the same approach with Demidov? I’d be surprised. The young Russian’s creativity and skills come in very handy, and it’s not like the power play was overly efficient last year; they finished in 21st place with a 20.1% success rate.

As for Dobson, will he join Hutson on the first unit or unseat him? 26 of the young defenseman’s 66 points came on the man-advantage, that’s 39% of his production. His smooth skating and ability to evade coverage have been more than helpful. It's hard not to wonder just how electrifying a Hutson-Demidov combination on the power play could be.

Having so many players who can be real threats on the power play is a significant problem, and you won’t see St-Louis complain, but he may want to share the load more evenly between his two PP units if they both click.

While there hasn’t been a single official practice yet, Demidov’s performance at the prospect showdown convinced me that he’s top power play unit material. Of course, the competition will be much better in the NHL than it was against the Winnipeg Jets’ prospects, but his teammates won’t be rookies either.

If it were up to me, the first wave would include the usual first line of Suzuki, Cole Caufield, and Juraj Slafkovsky, joined by Demidov and Lane Hutson on the blueline. This would allow Caufield to remain in his preferred position, and there’s little doubt that Demidov would be able to find him with precise cross-ice passes, which he could one-time past goaltenders.

On the second unit, Alex Newhook is a good option at center, granted he’s not great at faceoff, but his speed is rather handy for zone entries. On his wings, I would include Patrik Laine, who has proven just how lethal he can be on the wing, and Zack Bolduc on the other wing, who’s also got a great shot. Former NHLer Simon Gagne even said this summer that he’s got one of the best shots he’s ever seen. Furthermore, Bolduc has been asked to work on his faceoff skills this offseason. One can imagine that he could take some of that load off Newhook. On the blueline, Dobson’s booming shot on one side and Mike Matheson on the other could be a great combo.

I purposefully left off Kirby Dach because he doesn't have Newhook's speed and at least to start with, even strength duty should be enough for him. 

When the Canadiens hit the ice on Thursday, we should be able to get a glimpse of what kind of combinations St-Louis intends to use this season. While it’s still early, last year, he wasted no time in showing the lines and pairings he wanted to use at the start of the season to be able to hit the ground running. There may be 60 players at camp, but that’s mainly to allow scrimmages between three groups named A, B, and C.

Speaking of scrimmages, there are three scheduled at 10:30 on Thursday (18th), Friday (19th), and Saturday (20th). As always, the CN Sports complex will be open to the public. Before each scrimmage, the team that isn’t playing will be practicing at 9:15.

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