The Montreal Canadiens will have options at centre for the upcoming season. Who will step up and grab the four centre slots for the Habs?
Having skilled and reliable centres in hockey is crucial for a team's success in the NHL. They impact every aspect of the game. From faceoffs to setting up plays, scoring goals, and defending, centres play an indispensable role.
The Montreal Canadiens currently have six options on NHL contracts who can play down the middle. Unless Kent Hughes pulls off a trade between now and the start of the regular season, Martin St. Louis will need to juggle the different possibilities.
Nick Suzuki
Nick Suzuki is a lock to be the first line centre of the team for the upcoming season. Last season, he led the team with 66 points and co-led in goals tied with Cole Caufield with 26. Suzuki was a key piece on the power play unit and regularly received shifts on the penalty kill unit. It is expected that the captain will form a duo with Caufield on the top line and St. Louis will be looking for a good fit to complete the trio.
Kirby Dach
Kirby Dach began his tenure as Hab centering the third line before being moved to the top line to play to the right of Suzuki and Caufield. St. Louis wanted the 22-year-old to regain confidence by removing the responsibilities of a centre from his plate. Dach came into Montreal after having a difficult season with the Chicago Blackhawks with 26 points in 70 games and a 32.84 percent success rate at the faceoff circle.
After a productive start to the season, the coach moved Dach to centre on a full-time basis and that helped the forward take his game to the next level. Dach finished the year with 14 goals and 24 assists for a total of 38 points. All three categories were personal highs despite playing 58 games.
Dach was a productive contributor to the man advantage. He collected 16 power points, trailing the captain by one point for the team lead despite playing 24 less games than Suzuki.
His area of improvement continues to be in faceoffs, where he won 38.33 percent of the draws last season.
Sean Monahan
Sean Monahan’s first season as a Canadien was cut short due to injuries. He played 25 games before suffering a lower-body injury that forced him out of action from December 5th. In addition, he suffered a setback during his recovery which led to a groin surgery in April.
The forward had a productive start collecting 17 points before his season ending injury. He began the year as a centre before getting a stint to complete the top line with Suzuki and Caufield.
When Hughes acquired Monahan from the Calgary Flames, he was hoping that he would be able to flip him by the trade deadline for a high draft pick. The injury changed those plans.
In June, the 28-year old signed a one-year contract extension that will pay him up to $2 million including performance bonus. That is a significant drop from his previous seven-year deal worth on average $6.375 million.
The best case scenario for both parties is that Monahan stays healthy and has a productive season. This would allow the forward to get a more lucrative contract the following season and allows Hughes to potentially get the draft pick that he was hoping to get this past season via trade before the deadline.
On the ice, St. Louis has a player that can play as a centre and the wing. Monahan is also the team’s best faceoff man with a 55.14 percent success last season and a career 50.5 percent. The Ontario native is also a good leader and teammate for the young players on the roster.
Alex Newhook
Alex Newhook was acquired on June 27th from the Colorado Avalanche in return for a first and second round draft pick and defenseman Gianni Fairbrother. Newhook has spent the majority of the last two seasons with the Avalanche at the NHL level.
In 159 career NHL games, the 22-year-old has tallied 27 goals and 66 points. He was part of the Avalanche's roster when they won the Stanley Cup in the 2021-'22 season. During that run, he collected four assists in 12 matches.
After his acquisition, St. Louis mentioned that there's no decision made whether Newhook will play as a centre or on the wing. When meeting the media after signing his four-year contract extension, the Avalanche's 2019 first round draft pick said that he's more comfortable as a centre than on the wing.
Last season, Colorado coach Jared Bednar deployed Newhook mostly as a centre at the start of the year before primarily using him on the wing in the final months. Newhook was a regular on the power play unit that finished sixth in the NHL.
Canadiens are betting that an environment with less urgency to win will allow the Newfoundland native to make mistakes and learn from them. Montreal currently being in a rebuild is better suited for development, whereas the Avalanche are in a 'win-now' mode.
Christian Dvorak
Christian Dvorak's season ended prematurely when he suffered a knee injury that required surgery on March 15th. At the time of the surgery, the organization had declared that the forward would be ready for the start of the season. The Athletic recently reported that Dvorak's recovery will continue through the first couple of weeks of the year.
Dvorak finished the 2022-'23 season with 28 points in 64 games, while averaging 16:52 of ice time. With him being the best forward at the faceoff dot following Monahan's injury, Dvorak was slotted on the second power play unit and on the primary penalty kill unit.
Jake Evans
Jake Evans finished the year with 19 points in 54 games, averaging 14:29 of ice time. He missed three months of action between January and March due to a lower body injury that did not require surgery.
St. Louis would trust Evans with key defensive responsibilities including on the penalty kill unit, where he was the most used forward. Evans took important faceoffs and he produced good results with 52 percent success rate.
Finding the Right Solution
St. Louis will likely experiment several combinations down the middle until the perfect solution is found. On a healthy roster, Suzuki on the first line and Evans on the fourth line are the certainties.
The coach will need to choose from the four other individuals to fill two spots. Dvorak's injury will make the decision simpler to start the season, but a longer plan needs to be drawn out.
Hughes might intervene and facilitate the options for St. Louis with a transaction early into the season.