In Part One of our Atlantic Division offseason series, we compared the Senators to the Toronto Maple Leafs, a team that finished 21 points behind Ottawa and responded with a massive summer overhaul.

Part Two presents a very different challenge.

The Montreal Canadiens aren't trying to climb back into the playoff picture. As a team that made the Conference Final after taking down the Atlantic's top two teams in the playoffs, they are by definition, a Stanley Cup contender.

Montreal finished with 106 points last season, seven more than Ottawa, and then went all the way to the Eastern Final before losing to Carolina, the eventual Cup winner.

So while the Senators were forced into some roster changes this summer, the Canadiens decided not to pick at theirs.

This just in: the Senators' offseason turned on a dime when Brady Tkachuk requested a trade and was eventually sent to Florida for the ninth and 25th picks in the 2026 draft, a 2027 second-rounder, and a 2029 first-round pick.

GM Steve Staios then flipped the ninth pick to San Jose for William Eklund and prospects Kasper Halttunen and Brandon Svoboda.

Ottawa also acquired veteran winger Andre Burakovsky from Chicago and RFA goalie Samuel Ersson from Toronto.

In free agency, the Senators mostly took care of their own, re-signing Claude Giroux, Nick Cousins, Jordan Spence, Leevi Merilainen, and the newly acquired Ersson.

Lars Eller, Nick Jensen, Dennis Gilbert, Lassi Thomson, Arthur Kaliyev, Olle Lycksell, James Reimer and Mads Sogaard were among those who departed.

The two big questions for most fans: Can Eklund and Burakovsky supply the offence lost with Tkachuk's exit? Can Ersson start and thrive in 35-40 games to provide Linus Ullmark with the major support he needs to be effective?

Compared to Ottawa, Montreal's offseason has been quiet. 

GM Kent Hughes made a handful of very small depth trades, acquiring forward Brett Berard, centre Hunter McKown and Polish defenseman Maksymilian Szuber, who all mostly played in the AHL last season.

The most recognizable player Montreal traded away was Brendan Gallagher.

After 14 seasons with the Canadiens, Gallagher was sent to Vancouver for future considerations, with Montreal retaining half his salary. There were no tears shed about that in Ottawa, where fans still chuckle about Gallagher's sanctimonious public rant about Tim Stutzle.

Gallagher was once an important player for the Canadiens, but now they're paying him big money to play for someone else.

The Habs also traded Roy, which was a big headline 30 years ago, but shipping out Joshua Roy didn't quite move the needle the same way this summer. Along with Roy, they also traded William Trudeau and Luke Tuch in the deals that brought in Berard, Szuber and McKown.

If you were waiting for Hughes to make a major splash on July 1, you're still waiting.

Like their trades, Montreal's external free-agent additions were mostly depth guys, including forward Samuel Poulin, goalie Kaapo Kahkonen and defenseman Reilly Walsh and Ethan Samson. Walsh was 3rd in KHL scoring among defensemen last season.

Just like the Sens, their more important business was taking care of some in-house signings.

The Canadiens signed Ivan Demidov to an eight-year extension, re-signed goalie Jakub Dobes for three years and brought back Kirby Dach on a one-year deal.

Demidov's extension is Montreal's most important transaction of the summer. At 20, he's one of the brightest emerging offensive talents in hockey and is now locked up at an AAV of $9.125 million.

He's a big part of a young core that already includes Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Juraj Slafkovsky and Lane Hutson. 

After 5 points in 61 games with Montreal last season, forward Joe Veleno was allowed to walk into free agency where he signed with the New York Rangers.

Despite his frequent injury absence, the most notable free agent departure is the talented by oft-injured Patrik Laine, who remains an unrestricted free agent.

Sammy Blais also left the Canadiens organization and, interestingly enough, signed with the Sens. He should be one of Ottawa's first calls if they run into injury trouble up front.

There isn't anything here that changes the Canadiens.

Like the Senators, the Canadiens have a lot of excellent young players who haven't hit their prime yet. 

Caufield is 25. Slafkovsky is 22. Hutson is 22. Demidov is 20. Suzuki is 26.

Montreal is betting that another year of development from that group will provide an upgrade all by itself.

Suzuki broke the 100-point barrier last season, while the Canadiens finished seventh in the NHL in goals. And after winning two seven-game playoff series, they now have serious postseason experience.

There are still question marks, and every team has them. The biggest is this: Can Dobes repeat last season's performance in goal? He has just 59 career NHL games under his belt, so despite his new three-year contract, the jury is still out on whether he's ready to handle the workload and expectations of being a number one over a full season.

The Senators were busier, and handled the Tkachuk thing about as well as they could, but you can't deal away Tkachuk and say it's been a great offseason.

Steve Staios did well, turning the situation into Eklund, first-rounder Jonas Lagerberg-Hoen, a 2029 first-rounder, two prospects, and a second-rounder. Adding Burakovsky gives Ottawa another potential top-six option as well.

Internally, both teams re-signed the players they wanted to keep.

But Montreal wins because, for the sake of this comparison, they didn't have to trade Nick Suzuki and then scramble to try and replace him. 

These two teams are so close. The Sens actually had a better goal differential and more regulation wins than the Canadiens last season. Internal growth, fewer injuries, better goaltending, and a little less drama could make a massive difference next season.

But it's still tracking to be Montreal again.

The Habs finished seven points ahead of the Sens and then backed it up with a trip to the Eastern Final.

There's no denying both young cores are impressive.

Suzuki, Caufield, Slafkovsky, Demidov and Hutson versus Tim Stutzle, Drake Batherson, Dylan Cozens, Shane Pinto and Jake Sanderson makes for an interesting comparison. It should continue to be a fantastic rivalry, although with antagonists like Tkachuk and Gallagher both gone, things may be a little less feisty.

While anything can happen, right now Montreal gets the edge.

Neither team vastly improved this offseason so we have no choice but to defer to last year's results, which were clear.

Since then, Ottawa had to trade its young captain and Montreal didn't. The Senators are a really good young team that did a solid job of damage control this summer, but that's not the same thing as closing the gap and surpassing a 106-point conference finalist.

By Steve Warne
The Hockey News