Fantasy Focus: Alex Newhook

After his first year with Montreal showed some promise offensively for Alex Newhook, last season saw him take a step back.  Can he rebound and become a key secondary contributor once again in 2025-26?

2024-25

In 2023-24, Newhook finished strong, a shift that happened to coincide with being moved back to centre, his natural position.  (It also came with no pressure and a bunch of meaningless games.)  But with Kirby Dach healthy to start last season, the decision was made to shift Newhook back to the wing with his only faceoff work largely coming on strong-side draws when he was on the same line as Dach.

To say things didn’t start well would be an understatement.  With five goals in his first 26 games, that represented a big drop-off from how he finished the year before.  And it’s not as if he was piling on the assists either; it took until December 28th for him to get his first helper of the season in his 35th game.  The term disastrous gets thrown around a lot and is overused when it comes to describing players but when it came to Newhook’s first half of the season, it might be appropriate as he had all of nine points in 41 contests.  For someone whose job it is to produce offensively, that’s just not going to cut it.

Things were better in the third quarter of the season as he picked up a dozen points including seven goals, production that was much more appropriate for the middle-six role he had.  Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to maintain it in the final stretch of the year even after he moved back down the middle as the output dropped to a level comparable to the first half the season before a relatively quiet showing in the playoffs.

If you’re looking for a silver lining, nearly 85% of Newhook’s points came at even strength.  It’s not a situation where he’s a power play specialist; it’s more like the other way around.  Over his four full NHL seasons, he has been relatively steady in terms of his even-strength production which should give Montreal some confidence heading into this season.

Regular Season Stats: 82 GP, 15-11-26, -21, 24 PIMS, 1 PPG, 3 GWG, 118 shots, 15:08 ATOI
Playoff Stats: 5 GP, 1-1-2, -3, 4 PIMS, 1 PPG, 0 GWG, 8 shots, 15:31 ATOI

4-Year Averages

GP: 73
Goals: 14
Assists: 17
Points: 31
+/-: -5
PIMS: 19
PPG: 2
GWG: 3
Shots: 108

2025-26 Role

There is some intrigue when it comes to how Newhook will be deployed this season.  With Montreal’s other three full-time centres being right-handed, it stands to reason that he will see more time down the middle this year.  Yes, Joe Veleno is in the mix as well and is left-handed but it’s not a given that he’s going to be in the lineup on a full-time basis.

But even with his likely position being known, Newhook’s usage is up in the air.  It’s possible that he’s on the second line, potentially between Patrik Laine and Ivan Demidov, especially with there being some uncertainty about Dach’s availability to start the season.  He could be more of a third liner but that would mean the expected veteran line of Anderson-Evans-Gallagher either was the fourth trio or wasn’t together.  In that case, Newhook might line up with someone like newcomer Zach Bolduc who would be a decent complementary fit style-wise.

But if the Evans line gets third-line-like deployment, Newhook could effectively be a miscast fourth liner too.  And if Veleno is in the lineup and Newhook’s on the fourth line, it’s Newhook who likely will go to the wing.  It’s safe to say he shouldn’t spend much time on the top line but beyond that, there are quite a few options and given his positional versatility, he’s probably going to be used in a variety of roles along the way.

Newhook wasn’t particularly effective on the power play last season, notching just four points in over 131 minutes of playing time.  In terms of power play points per 60 minutes, he was dead last among those who put up a point on the man advantage.  While he was used for zone entries on the second unit, his full-time spot there could be in jeopardy, especially if they go with two blueliners on the second wave (Mike Matheson and Noah Dobson).

Meanwhile, while his speed makes him a potential penalty killing weapon like Paul Byron used to be, his struggles on faceoffs and the fact that he’s not particularly adept defensively makes it unlikely he’ll be tried shorthanded with any sort of regularity.  Accordingly, it’s quite possible that Newhook finds himself as primarily an even-strength-only type of player.

Projected Stats

When Montreal acquired Newhook for a late first-round pick and an early second-round selection back at the 2023 draft, the hope was that they’d be getting a potential second-line forward.  Considering he’s still just 24, it’s not crazy to think that he could get to that level one day.  But it would be very surprising if that happened in 2025-26.

As noted earlier, Newhook has been relatively steady in terms of his even-strength production over his four full NHL seasons which gives him a nice floor to project from.  But with his special teams time looking like it could be dropped, the ceiling is going to be not much higher than that floor.  From a fantasy perspective, that has Newhook in do-not-draft territory in most formats with a note that he could be a reasonable plug-and-play option in deeper leagues when he’s getting second-line deployment with a bit of power play time when injuries arise.

That isn’t to say that Newhook won’t be an important player for the Habs this season.  His positional versatility is probably going to make him someone that Martin St. Louis relies on as injuries and matchups dictate getting creative with lines.  Not many players could conceivably line up on both wings or at centre on probably the bottom three lines.  If all goes well, Newhook will fill an important role this season, it’s just not one that’s going to put up a lot of points in all likelihood.

GP: 80
Goals: 14
Assists: 13
Points: 27
+/-: -14
PIMS: 20
PPG: 1
GWG: 1
Shots: 120