The Season of Ifs
Every Canadiens season begins with a question. This one begins with several.
If the Canadiens make the playoffs again, it will be because the young core took another step. If they don’t, it will be because youth, as it often does, came with inconsistency. This team has been rebuilding for what feels like a lifetime, and though last year’s surprise playoff berth seemed like a turning point, it’s not yet clear whether it marked the end of a chapter or the start of another long one.
There’s new blood, of course. There always is. Noah Dobson arrives from Long Island with expectations attached to him like a shadow. The Canadiens didn’t trade two first-round picks to get a “nice piece.” They brought him in to be the kind of defenceman who changes the geometry of a game — one smooth pass out of the zone, one confident decision on the power play, one less moment of panic when the forecheck closes in.
But Montreal has been here before. Every few years, there’s another promise of stability on the blue line. Jeff Petry was supposed to bring it. So was Shea Weber, until the injuries came. The names change, the story doesn’t. What’s different now is the age curve. Dobson joins a defence built on legs barely past their rookie contracts: Lane Hutson, Kaiden Guhle, Jayden Struble, and Arber Xhekaj. Add Mike Matheson, who has quietly become the adult in the room, and you have a group that can skate with anyone in the league. Whether they can think with them — that’s what the next six months will reveal.
Up front, the story is just as uncertain. Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki have become the faces of the franchise, the ones who sell jerseys and belief in equal measure. But their supporting cast remains a work in progress. Juraj Slafkovský still drifts between brilliance and invisibility, the kind of player who can look like a star one night and a passenger the next. Patrik Laine, newly installed on the wing, could be the missing piece — or just another expensive reminder that pure talent doesn’t always travel well.
There’s hope in Zachary Bolduc, the hometown kid who skates and, I’ve been told packs a wrister, like he’s been waiting for this all his life, and maybe a spark in Joe Veleno, who is running out of chances to show he belongs in a top … well … anything role. The Canadiens will score goals in bursts. The question is whether they’ll score when it matters.
The goaltending, for once, feels calm. Samuel Montembeault has become something rare in Montreal, a goalie people trust without arguing about it, ala Cristobal Huet. He isn’t Price, and no one expects him to be. He’s steady, confident, professional. Behind him, Jakub Dobes is learning the trade the right way, one start at a time. For a franchise that has spent the better part of a decade chasing peace in the crease, that’s no small victory.
Martin St. Louis enters the year sounding the same quiet note he always does: urgency, compete level, structure. He’s learned on the job, sometimes the hard way, but the players play for him, and that’s half the battle in today’s NHL. The next half is results. The Canadiens aren’t rebuilding anymore, not in the way they were. They’re supposed to be arriving. St. Louis knows it. Kent Hughes knows it. The fans know it most of all.
The Atlantic Division, as usual, doesn’t make things easy. Florida and Tampa still have too much experience, Toronto too much talent, and Detroit is done waiting its turn. Ottawa could go either way, which is to say they might finally make life miserable again. There aren’t many free points on this schedule.
Which brings us back to the Ifs. If Dobson steadies the defence. If Slafkovsky finds his rhythm. If Laine remembers what made him feared in Winnipeg. If Montembeault holds the line. If the kids grow up just fast enough to matter. If. If. If.
The Canadiens have enough to stay in the fight, but they don’t yet have enough to control it. The gap between those two realities is where this season will live. Somewhere between progress and patience, between what this team hopes to be and what it still is.
Fans in Montreal don’t ask for miracles anymore. They’ve seen rebuilds and rebrands and every kind of “five-year plan.” What they want now is something simpler — a team that plays honest hockey, that doesn’t disappear when it matters, that finally looks like it’s going somewhere.
The Canadiens have talked about potential for so long that it’s become part of their DNA. This season will tell us whether that word still means hope, or just habit.
It’s the season of Ifs. And for now, that’s as honest as it gets.