The Montreal Canadiens’ 2023-24 season has started with several ups and downs. The good news is that the lineup is one of the youngest in the NHL and is expected to be better than last season’s roster. The bad news? Several issues have carried over from the 2022-23 season.
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General manager (GM) Kent Hughes’ rebuild plan is in full swing and is showing signs of progress but that doesn’t mean fans can’t wish for more. With Christmas just around the corner, everyone has their wish lists for Santa. It seems fitting to look at what the Canadiens should be wishing for heading into the holiday season.
1. Healthy Habs
The Canadiens struggled in 2022-23, finishing 28th in the NHL with a 31-45-6 record. While injuries leading to over 750-man games lost weren’t the only reason for their poor record, they did play a major part since several key players — such as Cole Caufield, Sean Monahan, Kirby Dach, and Brendan Gallagher — missed significant time. This season is seeing a repeat performance of the injury bug.
Canadiens forward Alex Newhook is sidelined for 10 to 12 weeks with a high-ankle sprain, suffering the injury in a 5-1 loss to the Florida Panthers. Top-six center Kirby Dach saw his season end after only two games. Christian Dvorak, Rafael Harvey-Pinard, and Tanner Pearson have also missed time.
Veteran defenseman David Savard has missed nearly six weeks, and Chris Wideman has yet to play even a single game this season. Other blueliners have also missed time: Jordan Harris and Arber Xhekaj both missed more than a few weeks each for their injuries and Mike Matheson and Kaiden Guhle also missed time. Nearly every defenseman on the roster has gotten hurt or injured at some point this season.
Montreal has had a roller-coaster start to the season and part of their lack of consistency falls on the constant adjustments forced onto a team with minimal depth dealing with injuries. Their best-laid plans under coach Martin St. Louis have been derailed, and they would’ve needed near-perfect health to even have a remote shot at playing meaningful games in the later part of the season.
While a season of perfect health may not mean the team would earn a playoff berth, it would at least provide management an honest view of what the team is capable of at this stage of the rebuild and provide healthy trade options.
2. Canadiens to Trade from Position of Strength
As difficult as this season has been for the team regarding injuries, the silver lining is that it has provided several young players to showcase their skills. Jayden Struble is yet another young defenseman to arrive to the NHL roster and impress with his skill set and development thus far. He looks NHL-ready, which adds his name to a list of nearly 11 NHL-capable defenders in the Canadiens’ system. Several of those are young left-handers.
It has also allowed St. Louis to give more ice time to players like Monahan, who could become highly sought after at the Trade Deadline. These are the areas of strength Hughes needs to exploit. He can afford to be patient and hold firm to his valuation of assets as he waits to be a seller. While selling veterans could net the team some quality futures (picks or prospects), what is likely to make a larger impact — if it’s a scoring forward Hughes is in search of — is to package a young defenseman. While a deal like that may not materialize until the summer of 2024, Habs fans will already be sending Santa their wish lists on that front, hoping to add a skilled forward to the rebuild.
3. Canadiens To Provide Consistency
Consistency is the hallmark of a great team and the Canadiens aren’t there yet. They are more of a “Jekyll and Hyde” team as they are consistently inconsistent. In some games, they look competitive, such as in their overtime win over the Boston Bruins on Nov. 11 where they finished every check, battled for every loose puck, and went toe to toe with one of the best teams in the NHL. Then there’s others such as their lopsided loss to the Minnesota Wild.
There are even some games that see the Habs start with a loose, inconsistent approach only to finish with a significantly improved effort level, such as the game against the Nashville Predators at home in Montreal. That game saw a lethargic Canadiens roster through 40 minutes turn a corner and play a dominant third period, but the effort was too little too late. It is that type of inconsistent effort that costs them games and points in the standings.
Seeing a rebuilding team have inconsistent outcomes is expected. Consistency doesn’t imply a rigid conformity to a system, or style. It provides a foundation, one where players can be adaptable to their environment and provide the most effective competition nightly. What should be expected at this stage should be a consistent effort and output.
Brendan Gallagher is the perfect example to look to for consistency. Players can’t control the outcomes but what they can control are their effort levels, and if the Canadiens want to turn a corner, they’ll need everyone to provide 100% of themselves. There will be games where that 100% is less than other nights over an 82-game season — sometimes players can’t get their minds and legs in sync — but fans can tell if they are giving their full measure of effort.
4. More Slafkovsky
More, more, more…..that is what fans want to see of the 2022 first-overall pick, Juraj Slafkovsky.
It’s no secret the Canadiens playoff hopes are a long shot at best. So why not provide him top-line usage? Well, that role can’t just be handed to him: he needs to earn his way up the lineup. His growing confidence is evident and he has been building on it every shift, learning to use his size effectively along the boards and at the front of the net while also using his long reach to generate opportunities. He has been at his best over the last five games. With his recent growth in confidence, it is evident he has earned his spot on the top line.
With this additional confidence, he has been given more responsibilities. Playing more minutes overall, playing on the top power play unit, but most of all playing with the best players on the roster in Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki. Pairing him with skilled players has allowed him to be more creative, showcase his skills, and in turn, grow even more in confidence.
Canadiens fans’ wish list for Santa could be much longer. However, these wishes will have the biggest long-term positive impact on the franchise, and in turn, on the entertainment value for the fans. If there is one gift that can be left under the tree for Habs fans, it is a highly entertaining, consistent team whose young core players shows continuing growth.