Likeliest Canadiens to Replace Gallagher as Alternate Captain

There’s a flip side to every coin. While trading Brendan Gallagher freed up a roster spot for the Montreal Canadiens and took (50% of) a bad contract off the books, the Habs lost their longest-tenured player, a consummate professional and workhorse, a beloved fan favourite as a result and an invaluable leader in the locker room and on the ice.

For all those traits and more, Gallagher more than earned the letters on his jersey, both the “CH” and his “A” as an alternate captain. Replacing him for the 2026-27 season won’t be easy, but the Canadiens do have many viable candidates from which to choose who should at least come close, joining Mike Matheson as the team’s other alternate and Nick Suzuki as captain to form the team’s primary leadership core. Here are the top five:

5. Phillip Danault

Phillip Danault may have just been acquired by the Canadiens this past season, but it’s his second stint with the franchise, bringing the 33-year-old veteran’s overall tenure with the team to parts of seven seasons. Following Gallagher’s departure, only captain Nick Suzuki (and Jake Evans) have served longer terms with the team. That shouldn’t be a coincidence.

However, whereas Suzuki is signed until 2030, Danault becomes an unrestricted free agent in one season. Taking into account the veteran’s age, it’s hard to envision general manager Kent Hughes being willing to commit to him with even a medium-term deal. A defensive specialist who provided much needed stability down the middle down the stretch, he would otherwise be a decent choice.

4. Josh Anderson

It’s worth noting Josh Anderson has worn an “A” for the Canadiens before, back in 2020-21, per Elite Prospects, oddly enough his first season with the Habs. Since then, despite generally failing to live up to offensive expectations (scoring the franchise’s first game-winning goal in a Stanley Cup Final since 1993 notwithstanding), he’s consistently shown up from a physicality and effort-level standpoint on a nightly basis. In a vacuum, he’d be an easy choice, but, seeing as his contract is expiring in one year too and he’s not a lock to be re-signed, the Habs will probably go with someone else with more of a certain, long-term future with the organization.

3. Kaiden Guhle

Defenseman Kaiden Guhle is the first player on this list under contract past 2027, after he signed a six-year, $33.3 million extension in 2024 (which came into effect this season). He can be a bit polarizing in terms of whether or not he’s worth his $5.55 million cap hit, but the 24-year-old means a lot to the team as a projected two-way defenseman who seems on the verge of breaking out statistically… if he could just stay healthy over an entire season.

Guhle’s injury woes have seen him hit 70 games once in his four-year career. However, he’s still managed to contribute at both ends of the ice, despite routinely facing opposing teams’ toughest players (0.2497 Quality of Competition relative Corsi for, per DobberSports), with one of the team’s highest percentage of shifts started in the defensive zone.

Granted, deployment like that isn’t kind to his underlying numbers. It does speak to his worth to the team and the degree to which head coach Martin St. Louis trusts him, though.

2. Jake Evans

It’s a similar situation regarding Jake Evans up front. For better or worse, no Canadiens player starts more of their shifts in the defensive zone (a team-low 19.70% of his shifts started in the offensive zone, per Natural Stat Trick).

The difference to Guhle is, as alluded to earlier, Evans trails just Suzuki (537) in terms of number of games played for the franchise (among active players), with 418. The worth of each of the two players to the organization may be on relatively opposite ends of the spectrum. However, in signing him to a four-year, $11.4 million extension in the lead-up to the 2025 trade deadline, Hughes demonstrated the degree to which he values the rugged centre.

It’s worth noting, Evans arguably represented the team’s top trade chip and could have brought in a decent haul. By keeping him, Hughes seemed to make a conscious decision to go for it and try to make the playoffs (an endeavour that proved successful). What’s maybe more significant for the purposes of this piece though is that Evans decided to forego unrestricted free agency, when he probably could have earned more than his current $2.85 million cap hit on the open market, further demonstrating his commitment to the organization.

1. Lane Hutson

When it comes down to it Canadiens defenseman Lane Hutson is the best choice for myriad reasons: his elite play that saw him tie Hockey Hall of Famer Larry Robinson for the franchise’s single-season assists record for a defenseman in 2025-26, the accountability he’s shown on the rare occasions he makes a mistake, his willingness to take what appears to be more and more of a bargain of an eight-year, $70.8 million contract that could keep him in town until 2034, etc.

It all amounts to him leading by example on and off the ice. While that is true to various degrees with regard to the other names on this list, Hutson is the highest-profile player by a mile. That by itself maybe shouldn’t be just cause to name him an alternate, but, by virtue of his ability to break open a game on any given play, he personifies better than anyone else listed what it means to take charge.

Gallagher’s similarly small stature may be deceptive, in that his size certainly didn’t stop him from doing his best every night to accomplish what was required. He may not have succeeded all the time, but his fingerprints are all over the team’s current culture in that way. That ironically leaves huge metaphorical skates to fill, but Hutson seems to be the perfect fit.