Every season brings with it roster changes. The Montreal Canadiens have five players that stand out in 2024-25 insofar as they’ve played their first-ever minutes in the NHL or were featured in a limited capacity last season. Three are defencemen: Lane Hutson, Logan Mailloux, and Jayden Struble. Two are forwards: Emil Heineman and Oliver Kapanen. Who has performed well or not? Today we rank this quintet of young guns.
5. Oliver Kapanen
Not all these players have been joined on the same lines or pairings. It’s equally important to note that they haven’t logged the same amount of ice time. Look no further than Kapanen, who skates for 11:58 per game, which is the second lowest among forwards who have played more than just a couple of games.
Speaking of the number of games, head coach Martin St. Louis seems to believe in the 21-year-old Swede enough to have featured him in 11 of Montreal’s 12 contests so far. Barely one month of NHL hockey into one’s career is not the time to pounce on a young player and their lack of contributions. Kapanen has usually been on the fourth line, sometimes the third. He fires from the right side, and his centre most often this season has been Christian Dvorak, whom some Habs fans have seen enough of.
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To that point, the Swede has been the player among the five we’ll talk about who has had the least impact. He’s played few minutes, only has one point (an assist), has a minus-3 rating, and is trying to make things happen with a centreman who is experiencing struggles of his own. His presence with Dvorak translates to a highly imbalanced fourth line as far as toughness goes. Kapanen has delivered no more than two hits this season and Dvorak none.
4. Jayden Struble
Struble’s inclusion in this might be considered a cheat. He has played by far the most amount of NHL hockey, having partaken in 56 games in 2023-24. That, however, was his rookie season. He earned the right to not only come back this season but be a mainstay on the Montreal blue line given injuries to others, even if it’s not on the top pairing.
He has mostly comprised one-half of the third pairing with Arber Xhekaj, save for some time with Justin Barron when Xhekaj was a healthy scratch. Kaiden Guhle’s absence due to injury has awarded Struble more games than he might have otherwise suited up for. The 23-year-old American only started getting the call on Oct. 19 versus the New York Islanders.
Through seven contests he’s shown a decent amount of spunk and, dare it be said, a nose for the goal. Struble has the highest Corsi percentage among Habs defenders with 48%. He steps up into the slot more often than one would think and looks ready and willing to do what he can to support the attack.
He’s also tied for second for hits among blueliners with 14. Xhekaj also has 14, which makes them an intimidating pair to skate against. Conversely, he’s more level-headed than his Hamilton-born teammate, making him a less risky piece of Montreal’s defensive puzzle. In a perfect world, he and Xhekaj will complement one another, making them a forceful defensive duo that plays smart hockey.
3. Emil Heineman
Had this article been published a couple of weeks ago, it would have been tempting to place Heineman in the top spot. His start to the season was eye-opening, as he netted in two consecutive games (Oct. 12 versus the Ottawa Senators and Oct. 14 against the Pittsburgh Penguins).
He had a nose for the goal during those ambitious first contests of the NHL calendar. Since then, things have quieted down. In fact, as per MoneyPuck, the 2020 second-round draft pick has the lowest expected goals among Canadiens forwards at 0.9. Is that a product of him playing with Dvorak, something we questioned when discussing Kapanen’s limited output? Possibly. It could also be that he benefitted from some beginner’s luck and has now regressed to the mean of how most rookies play.
Still, his skating style and intent on being in the thick of the action help him in several regards. For one, he is third on the club in shot attempts per 60 minutes with 15.36, so it’s not as if he’s not trying to score more often. His 2.7 shot attempts per game don’t stand out, but that’s because he only logs an average of 10:39 per match. Keep in mind that his Corsi is 52%, tops among Montreal attackers.
He’s also not afraid to throw his body around. He’s third on the team in hits with an impressive 24.
2. Logan Mailloux
It says a lot about how much excitement there has been about Mailloux that we’re confident enough to place him in second despite that he’s only participated in a quintet of games.
Even so, his ice time has been a solid 16:29. What’s more, he’s played with multiple partners, from Hutson to Mike Matheson. Has it always worked out? No. The pairing with Hutson exposed their relative inexperience at the NHL level. One example came on Oct. 22 versus the New York Rangers when they both expected an icing call and played the whistle (which never came) rather than the puck. You snooze, you lose, and the Rangers scored on the play.
There have been bright spots, such as his first NHL goal on Oct. 19 against the New York Islanders. Similarly, despite playing three fewer games than Justin Barron and seven fewer than David Savard, he has more shot attempts (15 for Mailloux and 14 for both the other two).
The sample size is small, but the minutes he’s been given and the chances he’s created for himself and others (he has two assists) have impressed. With the defence getting healthy again, the Belle River, Ontario native has been sent back to the Laval Rocket in the American Hockey League (AHL). That said, it’s clear that if the Habs need reinforcements on the blue line, Mailloux is going to be among the first names called up.
1. Lane Hutson
Were readers expecting someone else? We’ve written about Hutson before in as cogent and level-headed a manner as possible. The buzz surrounding him is rather intoxicating at times, although the reality is that he is still incredibly young and commits errors.
It should mean the world to the Canadiens to have a defenceman who can exit the zone with the moxie and grace that he does. With time, he’ll get pickpocketed less by equally smart opponents. He’ll also learn to communicate with his teammates better. The latter sometimes gets caught puck-watching and aren’t ready for passes or what he’ll do next.
Despite his shortcomings, his potential is sky-high. The Canadiens need good skaters, good playmakers, and good defenders. The Illinois native seems to have all three of those qualities in his hockey DNA, even if the skill set hasn’t been fully harnessed due to inexperience.
Only time will tell if this injection of youth into an already young lineup will pay dividends. Therein lies the catch to this delicate equation. This article ranks five very new players on a team whose stars are also young. At 25, captain Nick Suzuki is practically the elder statesman. Things haven’t gone swimmingly so far this season, but with so much potential, rosy outcomes may be around the corner.
