The emphasis is on “should” in the headline. After the Montreal Canadiens re-signed Sean Monahan, logic dictates making the playoffs has moved up a few rungs on the team’s list of priorities. (Re-)adding a veteran presence like Monahan might help to insulate the team’s younger players, but it also adds another body up front, potentially pushing those same young players who have earned their spot on an up-and-coming team out of ice time.
Related: 3 Ways Canadiens Re-Signing Monahan Changes Everything
Now, there was always a chance the Canadiens were going to compete for a playoff spot in 2023-24 anyway. Re-signing Monahan just arguably shouldn’t have been an offseason priority this summer for a team that probably still has a ways to go before it can actually secure a berth.
To be fair, the playoffs are always going to be a priority to a degree. If you’re within reach, you want to make them. Following two straight losing seasons, including a last-place finish in 2021-22, the Canadiens obviously want to show more progress on the standings front. So, under normal circumstances, making the playoffs would still rank… probably in fifth spot on this list of the top priorities for the 2023-24 regular season. Here are the other four:
4. Properly Assess Samuel Montembeault’s Ceiling
Before the Canadiens legitimately challenge for a playoff spot, they must have legitimate starting goaltending. After a 2022-23 season in which Samuel Montembeault took great strides to establish himself as an NHL-caliber goalie, going so far as to even theoretically wrest the team’s No. 1 job away from Jake Allen, it’s fair to say he’s earned the starter’s job. However, having a starter and starting goaltending aren’t exactly the same thing.
Ultimately, all Montembeault’s earned is a longer look. He’s perhaps vaulted to the top of the team’s depth chart in net, which isn’t as impressive as it sounds, when few have unflappable confidence in Cayden Primeau as the team’s most NHL-ready goaltending prospect.
So, more of a look Montembeault will get, to see if he can build on his impressive performance in terms of goals saved above expected. However, when your save percentage in your breakout season was only .901, you have a lot more to prove before the Canadiens should be able to feel confident in him going forward. If Montembeault doesn’t come through, addressing the potential hole in net becomes a bigger issue starting next offseason.
3. Give More Ice Time to Young Defensemen
Of course, Montembeault’s save percentage can be a reflection of the inexperience of the defense directly in front of him. The defensive corps featured five rookie regulars (Justin Barron, Kaiden Guhle, Jordan Harris, Johnathan Kovacevic and Arber Xhekaj), each of whom are poised to at least be in line for more responsibility this coming season.
The catch is, the Canadiens have nine defensemen realistically vying for spots overall. So, veterans like Joel Edmundson and Chris Wideman are probably on the bubble whether it be via trade or demotion to the American Hockey League to make room. It doesn’t necessarily compromise the apparent goal to make the playoffs, as they’d still have leadership in the form of David Savard and Mike Matheson, with Edmundson having seen his effectiveness and health wane in recent years and Wideman always having been a depth defenseman.
Even so, it will be hard to balance the need to give the younger defensemen, who will make mistakes, ice time with the desire to stay in contention. Under normal circumstances, in a bid to make the playoffs, the Canadiens might look to free agency to add a top right-handed defenseman, but an underwhelming 2023 class might have something to say about that. The bottom line is the team’s defense in its current state is a work in progress, but one that’s definitely trending in the right direction.
2. Give More Ice Time to Juraj Slafkovsky
The focus may be on the upcoming 2023 NHL Entry Draft, but the first-overall pick from the 2022 edition, Juraj Slafkovsky, is far from an afterthought. His development should (obviously) still be a top priority, which means taking a hard look at how he was deployed in 2022-23, with a 30th-ranked 12:13 in ice time.
It’s easy to assume the Canadiens know what they’re doing in that regard. No one’s looking to wreck the development of a top prospect, especially not a rookie general manager in Kent Hughes, who made Slafkovsky his first-ever pick. Even so, things are going to have to change one way or another, because continuing to give him so little ice time makes no sense with each passing, let’s say month in his young career.
The Canadiens have several options at their disposal. They can either promote him in the NHL lineup or demote him to the American Hockey League (AHL), where he’ll presumably end up on the top line without issue. Even if you would like to make a case that the Habs are simply sheltering him in the NHL, he’d be targeted in the AHL and any criticism directed their way is unfounded, if that’s in fact their current strategy, it wasn’t exactly going to plan.
1. Give Ice Time to Kirby Dach at Center
All that to say, plans can change. Kirby Dach is proof of that, as someone the Canadiens acquired at Slafkovsky’s 2022 Draft to play center.
Soon thereafter, Hughes traded for Monahan, who went on to serve as insulation for Dach. Even if the Monahan acquisition was primarily made for the purposes of securing a first-round pick, it ultimately helped to bring Dach along slowly at center. The now-22-year-old went on to complement Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield on the wing on the top line instead, while Monahan acted as a stabilizing, veteran presence down the middle.
Then Monahan got injured in early December, effectively forcing the Canadiens to play Dach down the middle more, generally with positive results. So, re-signing Monahan has the potential to stunt Dach’s development as a pivot, which is a serious issue due to the importance of the position and the unlikelihood Monahan stays with the Habs long term.
That’s why Dach takes the top spot on this list, even if some may say the Canadiens have much more invested in Slafkovsky. The fact is, Dach is a third-overall pick himself (2019), with his entire career ahead of him. He’s just as much of a core piece for the future as Slafkovsky. It’s important everyone, especially the Canadiens, sees him that way.
However, on the plus side, the re-signing far from guarantees Monahan gets played at center at Dach’s expense. Truth be told, of any line he played on when healthy, Monahan spent the most with Suzuki and Caufield. So, even if the top line was the most productive when Dach played there instead, the Canadiens aren’t bound to that one combination. It just really depends on how they rank their priorities for this coming season.
