As the 2023-24 NHL season has ended and the Stanley Cup Playoffs have begun, non-playoff teams can start to look towards the future, such as the draft, free agency, and the following season. Now is an appropriate time to reflect on the entirety of this past season as Game 82 has come and gone. While the Canadiens took many encouraging steps in the right direction as they transition away from a rebuild and towards playoff contention, some key players showed significant progression throughout the season, while others ultimately failed to do so.
The Canadiens’ roster will look slightly different to commence the 2024-25 season — likely boasting a few young and exciting new players such as Lane Hutson, Logan Mailloux, or potentially whoever they select in this season’s upcoming draft. Fans will also be gifted with a healthy Kirby Dach. How these players slot into their current lineup is undetermined, though perhaps reflecting on how each Canadiens player performed relative to expectations this past season will provide a better understanding as to what the team’s lineup may look like come opening night of next season.
Nick Suzuki (A+)
Nick Suzuki was far and away the Canadiens’ most valuable player in 2023-24. He set career-highs in goals (33), assists (44), and points (77). The team captain has improved his point production in each subsequent season since debuting in 2019-20, and has impressively maintained one of the league’s longest Iron Man streaks, having not missed a game since entering the league. Suzuki will look to build upon another encouraging season (from ‘Stu Cowan: Captain Nick Suzuki has proven to be Canadiens’ iron man’, Montreal Gazette, 4/4/23).
Cole Caufield (B+)
Given the expectations for Cole Caufield entering this season after producing at a 46-goal pace in 2022-23, his grand total of 28 across all 82 games is certainly underwhelming. However, despite the drop in goal production, the Wisconsin native recorded a career-high 37 assists (nearly double his previous high of 20) and 65 points. For reference, he produced at a 64-point pace last season, and was still able to find his way onto the scoresheet at a slightly better pace despite owning an 8.9 shooting percentage. While the disappointing goal total prevents Caufield from receiving an ‘A’ grade, this was far from a lost season and the 23-year-old proved he’s more than a one-trick pony.
Juraj Slafkovsky (A-)
Fans may be surprised not to see an A+ next to Juraj Slafkovsky’s name, given his torrid pace after posting just eight points across the team’s first 31 games. Despite scoring 42 points in 51 games since then, his sophomore season in its entirety must be considered. While the hulking Slovak would certainly receive an A+ grade for the back half of the season, his stagnating production across the team’s first two months was extremely worrisome.
The progression fans saw from Slafkovsky throughout the 2023-24 season was nothing short of incredible — he has now secured his spot on the team’s top line and will likely occupy it for the foreseeable future. Fans should be extremely excited to watch the 20-year-old continue to progress next season and beyond.
Alex Newhook (A)
Alex Newhook arrived in Montreal having two 30-point seasons under his belt in addition to a Stanley Cup ring. Despite missing 27 games due to an ankle injury, he set career-highs in goals (15) and points (34) and has found chemistry with a plethora of fellow young forwards on the team. Given the time missed, he produced at a 22-goal, 51-point pace. The 23-year-old Newfoundland native will look to establish new career highs in 2024-25 as he will occupy a prominent role in the team’s middle six.
Brendan Gallagher (C+)
2023-24 was the first season since 2018-19 in which Brendan Gallagher missed less than 10 games. Coming off of several injury-riddled seasons where his production dipped significantly, he managed to play in 77 games, only missing five due to suspension. While he recorded his best goal (16) and point total (31) since 2019-20, his production was far below his average annual cap hit of $6.5 million, which he’ll receive until 2026-27. He managed to finish the season on a hot streak, with five goals and 10 points over his final eight games, but the 31-year-old’s contract will continue to be an anchor in comparison to his middling production.
Jake Evans (B)
Jake Evans has been a steady presence in the Habs’ bottom-six since making his NHL debut in 2019-20. His 28 points this season were one shy of his career-high from 2021-22, and he recorded a career-best 21 assists. Posting his best mark in the face-off circle to date (52.2 percent), he is deployed and trusted in many defensive situations, such as being a regular penalty killer. His 65 blocked shots also only trailed Slafkovsky among Habs forwards. He will continue to occupy a bottom-six centre role for the team, and possesses enough offensive talent to complement other bottom-six forwards.
Joel Armia (A-)
Joel Armia had a roller coaster of a season. Beginning the season by being demoted to the American Hockey League (AHL) for the first time in his Canadiens tenure, he was quickly recalled after scoring six goals in eight games. Coming off of three consecutive seasons where he scored no more than 14 points, and scoring just four goals and no assists through his first 21 NHL games this season, he managed to turn the tides on what was looking to be a fourth-straight disappointing season. He ended the campaign with six goals in the team’s final 12 games, and his 15 even-strength goals tied him with Gallagher for third on the team behind Suzuki and Caufield. Despite playing in just 66 games, the 30-year-old set a new career-high with 17 goals.
Josh Anderson (F)
Josh Anderson’s middling production had not quite lived up to his heavy $5.5-million average annual cap hit, though his situation seemed manageable due to his speed, strength, and size. Prior to this season, he had produced above a 20-goal pace in each season with the Canadiens. Unfortunately, his grand totals of nine goals and 20 points in 78 games in 2023-24 were massive drop-offs from his previous production.
Related: Projecting the 2024-25 Canadiens Opening Night Roster
Anderson posted six goals and nine points during an 11-game stretch in December (which included his first goal of the season), and his production outside of that stretch was unfathomably low — three goals, 11 points in 67 games. Despite averaging nearly two minutes of power play time per game, and regularly seeing time on the team’s second line, his struggles were on full display virtually the entire season. Fans will hope that he enters 2024-25 with more confidence and can bounce back from his disappointing 2023-24 season.
Tanner Pearson (D)
Tanner Pearson will almost certainly test free agency come July. After scoring three goals and five points in his first five games as a Canadien, he scored just two goals and eight points across his final 49 games in 2023-24. Bouncing in and out of the lineup consistently, playing with a wide variety of Habs forwards, he was never able to cement his presence among the team’s top four forward lines and was one of several players victim to a constant shuffle. Given his underwhelming production, he will have to hope he lands an NHL deal in 2024-25.
Michael Pezzetta (B-)
Michael Pezzetta has established himself as a bottom-line bruising presence, though that comes with little offensive talent. His 12 points were three fewer than his 2022-23 total, and his average ice time per game of 7:47 was a career-low. However, he set a career-high with 242 hits despite the limited amount of ice time — a mark which placed him tied for 10th in the entire NHL. Given the lack of offensive instincts, his season highlight was probably getting beat up by Ryan Reaves of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Though he’s been an established NHL player for three seasons now, he will likely continue to bounce in and out of the lineup as the team paves the way for young talent.
Rafael Harvey-Pinard (D)
After scoring at a 34-goal pace in 2022-23 in just under half of a full season, fans had high expectations for Rafael Harvey-Pinard. Unfortunately, he fell victim to the all-too-common sophomore slump, scoring just two goals and 10 points in 45 games. Though he had an injury-riddled season, he averaged just 12 minutes of ice time per game and was consistently playing lower-quality players compared to last season. Additionally, he only recorded 26 shots on goal compared to 58 last season despite playing in 11 more games this season. Perhaps RHP will bounce back in 2024-25, but a world where he becomes a 30-goal threat is likely not a reality.
Christian Dvorak (C-)
The Christian Dvorak experiment continued to falter in 2023-24, as the 28-year-old played in just 30 games due to an extended pectoral injury. His nine points were an underwhelming pace, after playing at a pace of over 30 points in each full season since he entered the league in 2016-17.
While missing over half a season due to injury can certainly limit production, Dvorak has not lived up to expectations since being traded for the draft pick compensation the team received for the successful offer sheet of Jesperi Kotkaniemi. Dvorak will look to stay healthy in 2024-25.
Jesse Ylonen (F)
Jesse Ylonen scored 16 points in 37 games in 2022-23 — a 35-point pace. The 2018 second-round pick entered this season looking to build off of his encouraging production, but he unfortunately did the opposite. Regularly playing on the fourth line, he scored just eight points in 59 games and rarely played more than 10 minutes per game. Highlighted by a goalless stretch of over 40 games, his status with the Canadiens going into the future is highly undetermined. At 24, he is older than the bulk of the team’s young forward core, and has been surpassed on the depth chart by several players.
Colin White (F)
While there were little expectations for Colin White after he was claimed off waivers from the Pittsburgh Penguins, the 27-year-old Boston native failed to record a single point in his 28 games played, including 17 with the Habs. Though he averaged under 10 minutes of ice time per game, this is a player who scored 41 points with the Ottawa Senators in 2018-19 and had high expectations as a prospect. White is now barely clinging onto an NHL role, and will almost certainly test free agency in hopes he can land a deal anywhere after a lost season.
Related: Top 5 Canadiens Disappointments of 2023-24
Evidently, some Canadiens forwards performed significantly better than others relative to their own expectations. A player like Jake Evans has been reliable and produced at a steady pace since entering the league, and a player like Anderson has had noticeably more ups and downs. The team will enter the offseason and prepare for the 2024-25 season, assessing their current lineup and continuing to build a team that will progress and eventually compete for the Stanley Cup.
