The Montreal Canadiens offseason officially began on April 30th, but we all knew it was coming long before then. Their regular season left them at the bottom of the NHL standings for much of the season, and that’s where they ended up after 82 regular season games.
Though it ended with a bang, the 2021-22 season won’t go down as one of the most exciting in Habs history. But, the 2022 offseason has a chance to be full of fireworks.
The first official offseason business was the NHL Draft Lottery. The Canadiens entered that with the best odds of drafting first overall, and they were fortunate enough to stay there and now own the top pick.
They will also host the 2022 NHL Draft at the Bell Centre on July 7th and 8th. Having the very first pick in that draft is sure to have fans in the city buzzing about the offseason’s biggest event long before it begins. Habs fans have often packed the streets of downtown celebrating Stanley Cup parades, but this will be a different sort of celebration, though “we’re number 1” will still be chanted.
The first pick is just the beginning of a very busy weekend of drafting for the Canadiens. They currently own 14 selections in the seven round event and will making three of the first 33 picks and 11 of the first 129.
There have also been plenty of rumours of the team looking to add a prominent player in free agency, trade away big names who want out, and try to make a few other deals that would increase the team’s cap space in the next few years.
New general manager Kent Hughes and his boss, Jeff Gorton, have their work cut out for them after a miserable season on the ice.
What’s going to happen this offseason? Here are five, admittedly really early, offseason predictions of things we will see from the Montreal Canadiens in the 2022 offseason.