It’s hard to believe that it’s been less than 18 months since Kent Hughes was named general manager of the Montreal Canadiens. On that day, January 18, 2022, the vibes in the locker room were certainly very different, but how much has the roster actually changed since then?
The final game the Habs played prior to the arrival of Hughes was a 5-2 loss to the Arizona Coyotes that left them with a 7-25-5 record through 37 games and dead last in the NHL standings. A far cry from the team that just months earlier had competed in the Stanley Cup Final.
With more recent departures of players from the Marc Bergevin era via trades and free agency this offseason, the Canadiens overhaul continues to move full steam ahead. To further illustrate, I have shown the active roster for that last game of the previous regime while also adding in the players that were on the injured list at the time. See who is still with the team and who is no longer there by checking out the lists below:
STILL WITH TEAMÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â NO LONGER THERE
Jake Allen                                                                   Paul Byron
Josh Anderson                              Ben Chiarot
Joel Armia                                                                  Laurent Dauphin
Cole Caufield                               Jonathan Drouin
Christian Dvorak                            Joel Edmundson
Jake Evans                                                                  Brett Kulak
Brendan Gallagher                          Arturri Lehkonen
Mike Hoffman                              Sami Niku
Sam Montembeault                         Cedric Paquette
Michael Pezzetta                           Mathieu Perreault
Rem Pitlick                                                                 Jeff Petry
Cayden Primeau                            Ryan Poehling
David Savard                                                              Alexander Romanov
Nick Suzuki                                                                 Tyler Toffoli
Chris Wideman
It should be mentioned that Carey Price and Shea Weber were also on the roster at the time but both were on LTIR and therefore not included in the list.
From the column on the left of the remaining players, outside of Rem Pitlick and Cayden Primeau who are at best on the bubble, I would suggest almost all are projected to make the opening night roster next season.
It should also be noted that Bergevin/Trevor Timmins draft picks Rafael Harvey-Pinard and Jesse Ylonen were late season call-ups in 2021-22 and both figure to be in the mix this season as was Alex Belzile who recently departed as a free agent to the New York Rangers.
So as you can see about half the roster is gone but many holdovers remain which means there is definitely a lot more work to be done. Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither will Kent Hughes vision for a cup contender but unlike most construction projects in Montreal this edition of Extreme Makeover: Habs Edition is moving along right on schedule.
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