Canadiens: Three Reasons For Optimism In 2023-24

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The Montreal Canadiens just wrapped up their rookie tournament, having played three games in Buffalo.

The Habs prospects started a bit slow with their first game on Friday evening. It remained tied for most of the first forty minutes, but the Buffalo Sabres rookies showed they had more depth and more gas in the tank when they pulled away for a 6-3 win.

Jakub Dobes was pretty sharp in goal in that loss, keeping things close for a long time and ensuring it was not a blowout loss for the Canadiens rookies. Goals came from Xavier Simoneau, Miguel Tourigny and Joshua Roy in the loss.

The Canadiens bounced back from that performance to beat the Boston Bruins rookies on Saturday afternoon, and took out the Ottawa Senators prospects yesterday. It was a 4-1 win over the Bruins, with Quentin Miller shutting the door in goal, and Cedrick Guindon, Jan Mysak, Joshua Roy and Ty Smilanic finding the back of the net.

In the tournament finale, the Habs took down the Sens 2-1 with Riley Kidney and Jan Mysak firing home the goals and Jan Spunar playing well in goal.

With the rookie camp wrapped up, it is time to look ahead to the team’s main training camp. The Canadiens will gather in Montreal today for media day and start to prepare for the 2023-24 season as they will hit the ice for the first time on Wednesday.

After two down seasons, many are predicting the Habs will once again be near the bottom of the standings. But that should not be a guarantee. There are reasons to believe the team will be better in 2023-24 than they were in 2022-23 and 2021-22.

Why should we be so optimistic? Let’s take a look at the top three reasons why Habs fans should be hopeful and optimistic about the Canadiens chances in the upcoming season.

Jan 17, 2023; Montreal, Quebec, CAN; Montreal Canadiens right wing Cole Caufield. Mandatory Credit: David Kirouac-USA TODAY Sports /

Health

The Montreal Canadiens had absolutely no luck at all when it came to injuries over the past two seasons. They could not seem to catch a break. Every little incident turned in to the worst case scenario, and every injury seemed to last longer than anyone initially expected.

Sean Monahan was hurt about a quarter of the way into the season and it seemed for months like he was soon to return. He never did. Joel Edmundson was reported to be close to ready at the start of training camp and then missed nearly two dozen games at the start of the season. Kirby Dach was in the midst of a breakout season but was injured for 24 games. Cole Caufield played great for 48 games but was then shut down for the rest of the season.

Nick Suzuki was the only player on the roster that played all 82 games. Johnathan Kovacevic was second on the team in games played with 77. No one else played 70 games.

There is no way this can happen again. I mean, it did just happen twice in a row, but it can’t possibly happen a third time, can it? The Canadiens did hire new medical personnel which will hopefully make a difference.

Having a more healthy roster would have made a huge difference last season. Mike Matheson, Kaiden Guhle and Caufield all missed nearly half the season, and the team would have been much better with those three players healthy.

There is reason to believe the team will be more fortunate when it comes to injuries next season, and that would lead to a much improved on ice product as well.

Sam Montembeault

Sam Montembeault is not among the Vezina Trophy favorites heading into next season. Nor should he be, and I don’t expect him to be in that conversation at any point in the season either.

However, goaltending is a huge key to success in the National Hockey League. Perhaps more than anything else, a goaltender can change the fortunes of a hockey team. Montembeault played some great games last season, but also had a few clunkers that brought his overall numbers way down.

He finished the season having played 40 games for the Canadiens, and posted a 3.42 goals against average and a .901 save percentage. Those are not great numbers, but a deeper look at them shows there is potential for him to be much better. A stat called goals saved above expected measures the quality of saves goaltenders make, and it had Montembeault tied for 11th in the league last season, even though he played just half his team’s games.

This would suggest he made a lot of high quality saves, even though the team allowed a lot of goals when he was in net. The 26 year old had not played a ton in previous years until last season and having played 38 games the previous year.

Can he funnel his experience into finding more consistency next season? His ability to make quality saves last season, and the fact he improved his numbers from the previous year would suggest he can continue building on what he did last season and be even better in 2023-24.

Apr 4, 2023; Montreal, Quebec, CAN; Montreal Canadiens center Nick Suzuki. Mandatory Credit: David Kirouac-USA TODAY Sports /

Age Of Best Players

The Canadiens did not make a ton of changes in the offseason. They let a couple of veterans go in free agency when Jonathan Drouin and Denis Gurianov left. They also traded away Mike Hoffman and Rem Pitlick to the San Jose Sharks.

They acquired Alex Newhook via trade from the Colorado Avalanche, but made very few free agent signings. All in all, the core of the team really remains the same and we will see most of the same players hitting the ice next season that we did a year ago.

So, why is that a reason for optimism? Well, most of these players are at the age where you can expect a leap forward in development. It is rare you see a player at the of 28 finally break out and have a monster offensive season compared to previous years.

Most offensive players really hit their stride between 21-25 and can have giant leaps forward in these years. Well, that bodes well for the Canadiens who have plenty of top players in big roles at that age.

Cole Caufield is 22 years old, Nick Suzuki is 24, Kirby Dach is 22, Alex Newhook is 22, Juraj Slafkovsky is 19, Kaiden Guhle is 21, Jordan Harris is 23, Justin Barron is 21, and Arber Xhekaj is 22. All of those players played regularly last season and all five of those forwards will be in the top nine while all four of those defensemen are expected to play regularly as well.

There are no guarantees in hockey, but with that money young players in prominent roles, it is almost a certainty that a couple of them take giant leaps forward and have career years next season. You would expect almost all of them to be better than they were last season, which makes this team much better just by being a year older.

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