Canadiens: Three Key Habs Storylines In 2023-24 Season

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The Montreal Canadiens finally kick off their 2023-24 season tonight when they take on the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Expectations for the Canadiens season are relatively low, as they struggled each of the past two years and look to continue their rebuild. They are in a difficult division as the Maple Leafs, Tampa Bay Lightning, Boston Bruins and Florida Panthers are hoping for a Stanley Cup run while the Ottawa Senators and Buffalo Sabres look ready to enter playoff contention as well.

The Canadiens made some changes to their lineup, but it may not be enough to launch them into playoff contention quite yet.

Their key additions to the lineup this season include Alex Newhook and Tanner Pearson. The biggest subtractions over the summer were Joel Edmundson who was traded to the Washington Capitals, Mike Hoffman was traded to the San Jose Sharks, Rem Pitlick got traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins, Jonathan Drouin and Denis Gurianov left as free agents.

There are likely no rookies to crack the lineup to begin the season, but that isn’t surprising after so many broke through a year ago. We could still see players like Emil Heineman, Joshua Roy, Mattias Norlinder or Logan Mailloux could get long looks later in the season.

Until then, the lineup will probably look like this to begin the season tonight:

Caufield – Suzuki – Anderson

Slafkovsky – Dach – Newhook

Pearson – Monahan – Gallagher

Harvey-Pinard – Evans – Ylonen

Matheson – Savard

Guhle – Kovacevic

Harris – Xhekaj

Allen

Aside from the third line and top defense pairing, that is a very young looking team, with plenty of potential for the future. It should be exciting to watch them grow, whether they win a lot of games or not right away.

With a new season upon us, there are some key storylines to follow with the Montreal Canadiens this season. Let’s take a look at the top three.

Sep 29, 2023; Montreal, Quebec, CAN; Montreal Canadiens goalie Cayden Primeau. Mandatory Credit: Eric Bolte-USA TODAY Sports /

Three Goaltenders Can’t Coexist All Season

The Canadiens are one of the few teams around the league that elected to keep three goaltenders on the opening night roster. They were worried about losing Cayden Primeau for nothing if they tried to pass him through waivers and send him down to the Laval Rocket.

So, the Canadiens will keep a three-headed goaltending monster on the team. At least for now. Sam Montembeault and Jake Allen handled the bulk of the team’s games in goal last season and appear set to do that again.

But how does Primeau fit into things? That is what we will need to sit back and wait to see how it all plays out. There is simply not enough game action to go around to keep all three goaltenders happy. That’s 27 games apiece throughout the season which just isn’t enough for a full-time NHL netminder.

The Habs don’t have a lot of options if they are not willing to put anyone on waivers. Primeau would likely be claimed, but he hasn’t played a lot so he would not have much trade value either. Allen’s contract ensures he does not have a lot of value on the open market and he is a repsected veteran the team would like to keep anyway.

Montembeault could possibly be traded, but if a team was willing to pick him up, wouldn’t they have done it before the season began? With veteran Martin Jones recently passing through waivers unclaimed, it appears there are not many teams in the goaltending market at all.

Allen is going to play opening night, and the Canadiens only play three games in the first ten days of the regular season so no one will be busy early on. But who gets the bulk of the starts this season is going to be an interesting question to follow all year.

Sep 30, 2023; Montreal, Quebec, CAN; Montreal Canadiens left wing Juraj Slafkovsky. Mandatory Credit: David Kirouac-USA TODAY Sports /

Who Takes Biggest Steps Forward?

The Canadiens are built around young core players at this point in their rebuild. Their top six forward group includes Nick Suzuki who is 24, Cole Caufield who is 22, Kirby Dach who is 22, Alex Newhook who is 22 and Juraj Slafkovsky who is 19 years of age.

The defense has plenty of youth as well. Kaiden Guhle starts the season at 21, Jordan Harris is 23, Arber Xhekaj is 22 and Justin Barron is 21. That is an incredible amount of youth to have on the roster to begin the season. It is also more incredible that none of them are rookies as they all played in the NHL last season.

That means they could take a big step forward this season with that experience under the belt. One of the biggest storylines to watch all year will be the development of these young players and keeping an eye on who takes the biggest leap forward.

We could see Slafkovsky take a big step after an up and down rookie season that was stunted by injury. Could it be Harris turning into a reliable two-way defender that moves into the top four or could Guhle take the next step into a dominant presence on that blue line who can eat up a ton of minutes every night?

Or could newcomer Newhook click with a new team and turn in to an offensive force or does Caufield continue his terrific goal scoring pace and become a Rocket Richard candidate this season?

All of these questions will be reasons for excitement and the development of these young players will be a key storyline as this season goes on.

Nov 29, 2022; Montreal, Quebec, CAN; Montreal Canadiens center Sean Monahan. Mandatory Credit: David Kirouac-USA TODAY Sports /

How Do They Continue The Rebuild?

No one is picking the Canadiens to make a deep playoff run this season and there are not many people that think they can come close to the playoffs at all this season. With such a tough division, and so many young players in the lineup, and questions about who plays goal all season, it is not likely the team makes the postseason.

So, how do they take the next steps in their rebuild? Well, huge breakout seasons from Guhle, Slafkovsky and Dach among other young players would be a great next step. Suzuki and Caufield turning into point per game or better performers would be ideal as well.

But the biggest steps in a rebuild are finding the right trades to add young players, prospects and draft picks. The Canadiens do not have a lot of obvious trade candidates this season, so how do they continue that roster turnover and rebuild?

Monahan is in a contract year and is an obvious candidate to be dealt at the trade deadline. Pearson, Montembeault and Chris Wideman are the only other pending unrestricted free agents on the roster and none of them are likely to fetch a big return in a trade this season.

So, will the team look to trade David Savard who has a contract that runs through the 2024-25 season? Will Josh Anderson get traded even though his contract has him locked up until the summer of 2027?

Both players would have plenty of trade value and help with the rebuild by adding draft picks and prospects to the organization and are the team’s only option, other than Monahan, to make a big trade during this season.

If the Habs are stuck near the bottom of the standings again, who gets traded will be a huge storyline as we approach the trade deadline.

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