It does not appear at this point that the Montreal Canadiens will be adding an established second-line centre this offseason. The free agency market lacked big-name talent, and the trade buzz for centres is quiet, with the biggest name still available, Dylan Larkin, not having the Canadiens on his trade list. While there is still a long way to go before the start of the 2026-27 season, there is a real chance that Montreal will start next season with the exact same centre core.
During long stretches last season, the Canadiens deployed Nick Suzuki, Oliver Kapanen, Phillip Danault, and Jake Evans. Kapanen was mainly utilized in the second-line centre role, but when the playoffs came around, he found himself out of the lineup. This led to speculation that Montreal was in urgent need of a second line, but with the lack of moves and Michael Hage returning to Michigan, it is entirely likely that Kapanen will start next season as the team’s second-line centre. Kapanen took a huge step forward in his progression last season after a disappointing debut with the Canadiens in 2024-25, but they will need him to take another step forward if he is going to be a real option for them on the second line.
Kapanen surprised many in rookie season
Despite last season being Kapanen’s rookie season, it was not the first time we saw him in a Canadiens sweater. We saw him have a stint with Montreal in the 2024-25 season. He played 12 games with the Canadiens, recording one assist, before the team loaned him to Timra IK in Sweden. He excelled in Sweden, recording 15 goals and 20 assists in 36 games. Following the end of the SHL season, Kapanen returned to the Canadiens and played in six more games, recording another assist, but the production in Sweden did not carry over to the NHL.
This past season, Kapanen once again won a roster spot out of training camp, but expectations were low given his performances in the NHL the previous year. Kapanen surprised many with his start to the season. After not scoring in his first 18 career games, he had three goals in the first five games of the season. A big factor in Kapanen’s improvements can be placed on the level of talent he was playing with. When he first made his debut with the Canadiens, he was playing deeper in the lineup, but this past season, he spent most of his time playing on the team’s second line alongside another impressive rookie, Ivan Demidov. Kapanen flourished alongside Demidov, as the two, for pretty much the whole season, were near the top of the rookie scoring race. Everyone expected Demidov to shine as a rookie, but Kapanen’s play surprised most, and the pair’s game went to another level when Juraj Slafkovsky moved onto their line during a time when the Canadiens were dealing with several injuries to key players.
For a long stretch, the Canadiens' best and most consistent line was Slafkovsky, Kapanen, and Demidov, or the “Kid Line” as they were called. Together, they were one of the better offensive lines in the NHL, ranked 29th out of 226 qualified forward lines in expected goals for at 16.1. Playing with highly talented players took the pressure off of Kapanen from having to generate offence on his own, something he likely would have had to do if he played in a bottom-six role with the Canadiens. However, even though Kapanen’s season was largely successful, 22 goals, second among rookies, and 15 assists in 82 games, his play took a massive dip at the end of the season.
Canadiens hoping Kapanen's late-season slump was just fatigue
For a lot of rookies, they fade as the season goes on. It is not that they catch the league by surprise at the start, but because they have never played that many games in a single season before. The most games Kapanen has played in a season before his rookie year were 55, when he played for KalPa Kuopio in Finland. That falls right in line with Kapanen’s production taking a nose dive, and it only got worse from there. Heading into the playoffs, Kapanen was held scoreless in the final 10 games of the regular season, a trend that continued into the playoffs. He played in the first two games of the Tampa Bay Lightning series before becoming a healthy scratch for the majority of the Canadiens' playoff run, appearing in just three more games. Kapanen being a non-factor in the playoffs showed a weakness in the Canadiens lineup, and it looked like Montreal was going to address it this offseason.
Now in July, the Canadiens have not made any impactful moves, and with the trade market getting smaller after Vincent Trochek and Mason McTavish already moved, it is entirely likely that Kapanen goes into next season once again as the second line centre. While fans might be down on Kapanen right now, he has already proven everyone wrong once. He proved this season that he can be an impactful player, and while he is not the flashiest, he always finds a way to be in the right areas to capitalize on rebounds. Maybe the Canadiens know something the rest of us do not, and are attributing his decline last season to fatigue. He still has a lot of work to do in rounding out his game before he will be considered a legitimate second-line centre, but a bad end of the season should not be the reason the Canadiens should give up on him just yet.
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