The Canadiens ultimate checklist for a successful 2024 offseason
With just one week to go in the Montreal Canadiens regular season, it’s time to check out what they must do to enjoy a successful offseason.
With the Montreal Canadiens 2023-24 season in its twilight, it’s time to start shifting gears and talking about what should be an ultra-interesting offseason for one of the NHL’s brightest up-and-coming teams. Although the points total doesn’t show it, Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes is methodically building not just a sound core but also an impeccable prospects pool.
Now that this team has been building under Hughes for a couple of seasons, it’s now time to make some more strides. But before we get into them, let’s talk about some of the progress Montreal has already made. The first one should be the way Hughes struck gold on Juraj Slafkovsky, who has since become one of the leading scorers for the Habs.
In what has been a breakout season for the 20-year-old, Slafkovsky logged 45 points and 16 goals in the 77 contests he played at the time of this writing. He’s also put his size to good use, registering 139 hits and 66 blocks, all while recording top-six minutes.
Canadiens can make more strides with a successful 2024 offseason
While this team is bound for a bottom-two finish in the Atlantic Division in 2023-24, it still shouldn’t take away from their growth. Kent Hughes has built a formidable prospects pool, and it serves as the ultimate foundation in the rebuilding of one of the NHL’s most historic franchises.
It’s also worth crediting Hughes for trading away players who weren’t going to be in Montreal when the franchise’s winning ways resumed, all the while getting sound compensation in the process. We saw this with the Sean Monahan trade, which netted a first-rounder and a third-rounder. The Jake Allen trade garnered Hughes a conditional third-rounder, and it could even increase in value to a second-rounder if the trade’s conditions are met.
But with such a low points total this season, Hughes is nowhere near finished with this team’s rebuild. Let’s check out the ultimate list of three different groups of transactions he must make for a successful 2024 offseason that will continue to transform Montreal into an even better organization.
Use the inevitable high lottery pick well
Ideally, the Canadiens would win the Macklin Celebrini sweepstakes, and a player of his caliber would be sensational to team up with the likes of Slafkovsky, Cole Caufield, and Nick Suzuki. And the likelihood of the Canadiens winning the lottery isn’t half-bad, even if they won’t have the best odds entering the 2024 draft to the same extent as the Anaheim Ducks, Chicago Blackhawks, San Jose Sharks, and, to a lesser degree, the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Either way, it’s a pick that Hughes must strike gold on, and it’s something we have seen throughout his first two drafts. We already mentioned Slafkovsky, but David Reinbacher is also now in North America, and he’s already making his presence known in Laval as a two-way player with four points and two goals in eight contests as of April 9th.
Next season, Slafkovsky will be in the NHL for his second full season, and Reinbacher could get a look if he keeps trending upward. The next top draft pick must also find themselves in the Habs lineup sooner rather than later, ideally as early as sometime during the 2025-26 season.
Sign reasonable free agents that won’t block potential call-ups
The Canadiens don’t have a ton of space to spend on unrestricted free agents, and that’s a good thing for Kent Hughes since he doesn’t need to be worried about adding too much talent from the outside. Stopgaps and role players who will come in on a low seven-figure deal would be the best option for him and the team in the summer of 2024 since focusing on the core remains Priority No. 1.
Blueliners who were in town part-time this season, like Justin Barron and Arber Xhekaj, should graduate to full-time status next season. Up-and-comers like Logan Mailloux should also have as little in front of them as possible.
The same goes for forwards like Joshua Roy and even forwards who have only played a little more than half the regular season games, like Rafael Harvey-Pinard and Alex Newhook. The latter two will be with the big club no matter what, while Roy and Mailloux should at least have a legitimate pathway to playing their first full seasons in the NHL.
Focusing on the core should pay dividends for Hughes, perhaps not next season, but in 2025-26, Montreal should be one of the teams to beat. And remember, this section didn’t even mention current talents like Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield, so if you add them to the mix, things are shaping up well in Quebec.
Don’t be afraid to make some trades
If Kent Hughes wants to do everything correctly and give those who will be part of his young core the utmost experience, he should also look to trade a few more players as soon as he gets even a remotely good offer for them.
The players and prospects listed above should have a path to the Canadiens, but let’s not forget about others who will inevitably impress the front office as the 2024-25 season progresses. Thanks to how much more formidable the Canadiens prospects pool should get this season, that should be the case, and it wouldn’t hurt for them to gain some NHL experience as well.
For example, someone like Florian Xhekaj could surprise us early to the point he earns a spot with the big club later in the year. While the likelihood of a player like Xhekaj getting there probably won’t happen in 2024-25, the point is, there will always be someone in the prospects pool who made enough strides for an NHL trial, and that doesn’t always need to occur near the end of the season.
So, trading away some older players and bringing in more replaceable names to fill in as stopgaps would help prevent creating such a logjam. While it won’t translate to an incredible number of points next season, this ultimate checklist for the 2024 offseason will continue to strengthen the team’s foundation.
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(Statistics provided by Hockey-Reference)