Montreal Canadiens: New Year's Resolutions For All Habs Players
The Montreal Canadiens are about to wrap up their 2023 schedule and will look forward to better times ahead. The past 12 months were not the best in the history of the franchise so a lot of fans are happy to see a new year dawning.
Many players will be hoping to see better days ahead as well. This is a time for them to reflect on what has worked and what has not as the team looks to be headed to a third consecutive season outside the playoffs.
As Canadiens players look to improve their game to turn things around for the franchise, here are their New Year's resolutions that should help them.
Goaltenders
Jake Allen's resolution is to play well enough to land a job with a Stanley Cup contender. The Canadiens continue to run with a three goaltender system but it is not going to last forever. In fact, it can't really last much longer as there is a trade deadline in early March and things need to be figured out before then. There are some really good teams, like the Edmonton Oilers, Carolina Hurricanes and New Jersey Devils, who have questions in net. Allen should see the writing on the wall and be trying to prove to those great teams he can be their answer in goal. Otherwise, he could find himself dealt to a bottom feeder like the Chicago Blackhawks or Buffalo Sabres. He does have a little no trade protection to help, but can only block a trade to seven teams he would have picked in July. It would be best to just play great and get dealt to the Hurricanes instead.
Sam Montembeault's resolution is to prove he is worth his new contract extension before it even kicks in. He signed a three year contract extension earlier on December 1st that more than triples his salary when the 2024-25 season begins. Since then he has played just five games and been fine, but the pressure can turn up pretty quick on a guy in the crease at the Bell Centre. A bigger payday means higher expectations and he will want to prove right away that he is deserving of the $3.15 million cap hit.
Cayden Primeau's resolution is to force the team to trade a different goaltender. The three goalie situation has gone on longer than many expected, and Primeau has played well enough to prove he should be part of the solution going forward. He at least deserves a longer look and needs to use his next few games to convince management to trade away Jake Allen instead of him.
Defensemen
Justin Barron's resolution is to clean things up in the defensive zone and lock up a spot next to Kaiden Guhle for a long time. Barron is a terrific skater and can carry the puck from his own end to the attacking zone and create a scoring chance. He has plenty of great tools that could see him have a long NHL career, but he still needs to work on things defensively to stop overcommitting and getting beat so he can become a reliable top four defenseman.
Kaiden Guhle's resolution is to sign a very long term contract to make him a very rich young man. He is developing into a special player on the Canadiens blue line and will be eligible to sign a contract extension as of July 1, 2024. His entry level contract does not end until the summer of 2025 but he could lock in to an eight year extension long before that.
Jordan Harris' resolution is to get people to notice him. He doesn't get a lot of love from fans but is quietly one of the team's most effective defensemen. He could develop into one of those silent defensive defensemen who can just chew up 20-22 minutes a night and not let anything bad happen when he's on the ice. Heck, he's pretty much that already but everyone wants to talk about Xhekaj and Struble.
Johnathan Kovacevic's resolution is to drop the "h" from his first name and start spelling it like all other Jonathan's so I stop spelling it wrong.
Mike Matheson's resolution is to try passing the puck to Juraj Slafkovsky on the power play instead of spinning around in circles at the blue line.
David Savard's resolution is to play well enough to get traded for a first round pick again. Maybe that is a fan's wish for Savard, but he would benefit from being dealt to a Stanley Cup contender which has its own benefits for a player.
Jayden Struble's resolution is to find a way to apologize to Arber Xhekaj for stealing his roster spot. He has played too well to be sent back down which leaves Xhekaj stuck in the minors, but who in their right mind wants to be on Xhekaj's bad side?
Arber Xhekaj's resolution is obviously to find a way to force the team to call him back up. He didn't do anything wrong, just other players played really well while he was injured. He needs to show he is just too good for the AHL.
Left Wingers
Rafael Harvey-Pinard's resolution is to rediscover some of his scoring touch. He was alsways a consistent offensive threat at the Junior and AHL level and scored 14 goals and 20 points in 34 NHL games last season. This season, before his injury anyway, he had zero goals and just four points in 13 games. He is a scrappy winger who can help this team but needs to find the scoresheet more often when he returns.
Alex Newhook's resolution is to pick up right where he left off before a significant injury. He will miss about three months of action after starting the season with seven goals and 13 points in 23 games. He cost the Canadiens a lot to acquire in the offseason and the 22 year old was proving to be well worth the investment of a late first round pick and an early second rounder as well.
Tanner Pearson's resolution is to get healthy and play again. He should be back at some point in January, but after missing 68 games last season it must be agonizing to be sidelined once again. Just get back on the ice.
Michael Pezzetta's resolution is to not miss when he gets wide open chances to score. No one works harder for a scoring opportunity, and he seems to have some bad luck this season at putting the puck intot he net when he does get a chance. No one is expecting 20 goals, but when a tap in chance is there, it should end up in the net.
Juraj Slafkovsky's resolution is to continue his upward trajectory. The kid is still 19 years old but is way better than when he was 18 years old. Just keep climbing the escalator and try new things as the season progresses.
Right Wingers
Josh Anderson's resolution is to completely forget about October and November of 2023. They were two of the worst months we have seen from a player as he was almost comically snake bitten and couldn't buy a goal. He finally got hot in December and needes to roll into 2024 with that, and only that, section of games on his mind.
Joel Armia's resolution is to find some level of consistency for the first time in his career. It doesn't even have to be a really good level, we would just take never scoring but always being great defensively. Just stop teasing us with the odd flash of offense that makes us think you can score 20 goals and get rid of the odd time you try to do too much stickhandling in your own zone and turn the puck over. Never anything offensively and always great defensively would be great. We would take that as Habs fans.
Cole Caufield's resolution is to remember that he is actually an elite goal scorer. We hoped he would score 40 goals this season but he spent most of the year on pace for about 20. He needs to find that goal scoring abillty again.
Brendan Gallagher's resolution is to somehow find more games wher he dials the clock back a few years. He seems to have two gears left in him. One gear is a feistry, scrappy winger who can keep up and plays well defensively while getting to the front of the net to create havoc. The other gear is too slow for the league and makes him a liability on the ice. We have seen him dial the clock back a handful of times this season and he needs to be able to do that more frequently in 2024.
Jesse Ylonen's resolution is to steal Jake Evans jersey so Martin St. Louis will play him more. Ylonen does everything right on the fourth line, but can't put up many numbers with Mitchell Stephens and Michael Pezzetta on his line. No offense to those guys, but Ylonen has the shot and head for the game to be playing higher in the lineup and should be already.
Centers
Kirby Dach's resolution is to show in 2024 that he can still be a potential point per game scorer in the near future. He played just 23 games in 2023 but had nine goals and 17 points in that time. He will miss the entire 2022-23 season except for the first two games, but will be focused on coming back in October of 2024 and showing he can be an impact top six center for the Canadiens.
Christian Dvorak's resolution is to finally get comfortable playing in Montreal. He had a decent first season with the Canadiens scoring 33 points in 56 games, but struggled with injuries and inconsistency since he arrived. He has just three goals and seven points in 24 games this season and hasn't developed chemistry with anyone, hasn't gone on a lengthy hot streak and just doesn't have a defined role in his third season with the team. He needs to get comfortable and confident in 2024.
Jake Evans resolution is to hire personal security so Jesse Ylonen can't steal his jersey.
Sean Monahan's resolution is to stay healthy long enough to be traded for a first round pick. Hey, that is kind of selfish I suppose as a Habs fan, but Monahan deserves to be healthy first of all and also deserves to be on a team with a legit chance of a Stanley Cup chase.
Nick Suzuki's resolution is to watch as much tape from early in Patrice Bergeron's career as possible. We can't expect Suzuki to become the next Bergeron, but Suzuki needs to become an excellent two-way center. No one did that better than Bergeron so studying his game from early on and picking up as many habits and tidbits as possible would be a great way to spend 2023 for the Canadiens captain.