Why the Next Off-season Will Be a Busy One For the Montreal Canadiens

The Montreal Canadiens 2024 offseason will be remembered for one thing. Kent Hughes managed to lock up the Habs' first overall pick Juraj Slafkovsky to a big 8 year, $60.8 million contract. And if Slafkovsky continues to develop in the way that he did last year, that deal should be paying dividends.

Hughes and co. also made a handful of smaller moves as well, including moving up in this years draft to take Michael Hage, traded away Jonathan Kovacevic for a fourth round pick and freed up a spot on the back end. The big free agent signing was for hometown player Alex Barre-Boulet for one year.

All in all, it was a pretty quiet month or two. Especially when comparing to all the rumors of big acquisitions like Martin Necas and Trevor Zegras. Since Necas seems to be staying put in Carolina after the departure of Jake Guentzel, and everything has been hush-hush around Zegras, it seems like that might be all she wrote for the Montreal Canadiens 2024 offseason, at least for the big moves.

So this has made some people restless, not the least of which are hockey writers who need to write about something during the slow months. But the future looks bright and it shouldn't be another slow off-season a year from now.

Not Quite The Time

According to EliteProspects, the Montreal Canadiens have the youngest team going into the 2024-25 NHL season, at 25.5 years old, just edging out the Buffalo Sabres who are at an average age of 25.70.

It is therefor not surprising that the Canadiens have also the least amount of NHL games played on their roster, with 5,819, again, just under 100 combined games below the Buffalo Sabres, and they are both the only teams with under 6,300 NHL man games played.

This is a long way of saying that it is not the time for the Montreal Canadiens to be competing for the Cup yet, and generally the players that are available for the off-season are win now players, rather than players that will grow and continue to bolster a young team for years to come.

Just think about some of the strongest NHL teams and the biggest competitors for the Stanley Cup and their average ages. The Edmonton Oilers, the runners-up are the oldest team in the league last year. The next team up was the Dallas Stars, and the top half holds almost all the heaviest hitters, including the New York Rangers, Toronto Maple Leafs, Boston Bruins, Florida Panthers and Colorado Avalanche. The only exception seems to be the Carolina Hurricanes at 18th.

And they are all over 27 years of age in average. Judging by that, the Montreal Canadiens still need a year or two to age up, and to gain some veteran, but timely, help to push them over the edge.

A Big Free Agent Year

Also, next year has the potential to be a huge year for free agents, and the Montreal Canadiens could do well to test those waters.

While aged, Sidney Crosby is still a fantastic hockey player, and he might look at getting out of Pittsburgh if he wants to make one more run at the Cup before retiring. And there are some names that are technically free agents coming up next year, but will be hard to see them moving. Brad Marchand will resign in Boston, and if he didn't, it would be impossible to see him in Montreal.

Leon Draisaitl is an interesting case, but the Edmonton Oilers will do anything in their power to keep him on the team. And Mikko Rantanen is one of the Avalanche's biggest stars, and they should have enough room to figure out a way to keep him on. Same with Igor Shesterkin, who will almost certainly sign a huge deal to stay with the Rangers.

But there are players with more, uncertain, futures. Mitch Marner is still a Maple Leaf for the moment, and even if he survives the year, it is really hard to see him play for Toronto in 2025-26, and he will garner a huge payday. John Tavares is also a player that might be playing his way out of Toronto, especially if he doesn't take a massive pay cut. He isn't the same player he once was, but he brings leadership and experience.

Can the Canucks afford to resign 40 goal scorer Brock Boeser? The Florida Panthers will need another steal of a deal to keep Carter Verhaeghe. That doesn't mention the defenders like Shea Theodore and Jakub Chychrun, but if the Montreal Canadiens have a strength, its on the back end.

So the Montreal Canadiens will have a bigger off-season next year, and will probably be all the more better for it. They will likely still not be good next year, so they will get another high draft pick. The current players will be more developed and ready to compete, and they might get more impactful players in the free agent frenzy. The future looks bright.