Alex Newhook was the Montreal Canadiens' breakout star of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoff run alongside Jakub Dobes. While Dobes kept the Canadiens in every game, Newhook became the second player in NHL playoff history to have two Game 7 game-winners, leading Montreal past the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Buffalo Sabres. It'd be easy to give him the second-line center role to start the season, but Martin St. Louis is likely going to look elsewhere.
Canadiens fans can appreciate what Newhook gave them in the playoffs when no one else stepped up. Still, it is time to give that role to a more consistent scorer like Oliver Kapanen or Kirby Dach, in hopes that they can stay healthy and give Montreal more depth throughout the lineup. Newhook is there if needed again, but he fits more in that third-line center role.
St. Louis and the Canadiens would love to see Kapanen take that role and run with it alongside Ivan Demidov. The Finnish center had 22 goals and 37 points in 82 regular-season games, but was the odd man out in the postseason, going pointless through seven games. While it was a discouraging playoff, the growth Kapanen showed from his 18-game sample size in 2024-25 to his 82-game sample in 2025-26 should give optimism that he can learn from those postseason mistakes and figure it out.
Oliver Kapanen is the front-runner, but can Kirby Dach stay healthy?
Kirby Dach's potential as the Canadiens' second-line center could make fans pull their hair out. The center failed to stay healthy again during last year's regular season, but stayed in the lineup for 19 games in the playoffs. He recorded just four goals and one assist, but another frustrating moment came with his highlight-reel goal against the Tampa Bay Lightning. If he can show glimpses of that, why can't he show it all the time and take that second-line center role?
Kirby Dach's goal 11 seconds after Tampa tied the game is still one of my favourite goals from the playoffs.
— Iz (@whatshabsening) August 12, 2026
And it was all started by him winning the face-off. And the way he kicks the puck from his skate to his blade is just sick. pic.twitter.com/aparCCoD6U
Canadiens fans would sure love to see Dach put forth that kind of effort over an entire season and see how it would look alongside Demidov. The budding Russian star deserves someone with plenty of offensive tools in their toolbox to play alongside him, and it's starting to look like it will be either Kapanen taking that job and running with it or we'll have to wait for Michael Hage's arrival.
The surprising result would be Dach earning the job, but how long can he actually hold it down?
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