Here’s what the Canadiens’ line-up looks like as of today

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The Canadiens turned a corner in 2024-25. The club, hoping to be in the mix, was finally in the playoffs… and the young core of the group showed some great things.

Lane Hutson winning the Calder Trophy, Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield reaching another level, Ivan Demidov coming to town at the end of the year: a number of youngsters shone this season.

So we knew the Habs would have a big summer to consolidate all this. Noah Dobson, Zachary Bolduc and Joe Veleno were the big acquisitions in town, while guys like Emil Heineman, Joel Armia, Christian Dvorak and David Savard left. Logan Mailloux also left, but he wasn’t a regular in the NHL.

All of which means that the Habs of 2025-26, while not perfect, are likely to be a better team than last year.

Dom Luszczyszyn, of The Athletic, is among those who see a huge improvement: in fact, according to him, only the Sharks are a more improved team than the Habs since the start of the summer.

But how much better is this group? Let’s take a look at what the Canadiens of 2025-26 might look like, starting with the forwards:

Cole Caufield – Nick Suzuki – Juraj Slafkovský

Zachary Bolduc – Kirby Dach – Ivan Demidov

Patrik Laine – Jake Evans – Alex Newhook

Josh Anderson – Joe Veleno – Brendan Gallagher

Extra : Samuel Blais

The first line-up, barring a huge surprise, will be intact. The three guys are connecting more and more on the ice, and at the end of the season last year, they formed one of the best trios in the NHL. I don’t see that changing.

Seeing Zachary Bolduc work on his face-offs leads me to believe that the plan is to pair him with Kirby Dach so that they each take face-offs on their strong side. Both guys are capable of playing physical and have offensive talent: they’ll help Ivan Demidov acclimatize to the NHL.

Patrik Laine, in a reduced 5-on-5 role, will be in a chair more suited to him. If he comes to camp strong, he could mix things up, but putting him on the wing of a responsible guy like Jake Evans and a speedy winger like Alex Newhook might help him look good at 5-on-5.

Josh Anderson and Brendan Gallagher find themselves in support roles, and Joe Veleno (who will be the team’s only left-handed center) will try to make up for the loss of Christian Dvorak. It won’t be easy, especially in the face-off circle, but it could still work.

On the blue line, here’s what I’m expecting:

Kaiden Guhle – Noah Dobson

Jayden Struble – Lane Hutson

Mike Matheson – Alexandre Carrier

Extra: Arber Xhekaj

In my opinion, pairing Noah Dobson and Lane Hutson is not the best way to bring out the best in these two guys. The two need to be separated to spread the strike force over different duos, but also to keep their defensive deficiencies from being too exposed.

Guhle and Dobson are two guys who can eat up minutes by the ton, and at 5-on-5, I’d expect them to be the most-used pair. This would allow Hutson to focus on the powerplay and offensive zone face-offs, and Jayden Struble showed he has great chemistry with Hutson last year.

As for Mike Matheson and Alexandre Carrier, they had the task of handling the defensive duels last year, and they didn’t do a bad job of it. Having the Guhle-Dobson duo will take some of the pressure off their shoulders, so it’ll give Martin St-Louis a solid veteran duo to send into the fray for defensive duties without having to overwork them.

And in front of the net, Samuel Montembeault will obviously be the team’s #1 goalie. It remains to be seen whether Jakub Dobes or Kaapo Kahkönen will be his assistant now.

The Habs aren’t a perfect team, but when you look at the team’s roster, there’s plenty to convince you that this group is built to last. And if not this year (because there’s a world in which the Habs won’t make the playoffs in 2025-26), then in the years to come.

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