Can The NHL’s Montreal Canadiens Take Another Rebuild Step In 2025-26?

Nick Suzuki and Lane Hutson were two key catalysts for the Montreal Canadiens’ return to the Stanley Cup playoffs in 2025. (Photo by Jeff Vinnick/NHLI via Getty Images)

NHLI via Getty Images

The Montreal Canadiens were one of the best feel-good stories of the 2024-25 NHL season. A 15-point improvement in the standings saw them return to the post-season for the first time since their improbable run to the Stanley Cup Final in 2021, while Lane Hutson’s runaway Calder Trophy win was the first major award for a Canadiens player since Carey Price ran the table with the Hart, Vezina, Jennings and Ted Lindsay Award in 2015.

With Atlantic Division rivals Buffalo Sabres and Detroit Red Wings still mired in mediocrity as they search for the right formula to snap their long playoff droughts, ‘rebuild’ has become a bit of a dirty word in NHL circles. But the Canadiens have embraced it — putting it front and center in the title of their docuseries on Canada’s Crave streaming service: ‘The Rebuild: Inside the Montreal Canadiens.’

After Season 1 became Crave’s most-watched documentary series in Canada in 2024, the first two episodes of the show’s second season premiered on Thursday.

The tone is similar to Season 1, offering insights into all aspects of the team’s operations. There’s another look at the careful decision-making process that goes into mounting the game presentation for the team’s home opener. There’s the merchandise snarl that ensues when Cole Caufield decides to swap out his No. 22 for No. 13 to honor the memory of Johnny Gaudreau.

But the most striking element is the team’s bumpy start to the season — all-but-forgotten after how well things turned out.

After center Kirby Dach suffered a season-ending knee injury in October of 2023, fans were fearful that new offseason acquisition Patrik Laine had suffered a similar fate after a knee-on-knee collision in just his second pre-season game. Defenseman David Reinbacher, the fifth-overall pick in 2023, also suffered a knee injury in pre-season that prevented him from joining the AHL’s Laval Rocket until late February.

Then, when the regular season began, the results didn’t come. After winning two of their first three games, Montreal then won just two of the next twelve. By Nov. 10, they’d slipped to the very bottom of the NHL standings, but then the tide began to turn.

Episode 2 of the docuseries captures coach Martin St. Louis telling his players they’re ready to “take off” when they rally from a 5-4 third-period deficit to snap their six-game losing streak with a 7-5 win over the Buffalo Sabres on Nov. 11. After going pointless in Montreals’s previous four games, 2023-24 leading scorer and captain Nick Suzuki was named the game’s first star thanks to a four-point night, and Caufield’s power-play game-winner vaulted him into the league lead with 12 goals in his first 16 games.

But it’s hard to make up ground in the National Hockey League standings. A subsequent 9-7-1 run left them in 26th place at the Christmas break, still seven points shy of a wild-card spot. But the call-up of rookie netminder Jakub Dobes on Dec. 27 helped spark a 10-2-1 run. By late January, they’d made it into the wild-card mix.

Hutson had also begun producing at a point-per-game rate, and would finish the year with 66 points. That led all rookies in 2024-25 and was the fourth-most ever by a rookie defenseman — behind only 1980s stars Larry Murphy, Brian Leetch and Gary Suter. After his strong finish to the season, Hutson became first Montreal player to win the Calder Trophy since Hall of Fame goaltender Ken Dryden in 1972.

Once the playoffs arrived, Hutson also led his team with five points in five games.

Suzuki also caught fire in the second half of the season, finishing with a career-high 89 points. Caufield cracked 30 goals for the first time, leading the Canadiens with 37 tallies. And Laine made it into the lineup by early December, finishing the year with 20 goals in 52 games.

Off-Season Moves

With the future looking bright, GM Kent Hughes and executive vice-president Jeff Gorton did more shopping during the off-season. On draft weekend, they acquired 25-year-old right-shot defenseman Noah Dobson from the New York Islanders in exchange for forward Emil Heineman and two first-round draft picks, then promptly made him the team’s highest-paid player by inking him to an eight-year contract extension with a cap hit of $9.5 million.

A native of Prince Edward Island, Dobson spent significant time in Quebec during his development years. He attended prep school at Bishop’s College in Sherbrooke spending three years in the QMJHL, winning back-to-back Memorial Cups with New Brunswick’s Acadie-Bathurst Titan and Quebec’s Rouyn-Noranda Huskies.

With their newly acquired defensive depth, the Canadiens made an accompanying move. Four days after trading for Dobson, they dealt 22-year-old defense prospect Logan Mailloux to the St. Louis Blues in exchange for fellow 2021 first-round pick Zach Bolduc. A 19-goal scorer on right wing last season, Bolduc is a native of Trois Rivieres, Quebec. He won the Memorial Cup with the Quebec Remparts in 2023.

Outlook for 2025-26

Heading into the 2025-26 season, PuckPedia shows the Canadiens as being nearly $6 million over the salary cap ceiling of $95.5 million. That’s easily fixable, as this is the last season that Price’s $10.5 million cap hit remains on the books, even though he hasn’t played in more than three years.

The question now: can the Canadiens take another step forward? The team’s young core has gained another year of experience, injury concerns have eased somewhat, and there’s another top-ranked rookie ready to contribute as 2024 fifth-overall pick Ivan Demidov is set to step into a full-time role.

But progress in the NHL is not always linear, and nothing is guaranteed. The Canadiens were able to hold off the Columbus Blue Jackets to seize the final Eastern Conference playoff spot last spring, but the Jackets are also a team on the rise. Meanwhile, perennial playoff participants like the New York Rangers and Boston Bruins will be looking to re-claim their spots with new coaches in place, and the New York Islanders are looking for better results under new GM Mathieu Darche.

As their fans wait to see if the Montreal Canadiens can maintain their positive momentum, they can re-live their team’s thrilling second half as documented in ‘The Rebuild.’ New episodes will drop each Thursday for the next four weeks, through Sept. 18.