The Montreal Canadiens finished 28th in the overall NHL rankings for a second consecutive year in 2024, but management praised the progress of certain players.
Banking on the natural progression of its young core, the Habs were not particularly active during the summer, then the team went through difficult times this fall.
Fans’ patience is beginning to be tested during another year of rebuilding. When will we finally see the light at the end of the tunnel? It’s difficult to know.
Here is a retrospective of the year 2024 with the Montreal Canadiens.
Individual progress
Even though the Canadian has stagnated in the overall NHL rankings, he nevertheless earned eight more points in 2023-24 than the previous season. And this, despite one less victory on the clock.
It is rather at the individual level that the team can notice progress.
In front of the net, Samuel Montembeault confirms his status as number 1 after a long three-way waltz. Jake Allen was finally traded at the deadline, a few months after Montembeault signed a three-year, US$9.45 million contract extension in December 2023.
However, the player showing the most progress is striker Juraj Slafkovsky. The top pick in the 2022 draft has 43 points, including 18 goals, in 53 games as of December 16, 2023. This production places him 65th across the NHL during that span, alongside players like Evgeni Malkin, Tim Stützle and Anze Kopitar.
After progression, regression
During the off-season, the Canadian got rid of right-handed defenseman Johnathan Kovacevic for a pittance and also sacrificed left-handed defenseman Jordan Harris to get his hands on enigmatic forward Patrik Laine and a second-round pick.
Unfortunately, Laine suffered an injury during camp and his impact would not be felt until his return to play in December, when he scored eight goals, all on the power play, in 10 games.
During the golf tournament marking the start of the new campaign, the management of the Canadian repeated the same objective as during its assessment in April. She wants to see the team “be in the mix” for as long as possible in the playoff race, which doesn’t really differ from the message given the year before, when she wanted to see the team “play meaningful games” on later in the season as possible.
More demanding of his group, Martin St-Louis lost patience a few times during the fall. His players were even subjected to punishing training the day after a 6-3 loss to the Washington Capitals, during a game where they “vomited on each other in the third period,” according to the head coach.
Slafkovsky takes a significant step back, once again becoming the invisible player at the start of the 2023 season. Kirby Dach, limited to less than four periods of play the previous campaign due to a knee injury, is slow to find his bearings. Alex Newhook sometimes seems incapable of generating offense. In short, the young offensive core is having a difficult fall, in addition to Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield and rookie Emil Heineman.
In defense, David Reinbacher suffered a major knee injury during camp and Logan Mailloux was unable to carve out a position with the big club, leaving the right flank of the brigade vulnerable. Justin Barron, inconsistent, was eventually sacrificed to get his hands on Alexandre Carrier, an established player, in the hope of stabilizing the back group.
In front of the net, Montembeault is more often short of miracles behind a group regularly helpless during the first weeks of the campaign. His reserve Cayden Primeau simply does not deliver the goods, to the point where Montembeault will get the last 10 starts before the Christmas break.
The next step
The Canadian therefore finds himself in 26th place in the general ranking at the time of the Christmas break, with a pace that would allow him to accumulate 74 points, two fewer than last season.
He played better from mid-November onwards, but still had matches where the chain landed. And its recent successes have come at the expense of teams also lying in the bottom of the Eastern Association.
The acquisition of Carrier marked a change in the philosophy of general manager Kent Hughes, who sacrificed a youngster for a more experienced player after years of trading away veterans to get youngsters. He obviously felt that his group needed help, after perhaps having made too much room for young people to obtain the expected results.
However, in the Canadian’s grand reconstruction plan, another pick among the top five or 10 in the next draft certainly wouldn’t hurt.
The Canadian’s management is also preparing for the arrival of prospect Ivan Demidov, chosen fifth overall in this summer’s NHL draft. Rarely have we seen members of the Canadiens so cheerful after a selection. The team clearly sees in him a player who will one day be part of the NHL’s elite and who can take the Habs to the next level.
In the meantime, we’ll have to make do with hoping to be “in the mix” for a few more weeks.
