MONTREAL – Everything in life has an expiry date. Patience is one of them.
However, it’s important to remember that patience is one of the most critical ingredients in a rebuild. Sacrificing the future of the team for immediate results often leads back to square one. Trusting the process, however, is the recipe for sustained success.
For three years, the Montreal faithful has trusted said process, and Kent Hughes has exercised that same level of patience in his reconstruction of the team. With the Canadiens management staying the course, this could be the year where patience and promise turn into performance.
Naturally, after an offseason of excitement, expectations are climbing. The group’s core is a year older, the emerging young stars have an extra season of experience under their belt, the majority of the team’s veterans are back, and a healthy Kirby Dach will return to the lineup after missing nearly the entire 2023-24 campaign with a knee injury. Oh, and did we mention Patrik Laine? Again, that’ll take patience. More on him below.
Not shying away from those hefty expectations, players and management at the team's annual golf tournament in September repeatedly used the term 'in the mix' to define their realistic goal for this season.
Here’s how they could line up to get there:
There is no offseason in the life of a general manager. Hughes proved that true when, in the immediate aftermath of the season, he announced the team had chosen to exercise the two-year option on head coach Martin St-Louis’ contract, locking in the Canadiens bench boss through the 2026-27 season.
Extending St-Louis’ contract reinforces the belief the organization has in the Hall-of-Famer and fortifies continuity in what he’s trying to build. The culture in the locker room starts at the top, and if one thing is clear, the players are buying what St-Louis is selling.
“Every year you’ve got to keep convincing. Next year, maybe we’ll have to change our product a little bit,” explained the head coach who's entering his third full season at the helm of the Canadiens. “It’s like, ‘Why do you have an iPhone 14 or 15? Why don’t you still have an iPhone 8?’ Because there’s something better. The software improves. So, for me, it’s constantly trying to improve the software, so to speak, and trying to sell that.”
Like any savvy salesman knows, the product must continuously evolve to keep the customers coming back. In hockey, the same holds true—especially between the pipes where the stakes are always high.
Samuel Montembeault and Cayden Primeau are tasked with that responsibility heading into the 2024-25 NHL season. The Canadiens’ tandem in the blue paint each posted career highs in games played and save percentage last year, in what was Montembeault’s first go at the No. 1 job and Primeau’s inaugural campaign as a full-time goalie in the National Hockey League.