The Montreal Canadiens surprised nearly everyone in hockey by making the playoffs this season, barely three seasons into their rebuild. Setting goals will be necessary for them to take another step forward. However, fans shouldn’t expect the next step to be a linear projection, improving on last season’s outcomes.
There will be setbacks, but how the club and its players react to those will be the key. With the trade market heading into the NHL Draft in Los Angeles (June 27–28), general manager (GM) Kent Hughes will be busy trying to add assets that fill needs for Montreal in the hopes of improving the roster for the long term.
Canadiens Start with Culture
The NHL is every hockey player’s dream. Utah Mammoth prospect Dmitry Simachev reiterated that point to RG.org, stating that “the NHL is everyone’s dream. The realization came early last season. After the draft, I had thoughts, but first, I needed to see if I could establish myself in the KHL. Would I play? After last season, I realized that I want to go and give it a try.” Being the world’s premier league gets players wanting to come over, but not necessarily wanting to stay with any particular team. What makes them desire a location comes down to culture. Culture is almost seen as a joke to some fans, who believe that talent is far more important. Yet in a team sport like hockey, building the right environment can have a massive impact in attracting, but also retaining players. Take recent Calder Trophy winner Lane Hutson, who has been emphatic in his desire to remain in Montreal.
Fundamentally, culture is about how people work together. It’s how the values and beliefs that they share bring them together. It is also how they respect, support, and collaborate toward common goals. No team culture can begin without input from all levels, from the owner to the training staff to players. Defining more clearly to themselves what they stand for and what they hope to achieve is crucial to the basis of any team culture. That begins with the values they hope to instill above any skill set that brought them to the NHL. Values such as dedication, character, loyalty, communication, and will all become important in building a winning culture.
A perfect example is the meeting between team captain Nick Suzuki and Hughes that took place after the 4 Nations Face-Off break. In an interview with TVA Sports, Suzuki confirmed that he asked that Hughes not make any trades to break up the roster. Suzuki’s leadership and the team’s performance forced Hughes’ hand, and he kept his word; the team remained intact and eventually earned a playoff berth.
A side bonus to any healthy working environment and winning culture is a desire for those outside the organization to join in, making the Canadiens a more inviting locale for unrestricted free agents (UFAs). This is the case as UFAs such as Anthony Beauvillier have stated a desire to join the Canadiens. Despite having a healthy team culture that is fostering a winning environment, more moves need to be made to advance the rebuild.
Canadiens Look to Add
It is no secret, Montreal has two glaring needs: a second-line centre and a veteran right-handed defenceman. With David Savard’s retirement, they would benefit from adding an experienced blueliner on the right side. A name that has been mentioned by Frank Seravalli as being a likely trade candidate recently has been that of Calgary Flames defender Rasmus Andersson. The 28-year-old defender is a consistent 40-to-50-point producer who plays over 23 minutes per game and has one season remaining with a cap hit of $4.55 million. All of that would make him a valuable trade commodity for the Flames. But Hughes has the trade assets at his disposal with a plethora of picks and prospects that can be packaged to help Calgary in retooling their roster.
That’s the defenceman, but what about a centre? Well, there are newly placed GMs in the NHL that could be looking to retool their rosters to help them now. Mathieu Darche with the New York Islanders and Ken Holland with the Los Angeles Kings, both are clubs looking to make minor changes to improve for now. They could also be good places for Hughes to start calling, as they have assets that could help Montreal. Hughes is looking for the long term, as confirmed by Eric Engels on The Sick Podcast: “They want a player that fits with them becoming a perennial winner.”
Hughes may be looking to the Islanders for someone like Bo Horvat to add to the centre depth of the club. The 30-year-old centre has five seasons remaining on his contract, paying him $8.5 million per season. He has good size, plays a responsible two-way game, can provide 50 to 70 points per season, is a left-shot who wins faceoffs consistently and is also one of the best friends of Canadiens forward Josh Anderson. He would be a good fit. In the case of the Kings, it is more likely that Hughes could entice Holland to trade their first-round pick, as he has told RG.org in an interview that he is open to a deal, saying that “We’ve got the 24th pick in the draft. Do we use it or do we trade it?”
However, there are nearly a dozen teams looking to fill these roles so that they can take a step forward. The more likely path is for Hughes to focus on one trade, then go into the free agent market. One name that could be a fit at centre, but also has the added bonus of damaging a division rival if he were to leave, is Claude Giroux. According to Bruce Garrioch, there is a contingency plan for Giroux if a deal with the Ottawa Senators fails to materialize (from ‘Talks continue between Senators and Claude Giroux as Ottawa’s off-season heats up,’ Ottawa Citizen, 6/18/25). The 37-year-old just finished a 50-point season, averaging more than 19 minutes of ice time while also being one of the NHL’s top faceoff men with a 61.5 percent win rate. He not only played in the top six but also consistently saw time on the power-play and penalty-killing units.
With the NHL Entry Draft coming up fast, Hughes has a full agenda that he must address: defence, centres, use his picks, trade his picks, wait for free agency or not. No matter what path he chooses, fans will be excited to see just how he will use all of the salary cap space, draft and prospect capital to exploit and fill in the NHL roster.
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