NHL Rumors: What Area Will the Montreal Canadiens Look to Upgrade This Offseason?

A main area the Montreal Canadiens will look to improve on for next season

TSN: Kenzie Lalond on TSN’s That’s Hockey on the Montreal Canadiens, Kirby Dach, and what areas they might look to improve on next season.

** NHLRumors.com transcription

Gino Reda: “You mentioned Hutson, the Habs top line, also Suzuki, Caufield,  Slafkovsky looked really solid. Demidov looks like he’s got a huge upside. Where should Habs management be looking to plug holes and upgrade the offseason, to give this young group of players a better shot to contend moving forward?”

Lalonde: “I’m looking immediately at that second line, and in particular a 2C. That has been a topic of conversation the last few seasons here. That top line has been great, Slafkovsky, Caulfield and Nick Suzuki.

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But who will fill out that second line? You have to think Demidov will be there, but who will be the 2C?

Kirby Dach’s name was brought up today again. His season coming to a close due to injury. So now, Dach has only played 59 games in the last two seasons here for the Canadians. And Jeff Gordon did mention that certainly there’s a spot for Kirby Dach this season on the team, but it’s up to him as to where that spot will be. It will be an upward climb for him in this off season, getting back up to speed. And it sounds like Kirby Dach will need a big training camp coming into the season to show where he belongs in this lineup.

I also asked Kent Hughes, when he thinks of this summer, this offseason, and this timeline of how big of a summer this can be if they wanted to add in new faces to this team. And he kind of went back to a few seasons ago, where he talked about the importance of the 2024 summer and how that would be a big time for this team, and how the 2025 season would be even bigger.  And he said, I have to think that that statement stays true again.

Kent Hughes, Jeff Gorton mentioned, they’re always keeping their eyes open to athletes, to players that could join this team, but it has to be the right fit. There was talks about size. There was discussion around compete level, and that really was a fundamental attribute this management team wants if they do find the right piece to the puzzle that they want to bring in to join this group. The compete level has to be there.

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So we’ll see if any changes are made in the upcoming offseason but I have to think moving forward, the Canadians will look to take another step ahead.”

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