The offseason is officially underway in Montreal and earlier this week, we got out first bit of significant news regarding the Canadiens as veteran forward Brendan Gallagher revealed that he will be leaving the organization via trade this summer.
"The fans right from Day 1, it's been truly a privilege to play in front of them. It's an opportunity that not a lot of players in this league, I've got to do it for 14 years now and it's not lost on me how special it was to call the Bell Centre home. The very first time I stepped foot in this organization, you know, the management, coaches, teammates I've had along the years, there's been some ups and downs, but I don't have a single regret. It's pretty clear I'll be kind of moving on here." Gallagher said to reporters on Monday.
Beyond Gallagher's departure, which could come any day now after his agent was granted permission to facilitate a move, according to CHEK TV's Rick Dhaliwal, the Canadiens have some big questions that need to be answered this summer, three of which I'm going to take a look at in this article.
Will the Montreal Canadiens find a solution to their second line center problem?
This is a question that Montreal Canadiens fans are hoping gets answered in the coming months. Montreal Canadiens General Manager Kent Hughes has been on the lookout for a second line centerman for his group for a little over 12 months now. Several names emerged in the last year including Robert Thomas of the St. Louis Blues, who is under contract through the 2030-31 season with a very reasonable cap hit of $8.125 million USD.
The Aurora, Ontario native would be the perfect target for Kent Hughes for several reasons. He can produce offensively, is solid in the faceoff dot (52.5% this past season) and is good in his own zone. He's the complete package and exactly what you want in a top-six centerman, however acquiring him is easier said than done.
It's safe to assume that the Blues would ask the Canadiens for one of their top prospects in any package for Robert Thomas, whether that be 2024 first round pick Michael Hage or 2025 second round pick Alexander Zharovsky. Montreal likely doesn't have much of an appetite to move either player, but if you want someone like Thomas, they're going to have to part with a significant piece, there's no question about that. Beyond Hage or Zharovsky, a first round pick would also probably be involved in a hypothetical package, along with perhaps someone like Oliver Kapanen, who spent time as Montreal's second line centerman at times this season.
If it's not Robert Thomas, then Kent Hughes make have to get a bit creative. Other options could include Mason McTavish of the Anaheim Ducks and Vincent Trocheck of the New York Rangers, although the latter is set to turn 33 in mid-July and might not fit in age-wise with what Montreal is trying to build. Meanwhile on Thursday afternoon, Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman reported that centerman Dylan Larkin has requested a trade from the Detroit Red Wings. While trading within the division comes at a higher cost, Larkin would be a very good fit in Montreal.
Without a doubt, if Montreal wants to take another step next season, they're going to need to get a true second line centerman and Kent Hughes has the assets required to do so. Only time will tell if he's able to bring one to town, but given Hughes' track record on the trade market every summer since joining the Canadiens, it's safe to assume that he'll be able to land a big name once again.
What will the Montreal Canadiens do with Kirby Dach?
Injuries and inconsistent play have plagued Kirby Dach's time with the Montreal Canadiens organization. Since joining the Canadiens in the summer of 2022 via a trade with the Chicago Blackhawks, Dach hasn't been able to play a full season, with just 154 of a possible 328 regular season games under his belt. Aside from his first year with the Canadiens in 2022-23, which was shortened due to upper & lower-body injuries, his production hasn't been where the club was expecting it to be.
This season, Dach came into training camp in good shape after having surgery on his knee, was highly-motivated to prove everyone wrong and believed he could contribute significantly wherever he was put in the lineup by head coach Martin St. Louis. Five games into the season, Dach suffered a lower-body injury that sidelined him for three contests. That was only the beginning of yet another injuries-filled year for the former third overall pick.
In November, the Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta native sustained a foot fracture that was initially meant to sideline him for four-to-six weeks, however he was out of the Canadiens' lineup for closer to eight, returning a couple of weeks before the NHL's Olympic break. During that absence, Dach missed a total of 31 games and two months later, he was injured again. Just after the trade deadline, Dach suffered an upper-body injury and was briefly deemed "day-to-day" before moving to "week-to-week", missing 11 more games and returning just in time for the end of the regular season.
With Dach back to full health, he was able to show some spurts of his potential in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, especially in Games 1 & 3 of their second round series against the Buffalo Sabres. After that, he fizzled out and was essentially a non-factor for the remainder of the future and in my opinion, he's played his last game as a Montreal Canadien.
This summer, Kirby Dach is set to become a restricted free agent and has a qualifying offer of $4 million USD. There's almost a zero percent chance that the Canadiens extend him a qualifying offer before the 5 pm ET deadline on June 30th, which will make him an unrestricted free agent on Canada Day. Now, the Canadiens could always negotiate a lower salary leading up to the RFA QO deadline or in the summer when he's an unrestricted free agent, but for the best interest of everyone involved, it would be best to move on from Kirby Dach.
What will the Montreal Canadiens' goaltending situation look like next season?
The 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs showed that the Montreal Canadiens have a true number one netminder for many years to come, that being Jakub Dobeš. Dobeš finished the regular season with a 2.78 goals against average and 29 wins in 43 games, and ended up fourth in Calder Trophy voting. The 25-year-old elevated his game in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, leading Montreal to the Eastern Conference Final.
With Dobeš' spot on Montreal's roster to start the 2026-27 season a guarantee, what does this mean for top goaltending prospect Jacob Fowler and Samuel Montembeault, who struggled this season and lost his spot in the Canadiens' tandem from early-March onward.
Well for starters, Samuel Montembeault's time with the Canadiens will probably come to an end this summer. The 29-year-old has one year remaining on his contract with a cap hit of $3.15 million USD and while making an appearance on Oilers Now with Bob Stauffer, Pierre LeBrun of TSN reported that a trade involving Montembeault this summer is likely after being surpassed on the depth chart by both Dobeš & Fowler.
That brings us to the aforementioned Jacob Fowler, who many believe to be the Canadiens' number one goaltender of the future. Fowler, who turned 21 back in November, is still a ways away from being the starting netminder for the Montreal Canadiens and needs time to develop. Now this is where it gets a bit tricky because at times during his 19 games in the NHL this season, Fowler has shown that he can take that next step, but goaltenders take a while to fully develop and sitting on the bench as the backup is not going to help him.
With that being said, in my opinion, Jacob Fowler should begin the 2026-27 season with the American Hockey League's Laval Rocket as their starting goaltender and in a perfect world, spend the entire season down there, barring an injury in Montreal. If the Canadiens choose to go down that route and end up trading Samuel Montembeault, as expected, Kent Hughes would need to go out and bring in someone with experience to play behind Jakub Dobeš and there's some intriguing options available to him on the free agent market this summer.
Among the goaltenders Kent Hughes and the front office could target when the free agent market opens up at 12 pm ET on July 1st include David Rittich, Connor Ingram and Vítek Vaněček.
This summer is shaping up to be an interesting & active one for the Montreal Canadiens as they continue to build and take steps towards being a perennial Stanley Cup contender.