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20 goals in one season in Montreal: Bolduc could become the first Québécois since Ribeiro
Brett Holmes-Imagn Images

20 goals in one season in Montreal: Bolduc could become the first Québécois since Ribeiro

Originally posted on Dose.ca  |  Last updated Jul 1, 2025 8:29 PM ET

Today, the Canadiens acquired Zachary Bolduc, Alex Belzile and Samuel Blais. It can’t be said that Kent Hughes doesn’t go out of his way to bring home-grown talent to the metropolis.

Well, he won’t go looking for Québécois just because they’re Québécois, but there you go.

Last year in Saint-Louis, Bolduc collected 36 points, including 19 goals. He was the top scorer among rookie players after the Four Nations Tournament. No mean feat, considering that Matvei Michkov and Macklin Celebrini were healthy.

19 goals in his rookie season is good. Obviously, there’s still room for improvement, which brings me to Mike Ribeiro’s “feat” in 2003-2004. What did good old Mike achieve this year? He scored 20 goals. He’s the last Québécois to reach the 20-goal plateau in Montreal in a single season.

The Habs’ new forward will have a chance to do it this year.

(Credit: NHL.com )

It’s still pretty crazy to think that, despite the many Québécois who have passed through the metropolis, not one has passed the 19-goal mark since Ribeiro.

Guys like Jonathan Drouin and Phillip Danault have never managed to reach that plateau.

I don’t know which line Bolduc will start the season on, but he’ll certainly be in the top-9. Martin St-Louis will have several interesting pieces in his line-up and, if need be, the left-winger could help out on the second line.

Will he be used on the powerplay? Kent Hughes is aware that he’s been playing on the power play in St. Louis, and made a point of emphasizing this at his press briefing this afternoon.

But, as I mentioned in a recent text, there are only 10 spots (for many good, young players) on both waves of the power play, maybe even nine, if Nick Suzuki plays the full two minutes.

Will he get his chance, giving him more opportunities to find the back of the net 20 times?


Overtime

– Big contract for K’Andre Miller with the Hurricanes, who paid a lot to acquire him.

– The Blackhawks are working on a contract extension for Connor Bedard.

– 20 million for Ryan McLeod in Buffalo.

– All the better.

– Alex Nedeljkovic joins the Sharks.

– Well done.

This article first appeared on Dose.ca and was syndicated with permission.

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