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Frederik Andersen of the Carolina Hurricanes makes a save against Noah Dobson of the New York Islanders during the third period in Game One of the First Round of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs (Photo by Cato Cataldo/NHLI via Getty Images)

Canadiens 2025-26 Player Previews: Noah Dobson

Originally posted on The Hockey Writers | By Blain Potvin | Last updated Aug 5, 2025 11:51 AM ET

The offseason leading into the 2025-26 season continues, and with the major events such as the NHL Entry Draft and free agent frenzy completed, the dog days of summer wear on as NHL management groups take a bit of a breather before the training camps begin. In this series, I will try to investigate every Montreal Canadiens roster player, recap their last season and look ahead to this upcoming season. I will look at their place in the organization, their role and their possible impact.

In the next step of the series, I will move on to looking at the Canadiens’ blue line corps, continuing with Noah Dobson.

2024-25 Season Recap

Just two seasons ago, Dobson had a career-high 70 points (10 goals, 60 assists), which placed him among the league leaders in defence points (seventh), assists (60; sixth) and power-play points (24; tenth). The 2024-25 season saw him take a significant dip in production. He scored 10 goals again this past season, but his assist total was cut in half from 60 to 29. It would be easy to say he played poorly, especially considering his career high in giveaways (108); however, that was less than Lane Hutson and even Cale Makar. The fact that he had the puck so often can explain most of that away, considering the average time on ice he had of 23:16 (second on the New York Islanders).

Dobson’s dip in production and the belief he played poorly could have quite a lot to do with the fact that the Islanders were not a good offensive team last season. They had the NHL’s 27th-ranked offence with a woeful 222 goals for, which was down from 245 in 2023-24. They also had the 31st-ranked power play (PP), dropping more than eight percentage points from 20.4% in 2023-24 to a woeful 12.6% last season. Unsurprisingly, Dobson’s PP point totals dropped significantly as a result, going from 24 points in 2023-24 to only 12 last season.

2025-26 Season Expectations

Much more is expected of Dobson in 2025-26, especially after the Canadiens made a blockbuster trade to acquire him and have him signed to an eight-year deal paying him $9.5 million, making him the second-highest-paid player in the history of the franchise, behind only Carey Price at $10.5 million. In an exclusive interview with RG.org, Ilya Sorokin said, while the trade was a surprise, it was a byproduct of the salary cap.

“That one surprised me, but realistically, the team couldn’t keep both Romanov and Dobson. The salary cap forces tough decisions—it’s business. Dobson got a good deal in Montreal, and I wish him nothing but success.”

– Ilya Sorokin

Last season’s performance may show that he simply had a poor year, but his advanced stats tell a slightly different story. Despite the low offensive totals by the entire Islanders roster, Dobson had a 55.9% Corsi for percentage and a very strong expected goals percentage of 58.9%, which shot up to 91.7% on the PP. The most telling statistic of all is the created expected goals minus actual expected goals of 2.5, placing him third in the NHL behind Makar and Quinn Hughes. This indicates that he is scoring more goals than expected.

Noah Dobson’s one-timer slapshot is going to change Habs PP2

pic.twitter.com/S9HRGJCeAa
— /r/Habs (@HabsOnReddit) July 7, 2025

The Canadiens are banking on Dobson being able to return to his 70 points in a season form, especially with him being surrounded by far more offensively capable players than he had last season. Despite the one-season dip, he is what Montreal needed most, an established top-pairing right-handed defenceman. He will also be given PP duties, but whether they’re on the top unit or secondary unit remains to be seen as Hutson has earned the role with the Canadiens, and Dobson’s arrival may signal a shift in PP formats by the coaching staff. Either way, Dobson will see lots of playing time, especially in an offensive role, and it is easy to see how he can net 70 points again in 2025-26. He might be able to surpass that career high total if Montreal’s forward group continues to score at the high rate they did after the 4 Nations Face-Off.