Canadiens acquire, extend star defenseman from Islanders

The Montreal Canadiens are set to acquire high-scoring defenseman Noah Dobson from the New York Islanders, per NHL.com’s Kevin Weekes. The deal was later confirmed by Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, who shares that the Islanders signed Dobson to a maximum-term, eight-year contract before moving him to Montreal. That extension will carry a total value of $76M, or an annual average value of $9.5M.

In return, the Islanders will receive both of Montreal’s draft picks in the 2025 first-round — picks 16 and 17 — as well as forward prospect Emil Heineman, per Friedman.

After multiple days of rumors, Montreal has landed the big fish in high-end scorer Dobson. The move will give Montreal more oomph to an already high-octane offensive group manning their blue-line. Dobson managed a career-year at the age of just 24 during the 2023-24 campaign, when he managed 10 goals and 70 points in 79 games. He became the first Islanders defenseman since Stanley Cup-winner Denis Potvin to reach the 60-assist mark.

That breakout performance was a gradual ramp-up after Dobson managed 13 goals and 51 points in 2021-22, and 13 goals and 49 points in 2022-23. He’s climbed the ranks of offensive output and reached double-digit goals in every full season of his NHL career. That includes reaching 10 goals again this year, though his point total took a surprising tumble to 39 points in 71 games played.

That sudden spike in scoring, and a fall to a minus-16 after posting a plus-12 last year, brought out many skeptics to Dobson’s overall upside. But it’s worth noting that New York scored the fifth-fewest goals in the NHL this season (222), 23 fewer than it managed in Dobson’s breakout campaign in 2024. A bulk of that decrease can be attributed to Islanders star forward Mathew Barzal missing all but 30 games of this season, after leading the Islanders in scoring in 2023-24.

Dobson’s scoring totals are near-second-to-none in the league. He ranks fifth among U25 defensemen in total goals scored over the last five seasons (49), behind Cale Makar (104), Rasmus Dahlin (70), Evan Bouchard (54) and Quinn Hughes (51). Dobson also ranks sixth in total points (223) behind Makar (378), Hughes (353), Dahlin (275), Adam Fox (266) and Bouchard (237).

But Dobson’s defensive prowess remains scrutinized. Among the same sample — U25 defenders over the last five years — only seven players have been on the ice for more goals-against than Dobson’s 346. He’s also been on the ice for the eighth-most expected goals-against (xGA; 385.53), per Evolving Hockey. Of the bunch, he boasts the fourth-best goal-differential (+82).

There’s a lot to like and a lot to be nervous about in how Dobson has blazed his path through his first four full seasons in the NHL. But that argument aside, there seems no denying that he’s among the sheer best, young offensive-defensemen in the NHL. His growth into a star, top-pair role in New York far exceeded the 12th-overall draft spot he earned in the 2018 NHL Draft — and likely exceeds the paths any options at Montreal’s previous 16th and 17th overall slots this year would have yielded. He’s a premier scorer and will join another emerging superstar on Montreal’s defense in Lane Hutson. Hutson reached the 60-assist mark as a 20-year-old rookie this season and earned the Calder Trophy because of it.

Both Hutson and Dobson dominate possession on their line — and excel at gaining momentum through their drives in the neutral zone. They’ll be elusive and effective play-drivers but may need to play off of each other’s pairings to give Montreal the best results. That will be where other young Montreal defenders have a chance to step up — with Kaiden Guhle and David Reinbacher likely the future glue pieces holding the offensive-stars down. How Montreal pursues that deployment, or even if they’ll maintain their current structure at all, will be headlines worth following through the rest of the summer.

Meanwhile, Heineman will fall as the unheralded addition to a draft-day blockbuster. The 23-year-old winger played through his rookie NHL season in Montreal’s bottom-six this year. He managed 10 goals and 18 points through 62 games, though looked in need of a spark through multiple points in the year. This move marks the third time that Heineman has been moved by his NHL club — after previously being traded from the Florida Panthers to the Calgary Flames in a 2021 deal that landed Florida Sam Bennett; then from the Flames to the Canadiens in a 2022 trade that sent Tyler Toffoli to Calgary.