Montreal Canadiens News

Home

Quizzes

Newsletter

Montreal Canadiens forwards Kirby Dach, Zachary Bolduc and Brendan Gallagher – Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-Imagn Images

Canadiens’ Bolduc Where He Belongs… in Middle Six

Originally posted on The Hockey Writers | By Ryan Szporer | Last updated Oct 11, 2025 9:35 AM ET

As of Saturday morning, defenseman Alexandre Carrier still had official credit for the Montreal Canadiens’ fourth goal against the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday, despite forward Zachary Bolduc having seemingly deflected it in instead. That shouldn’t to take away from Carrier’s effort on the play or in general. Rather, the point is to reinforce how good Bolduc has looked in the team’s first two games of 2025-26… while conceivably still nursing a lower-body injury that he appeared to aggravate against the Wings, but that’s neither here nor there for the moment.

That Bolduc has looked good is admittedly far from just-breaking news. He has two goals so far, not including Carrier’s, having scored in each contest. Against the Toronto Maple Leafs, he gave the Canadiens a 2-1 lead, getting a Brendan Gallagher rebound and tucking it home past goalie Anthony Stolarz. He not only showed great hands in close, but displayed a nose for the net on the play to get in position to do so. A night later, against the Wings, he helped get the Habs on track en route to a 5-1 victory by getting them on the board after Dylan Larkin had opened the scoring (and somehow won his team the Stanley Cup five minutes into their season, judging by his celebration).

Bolduc Shows Top-Six Scoring Ability

Gallagher’s one-touch lob pass to a streaking Bolduc was pretty enough. Bolduc’s subsequent bar-down shot on a half-breakaway to beat goalie John Gibson on the play was near-perfection. That right there is why their for-all-intents-and-purposes third line with centre Kirby Dach through two games should stick together, at least for the foreseeable future, despite any suggestions Bolduc is a top-six talent, which are perfectly legitimate in their own right.

While Bolduc’s body of work represents a small sample size, especially his body of work with the Canadiens so far, the initial projections of some that had him as a fourth-line forward upon his acquisition (to replace the since-departed Emil Heineman) look incredibly far removed from reality at this point. Granted, again, it’s just two games. However, based on his level of play in those two games, anyone can make a fairly open-and-shut case Bolduc belongs on a line with playmaking-rookie and Calder Memorial Trophy-favourite Ivan Demidov, instead of fellow-winger Alex Newhook, which should be seen as the second simply by virtue of the Demidov’s projected offensive ability. They didn’t draft him to play on a checking line.

It’s also a perfectly valid argument, seeing as many consider the Newhook as more of a third-line forward at this point in his career, following a disappointing 26-point 2024-25 season. Even if that’s the case, putting aside his relatively impressive 34-point performance in his debut 2023-24 season with the Habs (55 games), no one can dispute that he and centre Oliver Kapanen make much more suitable linemates for Demidov based on the quality of their skating. That’s at least relative to Dach and Patrik Laine, with whom head coach Martin St. Louis had played the rookie to start training camp. However, the fact Kapanen himself has two goals so far is a sign that “second” line will be all right. While Bolduc could easily step in as a(nother) triggerman for Demidov, consider the facts:

The Canadiens as a whole looked strong in terms of their ability to carry the play vs. the Leafs, albeit in a 5-2 loss.
They scored five times against the Wings, with three of the four lines scoring.

Bolduc vs. Mailloux

The Canadiens right now look like a very dangerous team capable of rolling those three different lines. Promoting Bolduc obviously wouldn’t be a case of putting all their eggs in one basket with all the depth they have (to the point they can afford to play Laine on the fourth line), but it would significantly weaken Gallagher’s line. Simply put, while Gallagher’s nightly effort level is beyond reproach, you can’t necessarily count on him to score 20 goals again at Age 34, as nice as it would be, while Newhook has only scored a career-high 15 (each season with the Habs). Bolduc is meanwhile looking like a 30-goal talent (at least), going back to last season, when he scored 14 goals in his last 28 games with the St. Louis Blues, overall having gotten an 11th-ranked 12:48 in ice time per game, which, by the strictest definition of the term, made him a fourth-line forward. Hence the justification why some thought he’d simply be plugged in on the fourth line to replace Heineman.

With stats like that though, it kind of makes one wonder why the Blues traded him, willingly (right?), to the Canadiens for an unproven talent in Logan Mailloux. Even taking into account their need for young defensemen, Mailloux’s issues on defense have been well-documented. While the potential is there, he’s not necessarily even a top-six defenseman. He certainly can be, but he is a lot to prove. For him they gave up a forward in the midst of establishing himself as an everyday NHLer, who’s now in the process of showing he’s something significantly more.

There should be little doubt at this point the trade was a good one. There should be little doubt Bolduc is a good player, wherever he plays. For now, that’s in the middle (instead of top) six… and in Montreal.