The Montreal Canadiens are getting closer to the start of training camp, but there is still some business for general manager Kent Hughes to take care of.
It's September. Patrik Laine still hasn't signed a contract. At this point, with training camps fast approaching, it's becoming increasingly likely that the former Canadiens player will sign a tryout contract with an NHL team for training camp.
It has been a remarkably quiet summer in Montreal when it comes to the Canadiens. Aside from extending two young players who still had a year remaining on their contracts, Kent Hughes has been unable, or perhaps unwilling to pay the asking price, to pull the trigger on a deal to address some of the team’s biggest needs.
Angela Price is always entertaining to follow on social media. After all, you never really know what she'll decide to reveal. I don't know if the Canadiens' PR team would also use the word “entertaining” to describe her… but anyway.
As we know, the CH hasn't made many moves this summer. The club hasn't signed any NHL-caliber players… and its only real acquisition, in fact, came from behind the bench.
The NHL has had an interesting new millennium. It was a league sans a salary cap when the 2000s started… and then the owners locked the players out for an entire season.
In recent years, the Canadiens have been rebuilding. The team hit rock bottom for a few years after reaching the finals in 2021, and that allowed them to draft some talented young players.
The start of the Canadiens' training camp is just around the corner, but while waiting for the action to begin, members of the media often take the opportunity to make predictions for the upcoming season.
Arber Xhekaj finds himself in a somewhat precarious situation. He still hasn't signed his contract for next season, and the Canadiens' training camp is set to begin in just a few days.
Zachary Bolduc has little left to prove when it comes to his desire to stay in Montreal. The young forward wants to wear the Canadiens' jersey and be part of the team's success in the city.
People will talk about the “Mount Rushmore” for a franchise, which is to say the four people, usually four players, that most define the franchise. Not always the four-best players, but the four that evoke the essence of the franchise.
Ivan Demidov has had Montreal Canadiens fans buzzing from the moment he was drafted, and through his first 84 career games, he hasn’t let them down. The Russian winger was the runner-up to Matthew Schaefer for the Calder Trophy last season and flashed glimpses of greatness during Montreal’s run to the Eastern Conference Finals.
September 1. School has started, summer vacation is over, the days are getting shorter, and I've pulled out my pants for the evenings that are now without sunlight.
Since it was opened back in 1996, the Bell Centre has made a name for itself as one of the most iconic arenas in the NHL. It boasts a maximum capacity of 21,273, making it the largest hockey arena on the planet.
Is Kaiden Guhle injured? It's a fair question, since this morning in Brossard, my colleague Patrick Guillet observed a situation that was quite curious and unusual.
The Montreal Canadiens emerged from their rebuild with an appearance in the Eastern Conference Final last season. They also boast one of the deepest prospect pools in the sport, in what amounts to an enviable pairing of having their cake and eating it too.
Montreal Canadiens fans have heard it all offseason, how the team has improved this summer, despite general manager Kent Hughes not having done anything to add to his roster.
The Canadiens are often in the news because of their salary structure. That's to be expected. To get to this point, Marc Bergevin had to offer Nick Suzuki the right contract, and the new front office had to build on that momentum.
Watching Mike Matheson in public appearances, in warmups, even during the games, you immediately sense the calm and quiet poise of a man who understands exactly where he sits in the universe.
Will Kirill Marchenko be traded by the Blue Jackets? In the medium term, I think it's inevitable. I find it hard to believe that all the rumors from the past few months are false and that he'll happily sign a long-term contract with Columbus a year from now.
Goaltender Yevgeni Volokhin has just signed a three-year contract extension in the KHL with HK Spartak Moscow. It's a two-way deal, meaning the goaltender could continue his development in the VHL.
Although the start of the season is fast approaching, there has still been no announcement regarding the contract signings of Zachary Bolduc and Arber Xhekaj.
The Montreal Canadiens already have one of the youngest rosters in the NHL, and that likely will not change for the next couple of seasons. Montreal has a ton of prospects who could be making the jump in the near future.
Last year around this time, I wrote that Montreal felt like a team crossing a threshold — scarred in the right ways, finally aligned, with real help still coming.
The Montreal Canadiens did not expect to be here already. Even though we knew they drafted incredibly well, made shrewd moves to build the top six, and signed players to incredible contracts, the way the Canadiens played this past season was incredible. Everything went right last season.
Since their founding in 1909, the Montreal Canadiens have been involved in several trades with teams across the NHL over multiple decades. There have been some high-profile players moved in and out of the team, with the Canadiens by far the most successful team in league history.