Canadiens HC Makes Bold Statement About Defense

Lane Hutson, Jayden Struble and Arber Xhekaj weren't in the mix at the time of the Canadiens' Stanley Cup final berth. The defense featured the likes of Shea Weber, Joel Edmundson, Jeff Petry, Ben Chiarot, Alex Romanov and Jon Merrill.

So, while the defense featuring Xhekaj, Struble and Hutson weren't around four years ago, throw in Kaiden Guhle, who was drafted in 2020, and that is four defensemen under 25-years-old that are now the faces you think of when discussing the Canadiens' blueline group. There are also Mike Matheson, Alexandre Carrier and Noah Dobson, who have come into the organization over the last few seasons.

Dobson is, of course, the newest addition from this offseason, while the other two have been around a little longer. But the culture in Montreal seems to be one that is all about growing as a group, but also bringing in high upside talents to allow the blueline to excel.

The Canadiens are hoping to shed the narrative of being a one-line team, which has long relied on captain Nick Suzuki and his two wingers, Cole Caufield and Juraj Slafkovsky. Having a defense corps with a nice mix of youth, finesse, grit and hard-nosed play to complement the forward up front is exactly what St. Louis is hoping will allow the team to reach the next level.

His words indicate that he is extremely confident in the young group, and the fact that there are some bona fide NHL defense talents brewing down in the American Hockey League with the Canadiens' development affiliate team, the Laval Rocket, is a pretty good example as to why that is.

The defensive group, just like the forwards has worked through growing pains, with a historical rebuild smack dab in the middle of everything, the resilience and drive to continuing pushing forward is going to mould this blueline into a difficult group to play against.

With St. Louis at the helm, and his assistant coach Stephane Robidas helping lead the defense group, the Canadiens are working towards something big, and the vision for the group will play out for everybody to see this upcoming season.