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'I Think They Have Enough Guys': Canadiens' Trade Plans to Fill Key Role Hinted at By Insider

Originally posted on House of Hockey | By Jack Sutherland | Last updated Jul 19, 2025 5:24 PM ET

Even though they lost 3 key penalty killing players this summer, the Canadiens should be able to fill those voids with players already on the roster, per analyst Stu Cowan.

The Canadiens have lost 3 players who played vital roles in their penalty killing so far this summer. Joel Armia signed a 2-year contract with the Los Angeles Kings, Christian Dvorak signed a 1 year contract with the Philadelphia Flyers, and David Savard announced his retirement .

But one Canadiens analyst isn't worried about it and thinks they have the players who can substitute in and pick up where they left off.

While speaking on 'The Sick Podcast with Tony Marinaro' and co-host Matthew O'Hayon, Stu Cowan pointed to Josh Anderson's rise as a penalty killer for the Canadiens, along with Jake Evans and Brendan Gallagher.

Josh Anderson became a really effective penalty killer. I think Brendan Gallagher could be a good penalty killer, he's tenacious and wins puck battles, and getting it down. Jake Evans, he says he loves nothing more, aside from scoring goals, than icing the puck at Bell Centre and hearing the fans go crazy when they ice it.
Penalty killing, a lot of it is just being tenacious and just working hard with a good system set up for it. They had a good system set up for it last year, but 3 key guys are missing from it in Army (Joel Armia), Dvoarak, and David Savard. But I think they have enough guys there that they can plug in. As you mentioned, Josh Anderson wasn't a penalty killer with the Canadiens before last year but became a very good one.

The Canadiens had the 9th ranked penalty killing out of 32 teams in the NHL this year, and it helped them return to the postseason for the 1st time since 2021.

If they are to return to the playoffs next year, they'll need their PK units to be operating just as, if not more, efficiently.

This article first appeared on House of Hockey and was syndicated with permission.

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