Kent Hughes and Jeff Gorton’s 12 Offseason Tasks

Managing the goaltending situation: Samuel Montembeault has confirmed he wants to stay, but all signs point to his future lying elsewhere, nonetheless. The question: will the team's #2 be Jacob Fowler or not in 2026-2027? #VeteranReinforcement?

Find a right-handed defenseman: Unless the Habs have that much confidence in David Reinbacher come fall, Noah Dobson and Alexandre Carrier can't be the only right-handers. Enough with playing Lane Hutson on the right: he deserves a worthy partner.

Manage the sixth and seventh defenseman situation: it's unclear whether Arber Xhekaj (a restricted free agent this summer) and Jayden Struble will both be back in town. Will a young player step up? Will a new addition be made to help defensively?

Trade Brendan Gallagher: yesterday, we saw just how much the forward needed a change of scenery. Will he end his career back home in Vancouver?

Negotiate with Ivan Demidov : The Canadiens and the player said yesterday they want to agree on the terms of a long-term contract as early as this summer. Will that happen, even though he's just one year away from the end of his entry-level contract?

Finding a second-line center : With all due respect to Jake Evans and Oliver Kapanen, I think everyone understands that this is one of the Canadiens' biggest priorities this summer.

Managing the club's restricted free agent contracts for forwards: Zachary Bolduc, Joe Veleno, and Kirby Dach will be RFAs among the club's forwards. The real question here is whether the Habs will want to retain Kirby Dach's services…

Add some muscle: the Habs need to be a bit bigger on the ice if they want to succeed in the playoffs. HuGo will have to think about that this summer.

Think about the Laval Rocket: Will Pascal Vincent have a very different roster in 2026-2027? After all, several players will be unrestricted free agents, and several others will be unrestricted but with restrictions.

Prepare for the draft: It's all well and good to think about the current roster and potential additions… but the Habs also have eight picks, including the 28th overall, heading into the next draft.

In a nutshell

– This will be the #1 story to watch leading up to the trade deadline.

– Makes sense.

– Obviously.

– He wants to stay in Tampa Bay.