Montreal Canadiens Role Profiles: Oliver Kapanen

After a great regular season for Kapanen, he couldn’t continue to succeed in the playoffs. He quickly went from second-line centre to healthy scratch as he struggled to adapt to the more physical game. The main reason for his lack of execution in the postseason was that the fatigue of playing a long, condensed 82-game schedule caught up to Kapanen. Not to mention, he went to the Olympics for Finland, and even though he only suited up in one game, he had to practice every day with his country rather than recharge like the majority of his Canadiens teammates. 

Before the 2025-26 season, the most games he played in a single campaign was 68 games the year prior, when he played in the SHL and NHL and then finished the year in the AHL playoffs. It was over a much longer time period where he played 14 fewer games in 2024-25 than in 2025-26. As a result, the heavy number of games started to affect Kapanen’s game after the Olympic break as he was far less dangerous around the net. It was the type of slump that many rookies go through as the season goes on. Unfortunately, because of his role and the long playoff run where he was being outperformed by nearly every other Montreal Canadiens player, Kapanen’s slump would be more in the spotlight than many others.

A good example is to look at the end of Nick Suzuki‘s rookie season before the COVID pandemic stopped the season. Now, this isn’t to say Kapanen will ever come close to as good as Suzuki is because he won’t and doesn’t have the skills or hockey sense to do so. However, Suzuki had a bad slump at the end of his rookie season that often goes unnoticed because the COVID stoppage allowed him to recharge for the Bubble Playoffs, where he solidified himself into a top-six centre. In the final nine games of the 2019-20 regular season, Suzuki had just one assist that came in the final matchup before the league shutdown for a few months. The point is that Suzuki, as a rookie, hit a fatigue wall, and that’s also what happened with Kapanen this past season. Suzuki adjusted, and Kapanen should be able to handle a full 84-game schedule better in the future. 

Kapanen’s 22 goals finished third among all NHL rookies, and his 37 points were sixth, which is very good for a guy who hit a slump. Despite the good numbers in his first full NHL year, he will likely never be an ideal second-line centre, but Kapanen did prove that he can be a solid stopgap centre while the Montreal Canadiens wait and see if top prospect Michael Hage is the answer to the second-line centre role long-term. Even if Hage isn’t a centre at the NHL level, Kapanen has what it takes to play centre alongside Demidov, who can be the play driver of their line as a winger. They will need another top-six forward next to them to be a true second line, but with Juraj Slafkovsky, Alexander Zharovsky, or Hage as potential options for the future, the Canadiens have the right guys to isolate Kapanen so that he could work as a second-line centre. 

Ideally, Kapanen will be a great third-line centre for the Canadiens down the road, but if he has to be on the second-line centre, it can still work out. As for the 2026-27 campaign, he is expected to reprise his role as the second-line centre next to Demidov as the duo hopes to build on their chemistry from last year. The other winger is still in the air, but it’s likely to be either Alex Newhook or Zack Bolduc, unless the Montreal Canadiens make a late off-season move to acquire someone better. In fact, if the Canadiens do make a trade, Kapanen may be included in the package thanks to his rookie performance. However, there is no expectation that the 23-year-old will be traded as of now, but if the right player comes available, that could change things.

For now, the expectation is that Kapanen will improve on his game conditioning from last year thanks to having a lot more NHL experience and a full summer to recharge his batteries. If his and Demidov’s chemistry continues, there is no reason to believe that he can’t record around 20 goals again while improving to about 40-45 points as the Montreal Canadiens’ second-line centre for the majority of the season.

Do you think Kapanen can have a similar season to last year as the second-line centre?

Check out my role profile on Forward Kirby Dach from yesterday.