Nobody expects every Montreal Canadiens player to have a successful season every time. Not only is it extremely unlikely for something like this to occur even in the best of circumstances, but such a situation would imply that everything was going well. And, based only on the injuries endured by the Canadiens in recent seasons, that is a rather strange concept.
Lucky? What about the Canadiens? The two ideas cannot be used in the same phrase, unless it is something like, “Wow, the Canadiens sure wish they were as lucky as literally any other team in the NHL.”
So it’s no surprise that at least a few players from the non-playoff 30-36-16 Canadiens struggled in 2023-24. The Habs would not have made it to the playoffs if everyone had had a career year. However, it’s important to note that not everyone contributed equally, including some key players.
With that, and increased hopes for 2024-25, they must be depending on numerous players to rebound dramatically. Here’s the top five:
5) Christian Dvorak
In no uncertain terms, the Canadiens do not require Christian Dvorak anymore. He’ll be an unrestricted free agent next season, and with the rise of Alex Newhook at center, Dvorak could end up being the team’s fourth-best pivot, ahead of Jake Evans. And, given Evans’ performance with additional responsibility last season, that isn’t guaranteed.
To some extent, Dvorak is a victim of circumstance. He has struggled to remain healthy over his three seasons with the Canadiens, playing only 150 games. However, given that he has only scored 70 points in that time period, including nine in 2023-24 (30 games), it seems unlikely that he made the most of his ice time when healthy. So, now that he has returned from injury sooner than expected, the Canadiens must take advantage and perhaps trade him this offseason.
What if general manager Kent Hughes is unable to find a taker? There’s no reason he should re-sign Dvorak. So the Canadiens just trade him, ideally when he regains some market worth. He is only 28 years old and far from a lost cause. Another team might be interested in him if the price is right. He just failed to meet expectations time and time again, to the point that anything of significance returning would be a nice-to-have, with expectations of a reasonable return plummeting as a result. So his fifth-place placement should come as no surprise.
 4) Jesse Ylonen.
Two years isn’t very long. Nonetheless, it took that much for Jesse Ylonen to go from depth player on the rise in the organization (from ‘Canadiens by the numbers: Jesse Ylonen offers more than meets the eye,’ Montreal Gazette, June 17, 2022) to on the edge of being an afterthought, collecting eight points in 59 games last season.
According to Andrew Berkshire of Montreal Hockey Now, Ylonen may yet be able to find his niche. However, as someone who almost exclusively played on the fourth line, whenever he did make the lineup, Ylonen clearly is deep down on the team’s depth chart, to the point where some may see him as an impediment to the development of some of the team’s other young players, emphasis on the word “other.”
Ylonen is still only 24 (going on 25). So his 2022-23 season, in which he scored a promising 16 points in 37 games, isn’t so far removed from the present that it can’t be seen as a foreshadowing of future events. Granted, the points came primarily from playing on a line with Nick Suzuki (and Rafael Harvey-Pinard). However, the fact that Harvey-Pinard received a two-year, one-way contract for his rookie season while Ylonen received only a one-year, two-way contract is a terrible sign, especially since he would have been eligible for waivers if released.
So, with Ylonen’s contract expiring, his future with the team is dubious at best. And, if the Canadiens are unlikely to re-sign him, it’s difficult to argue that they need him in any way, let alone to rebound, given that he was never put in a position to move up/forward in the organization to begin with.
3) Rafael Harvey
Pinard Harvey-Pinard, like Ylonen, had a statistically unsuccessful sophomore season. However, the Canadiens have just invested more in him, despite the fact that he is set to earn only $1 million next season.
With all due respect to Ylonen, it’s unfortunate that he scores twice as many goals as you. And that is exactly where Harvey-Pinard finds himself, despite having spent a large amount of time playing with Suzuki and Cole Caufield this season (before being hurt).
Having saying that, Harvey-Pinard has a more varied playing style than Ylonen. He can be slotted into any position in the lineup. So, a successful 2024-25 for him may not necessarily be assessed in goals (considering his compensation). Even if they would be wonderful, and everyone knows he is capable of scoring them.
2) Joshua Anderson.
Josh Anderson is undoubtedly a player on whom the Canadiens rely heavily for attack in 2023-24. Right or wrong, he has never scored more than 32 points with the Canadiens, and that is a fact. To begin the season, head coach Martin St. Louis had him supplement Suzuki and Caufield on the top line before Harvey-Pinard, despite all indicators that it would not work, as the combination had rarely worked before.
For example, Anderson has never scored more than 32 points in his career, despite being the Canadiens’ top line combination in 2021-22. They returned to it to a lesser level in 2022-23, but it appears the Habs have realized Anderson is not a top-line talent. Still, there’s a distinction between the middle-six player everyone should recognize at this point and the one who, for extended stretches last season, appeared incapable of hitting the broad side of a barn from two feet away.
No one could have expected Anderson’s struggles, which totaled nine goals and 20 points over nearly a full season (78 games). At the end of the day, Anderson is just 30 and has scored at least 20 goals. Say what you want about his overall performance, or lack thereof. He still has value as a power forward due to his speed.
Anderson is set to stay put, with three years remaining on his contract for $5.5 million per year. Reports that the Canadiens received calls about him a few years ago may as well be false, because they have little relevance on the new reality that the Habs and their fans face when discussing how far his worth has dropped off a cliff.
However, based on that same contract, the idea of playing him where he deserves after the season he just had (on the fourth line or worse, not at all) does not sound appealing. So what’s the solution? Anderson will most likely get another shot in the top six, although ideally not alongside Suzuki and Caufield (again). So expect him to spend time on the second line instead. It remains to be seen whether he takes advantage of the situation.
1) Kirby Dach (forward)
Kirby Dach clearly made this list for a different reason than everyone else. Ultimately, the Canadiens would like to see more of him, especially since he was hurt for the rest of the season just two games in, after basically winning the second-line center role.
Some consider his upside down the middle to be even bigger than No. 1 pivot Suzuki’s, which should tell you everything you need to know about his value to the team. Looking at the 14 goals and 38 points he scored in 58 games in 2022-24 (at a 54-point pace), it’s evident how much of an impact he could make when healthy.
Consider that the Canadiens lost 27 games by one goal, missing the playoffs by 15 points. If they win around half of those hypothetical games next season, the Habs will have successfully realized their promise as a playoff contender, and that’s before even considering the predicted development of the team’s other rising talents.
Nobody should forget that the Canadiens are a young club. Dach, at only 23, has a lot of potential. What’s alarming for the teams vying against the Canadiens for a spot next season is that if Dach continues to produce offense at his current clip, they’ll logically join an already congested field down the line. He simply needs to stay healthy and develop a little more to push them over the top.
