It’s been a busy summer for Montreal Canadiens’ GM Kent Hughes. After his young team surprised the media and qualified for the playoffs, the man in charge didn’t rest on his laurels; he went out and got All-Star defenseman Noah Dobson in a trade with the New York Islanders and added some firepower up front with the acquisition of Zachary Bolduc by sending Logan Mailloux to the St. Louis Blues. One area of concern remains, however: the Habs' depth at center.
TSN Analyst Travis Yost has been publishing his Summer Talent Tiers series, and this past week, he focused on center depths. Unsurprisingly, powerhouse teams such as the Colorado Avalanche, the Edmonton Oilers, the Dallas Stars, and the Florida Panthers are in the top tier. However, two teams are in the bottom tier, at the very bottom of the rankings: the Canadiens and the Nashville Predators.
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In a nutshell, Yost explains the Canadiens’ ranking by the fact that Kirby Dach has been consistently injured, with only 47% of the time available to the team over the last three seasons. This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anybody who follows the Tricolore.
The Habs have been struggling down the middle for ages, including for most of the Marc Bergevin era. The former DG was on to something when he fleeced the Chicago Blackhawks, sending them Dale Weise and Tomas Fleischmann for former first-round pick Philip Danault and a second-round pick.
Against all odds, Danault showed that he had plenty of offensive acumen and ended up centering the Canadiens’ top line between Brendan Gallagher and Tomas Tatar. Still, when the time came to sign him to a new contract, the former GM wouldn’t reportedly budge from his six-year, $30 million offer, and the center ended up signing a six-year, $33 million contract with the Los Angeles Kings.
Danault took his offensive instinct, his skills in the faceoff department, and his penalty-killing efficiency to Los Angeles, leaving a gaping hole down the middle for the Canadiens. The fact that Jesperi Kotkaniemi signed a disproportionate offer sheet with the Carolina Hurricanes in the same offseason didn’t help either, making a panicked Bergevin acquire Christian Dvorak from the defunct Arizona Coyotes. A few months later, Bergevin was shown the door by Geoff Molson, and Hughes inherited the depleted center line.
The new GM went out and acquired two young players he believed could play center in two seasons, Dach and Alex Newhook. Neither had managed to make their mark with the teams that drafted them, but the GM felt the Canadiens could help them reach their potential. Three years and many injuries later, Dach had only a 40.3% success rate in the faceoff department and managed 22 points in 57 games during the 2024-25 season. Those are not second-line center numbers. In other words, even when he is playing, the Habs do not have a genuine second-line center.
As for Newhook, circumstances have forced Martin St-Louis to use him mainly as a center, despite evidence suggesting he is more suited to a winger role. Much like Dach, his faceoff numbers are just not good enough (42.8%), and neither is his offensive output (26 points in 82 games).
Canadiens: Newhook Looking For Success At Faceoff DotOn Wednesday, Quartexx Hockey shared a reel in which Montreal Canadiens forward Alex Newhook could be seen working on his faceoff skills alongside San Jose Sharks’ Will Smith under the watchful eye of former Boston Bruins captain Patrice Bergeron.
As the season draws near, the only real center the Canadiens have added this season is Joe Veleno on the free agency market. The Detroit Red Wings' first-round pick and 30th overall at the 2018 draft is better than Dach and Newhook in the faceoff department with a 46.9% success rate, but in 74 games this past season, he could only muster 18 points. In four full NHL seasons, he has never put up more than 28 points.
Whichever way you look at it, the Canadiens do not have a real second-line center on the roster. Yes, Oliver Kapanen and Owen Beck are knocking at the Habs’ door to make the team this season, but throwing them in the deep end as second-line center would be doing them a disservice; they are not ready yet for that kind of role, and they might never be.
While Kapanen scored 35 points in 36 games with Timra IK in the Swedish League, the caliber of play is not the same as it is in the NHL. In the 18 games he played with the Habs last season, he could only put up two points. Granted, he didn’t have much ice time, but when he was allowed to play in the top six, it was clear that he was not yet ready for it.
As for Beck, even at the junior level, he couldn’t pick up more than 81 points in a season. Last year, in Laval, he had 44 points in 64 games. On a contending team, Beck is a third-line center, not part of the top six. It’s worth mentioning, however, that in his 12 games with the Canadiens, he did maintain a 53.8% success rate at the faceoff dot.
Then, there’s Jake Evans, who’s just coming off the best season of his career and is undoubtedly a center. He’s a skilled penalty killer, has a 51.6% success rate when taking draws across his six-year career in the NHL, but he’s not a big points producer. He’s a very hard worker, but he lacks the offensive instincts to succeed as a top-six center; he could be a temporary solution. As for the newly acquired Bolduc, he hasn’t played pivot since his junior days, and while he may be able to do it, he may have his hands full this year learning a new system in Montreal.
The Yost assessment is correct, but the good news is that the Habs brass is painfully aware of the issue down the middle and is trying to fix it. Unfortunately, the Canadiens are not the only team with an issue down the middle, and fixing it is not as easy as one would hope.
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