With the on-ice workouts taking place now in Brossard, do the players choose themselves if they show up? Are the players who aren’t there skating somewhere else? About half the team was in Brossard on Wednesday, but no one from the first line and no Kirby Dach. David Reinbacher looked sharp in the two-on-two and three-on-three drills.
#36Reinbacher on Bluesky — @36reinbacher.bsky.social
Under the NHL’s collective bargaining agreement teams cannot force players to attend organized practices or training sessions during the summer. But today’s NHL players are on the ice in summer — at least by this point, with training camp less than three weeks away. The days of players showing up at training camp to get back in shape are long gone. NHL players have to stay in top shape all year, especially with the money involved in today’s game.
For the last few weeks, about eight to 10 players have been on the ice most days at the CN Sports Complex in Brossard and it’s not always the same guys, depending on whatever else might be on their summer schedules. I stopped by the CN Sports Complex on Friday morning (I’m fortunate to live a six-minute drive away) and there were 10 players on the ice: Lane Hutson, Ivan Demidov, Josh Anderson, Alex Newhook, Jayden Struble, Jakub Dobes, Reinbacher, Florian Xhekaj, Filip Mesar and Kaapo Kahkonen. Adam Nicholas, the Canadiens’ director of hockey development, was putting them through drills.
Captain Nick Suzuki, who spends the summer in Montreal, has been skating in Brossard, while linemate Cole Caufield has been skating in Michigan and Juraj Slafkovsky has been back home in Slovakia.
As we get closer to the start of training camp, the group skating in Brossard will continue to grow.
Hey, Stu. Welcome back. Give me some odds of the Habs starting the year with a three-goalie system. I’m sure in a perfect world Sam Montembeault gets his game back and plays backup to Jakub Dobes, which allows Jacob Fowler to play lots in Laval. But this isn’t a perfect world.
T-Fish on Bluesky — @t-fish.bsky.social
This isn’t a perfect world, but that would indeed be the perfect scenario for the Canadiens to start the season if GM Kent Hughes isn’t able to get value at this point in return for a trade involving Montembeault, who really struggled last season with a 10-8-4 record, a 3.43 goals-against average and an .872 save percentage.
I’d say the odds of the Canadiens starting with three goalies in Montreal are close to zero. Fowler has to play games and he doesn’t need to clear waivers in order to be sent down to the AHL. The 21-year-old would see plenty of action in Laval, with the Canadiens hoping Montembeault can find his game again and back up Dobes. If Montembeault’s struggles continue — and he would have a pretty short leash this season — the Canadiens could recall Fowler from Laval.
I believe Montembeault can regain the form that saw him post save percentages of .901, .903 and .902 in the three seasons before last year when he was coming off a serious groin injury suffered during the 2025 first-round playoff loss to the Washington Capitals and also had the pressure of trying to make Team Canada for the Olympics. The season started badly for Montembeault and just kept getting worse, and he admitted it had an impact on his mental side of the game. A full training camp with new goalie coach Marco Marciano should also help Montembeault after Marciano worked wonders last season with Dobes following the firing of former goalie coach Eric Raymond in late January.
The goalie market should start heating up with Connor Helleybuyck confirming this week he wants the Winnipeg Jets to trade him and the Edmonton Oilers announcing Frederik Andersen will miss training camp after suffering an off-season training injury.
Asset management is one of Hughes’s biggest strengths and he won’t want to lose Montembeault for nothing with the goalie heading into the final year of his contract with a very reasonable US$3.15 million salary-cap hit.
Canadiens winger Ivan Demidov carries the puck into the Toronto Maple Leafs’ zone during third period in Montreal on March 10. John Mahoney / Montreal Gazette
I love the way Kent Hughes runs the Habs. I know lots of fans want him to make trades and sign people, but I do believe his patience will pay off. How do you feel about how he performed this summer?
Dickster61 on X — @Dickster611
Despite not acquiring a top-six forward or a right-shot defenceman — yet — this has been a good summer for Hughes because he was able to lock up 20-year-old forward Ivan Demidov through the 2034-35 season. Demidov’s eight-year, US$73.2-million contract extension, signed on July 1, kicks in for the 2027-28 season with an annual salary-cap hit of US$9.15 million that is already looking like a bargain after the Russian led all NHL rookies in scoring last season with 19-43-62 totals.
Compare that with the US$18 million annual salary-cap hit for 21-year-old centre Leo Carlsson for the next eight seasons after the Anaheim Ducks decided to match an offer sheet made this summer by the Philadelphia Flyers. Carlsson had 29-38-67 totals last season.
When Demidov’s new contract kicks in, the Canadiens will be paying him and Hutson (with an US$8.85 million cap hit that kicks in on his new contract this season) the same amount combined as the Ducks are paying Carlsson.
Hughes was also able to sign goalie Jakub Dobes on July 2 to a three-year contract extension that kicks in for the 2027-28 season with a very reasonable salary-cap hit of US$5.357 million after he led the Canadiens to the Eastern Conference final last season as a rookie. The NHL Network ranked the 25-year-old Dobes as the 10th-best goalie in the NHL.
Patience has been a virtue for the Canadiens since this rebuild started under president of hockey operations Jeff Gorton and Hughes. They want to make a trade for a top-six forward and a right-shot defenceman, but aren’t going to rush into it.
After signing Demidov, Hughes said he would continue to be prudent and patient in any moves he makes.
“If I had my druthers, we did it yesterday,” he said about making a trade. “But I also recognize that we also have very, very talented good hockey players that are in our system that are coming. They’re not that far away from being really good National Hockey League players, too.”
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Looking back to last season — just the regular season — and the current roster, what aspect of the game should the Habs focus their efforts on for improvement?
After i on X — @JMcinthe613
The regular season was very impressive for the Canadiens, who improved by 15 points from the previous year, finishing with a 48-24-10 record for 106 points — good for sixth place in the overall NHL standings. The Canadiens were better on the road (24-9-8) than at home (24-15-2) during the regular season and that issue was highlighted during the playoffs, when the Canadiens went 2-6 at the Bell Centre and 7-4 on the road.
The Canadiens will need to be better at home this season. As for the current roster, Hughes would still like to add a top-six forward and an experienced right-shot defenceman before the start of the season, but that might not happen with time starting to run out.
How will I be able to watch the Habs this year? How many streaming services will I need to buy into? I live outside of Montreal.
charby2.bsky.social on Bluesky — @charby2.bsky.social
My Gazette colleague Steve Faguy is the expert on this since he puts together a complete Canadiens schedule with all the TV listings at the start of every season. So I asked him to answer this question as best as he could at this point.
Faguy said that for English TV coverage in Quebec, Atlantic Canada or Eastern Ontario, the answer would be three services: Sportsnet, TSN and Amazon. For fans in Toronto, Western Ontario and Western Canada, Faguy said Sportsnet Premium would be required, along with Amazon and maybe TSN for games against the Winnipeg Jets and Toronto Maple Leafs.
Faguy noted that the big question mark remains French national rights because the NHL hasn’t announced its complete deal yet with TVA Sports, which will split games with RDS.
The Canadiens will have six games televised nationally in the U.S. this season, with ESPN and TNT holding the American broadcasting rights. The Canadiens weren’t on any national U.S. broadcasts last season. The only Canadian team with more national U.S. games this season is the Edmonton Oilers, with eight.
If you have a question you’d like to ask for the weekly Habs Mailbag, you can email it to montrealcanadiens@postmedia.com