{"id":100820,"date":"2025-08-22T02:37:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T02:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/100820\/"},"modified":"2025-08-22T02:37:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T02:37:07","slug":"nick-suzuki-is-ready-to-build-on-what-the-canadiens-accomplished-last-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/100820\/","title":{"rendered":"Nick Suzuki is ready to build on what the Canadiens accomplished last season"},"content":{"rendered":"

MONTREAL \u2013 For the third straight year, Montreal Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki hosted his annual golf tournament Thursday in support of the Asista Foundation<\/a>, which trains service dogs to help people with mental health needs and the organizations that support them.<\/p>\n

Last year\u2019s event took place a few days after the Canadiens acquired Patrik Laine in a trade with the Columbus Blue Jackets, a transaction that sent a clear message to Suzuki and his teammates that the organization was prepared to turn a corner.<\/p>\n

The Laine trade, however, came as no surprise to Suzuki, as general manager Kent Hughes had phoned him a few days earlier<\/a> to take his pulse on adding Laine to the Canadiens\u2019 dressing room.<\/p>\n

This year, however, was different. Suzuki learned about the Canadiens\u2019 biggest acquisition of the summer on X.<\/p>\n

On a bus.<\/p>\n

In Scotland.<\/p>\n

Suzuki was with Cole Caufield and some former teammates attending the wedding of Joel Edmundson when rumours of the Noah Dobson trade<\/a> began filtering out on social media on June 27, the day of the first round of the NHL draft.<\/p>\n

\u201cMe and Cole were sitting on a bus leaving Eddy\u2019s wedding when a bunch of tweets started coming out that we were going to trade for Dobson. So me and Cole were kind of freaking out on the bus home,\u201d Suzuki said Thursday. \u201cI actually texted Dobber to see if there was any truth to this. It hadn\u2019t been done yet, but he seemed like he was hoping it could possibly be the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was pretty cool. It\u2019s nice to have that addition, he\u2019s an amazing player and a good guy too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Suzuki said he didn\u2019t see the July 1 trade with the St. Louis Blues for Zachary Bolduc<\/a> coming either.<\/p>\n

When last season ended, Suzuki was perhaps the most vocal among the players in expressing reservations about the youngest team to make the playoffs getting even younger this year. He didn\u2019t want to take a step back, and getting younger was seen as making that a real possibility.<\/p>\n

There is still time for the Canadiens to make some other moves, but for now, the Canadiens have most definitely become younger. Christian Dvorak, Joel Armia and David Savard are gone and being replaced by younger players. But the fact that Dobson and Bolduc are among those players, along with prohibitive Calder Trophy favourite Ivan Demidov, has altered Suzuki\u2019s perspective somewhat on the perils of a young team getting younger and still looking to compete.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s exciting,\u201d Suzuki said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been trading guys away for a long time, so now that we\u2019re adding guys \u2013 really good NHL players \u2013 to the team, it\u2019s exciting for everyone. Talking to Dobber and Bolduc coming in, they\u2019re really excited to join the group. It\u2019s an exciting time for the Canadiens, the players and the fans can all see that. Now I\u2019m just excited to get the season going.\u201d<\/p>\n

Suzuki got to know Bolduc earlier this summer by attending the Osheaga music festival with him, and they were set to play in the same golf foursome later Thursday. Suzuki has known Dobson since 2018, when they were roommates at training camp for the Canadian World Junior team, a team that also included Canadiens free agent signing Joe Veleno.<\/p>\n

But this summer has also given Suzuki a chance to get to know Demidov on a different level. Suzuki, Laine, Demidov and Jake Evans have been the constants at the summer training sessions being held informally at the team\u2019s training facility in Brossard, along with a group of players bouncing in and out of town, a group that is bigger than usual, Suzuki said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s special to have this many guys stick around,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

When Demidov arrived in Montreal at the end of last season, it was a whirlwind; the team was in the midst of a playoff race and Demidov was just trying to catch his breath. This summer has been far more conducive to the captain getting to know a core piece of the team a little better.<\/p>\n

And Suzuki has come away encouraged with what he\u2019s seen.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a pretty goofy kid, he likes to have fun,\u201d Suzuki said. \u201cBut when he\u2019s working, he\u2019s super dialed in. It\u2019s nice to see from such a young guy like that. It\u2019s been impressive watching him through the summer. He finds something to work on and then he kind of sticks to that over multiple days, just trying to master his craft. It\u2019s been impressive to watch and I\u2019m just trying to help him as much as I can this summer with little things. I can imagine he\u2019s just ready to start the season. It should be pretty fun for people to watch this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

The same impression can be drawn from what Suzuki has seen from Laine all summer. This is the first healthy offseason Laine has had in a long time, and his decision to spend the summer in Montreal to prepare for the season bodes well for what the Canadiens can expect from him this summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m hoping he starts great,\u201d Suzuki said. \u201cHe\u2019s looked really good in the gym, on the ice. I\u2019ve seen him really happy to be in Montreal, living here throughout the summer and getting to train with all of us. Hopefully it puts him in a really good headspace going into the season. We all know what he can do, so I think he\u2019s looking forward to the opportunity to get out there and show what he can do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately, that\u2019s what all the Canadiens players are eager for: to show what they can do, to show last year\u2019s playoff appearance was a surprise to everyone but them, to show they are prepared to do it again.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Last year) our expectations for ourselves were higher than the media and the fans had, so I don\u2019t think it\u2019s any different this year,\u201d Suzuki said. \u201cI want to be in the same spot or better.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we have the team to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Photo: Scott Taetsch \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MONTREAL \u2013 For the third straight year, Montreal Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki hosted his annual golf tournament Thursday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":100821,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[1787,385,99],"class_list":["post-100820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-montreal-canadiens","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}