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Today, Habs hopefuls will hit Brossard for their physical testing and tomorrow, they’ll head to Buffalo for the prospects challenge. You’re not dreaming, hockey is finally back and it’s time to venture some predictions on what awaits Canadiens’ fans this season so without further ado, here are my five predictions, some bolder than others.

Alex Newhook will take to Montreal like a fish to water
I believe that this will be another homerun trading wise for Kent Hughes and that Newhook will blossom far from the lofty expectation that a championship team like Colorado has. Kirby Dach said it last season, head coach Martin St-Louis has got a knack to help build young player’s confidence and this will once again allow him to unlock Newhook’s potential. St-Louis will remain the young gun’s whisperer.

Samuel Montembeault will be the number one goaltender
Jake Allen was acquired to be Carey Price’s back-up, but things didn’t go as planned. Still, Allen performs better when he plays second fiddle and Samuel Montembeault has proven that he can both handle a bigger workload and remain healthy while doing it, unlike Allen.

Logan Mailloux will spend the season in the AHL
While some (including Francis Bouillon) have said that Mailloux is the Canadiens’ defense prospect who’s the closest to the NHL, there’s already a lot of young defensemen in Montreal and there is absolutely no reason to rush Mailloux’ development. Especially since there are some issues in his defensive game including his decision making and his backwards skating, he’ll find that things are much quicker in the NHL and a year in the AHL won’t hurt him. Of course, if the injury ninja hits the defensive corps and some blue liners are traded, the Canadiens may have to call him up.

Cole Caufield will play his first full NHL season
There are some people who say that Caufield is injury prone because he’s never played a full NHL season, but they seem to forget that he was limited to only 67 games in his first full season with the Habs because he spent some time in the AHL, not because he had suffered a major injury. Caufield was reassuring at the golf tournament saying his shoulder felt even better than it did prior to his injury and if that’s the case, goaltenders better beware. Even though he said he hasn’t set an objective for himself when it comes to the number of goals he’ll pocket this season, I fully expect him to hit the big 4-0.

Throwback to when Cole Caufield scored this goal last season against Philly with a second left! My favourite goal of the season 100% pic.twitter.com/uZbgtPHzON

— Pad (@paqdaddy) September 11, 2023

Kirby Dach will spend most of the season at center
The head coach said at the golf tournament that he doesn’t know who will play with Suzuki and Caufield or if Dach will find himself on the wing or in the middle, in other words, he’s keeping an open mind. Kent Hughes has repeatedly said that the organization sees Dach as a center long term and if that’s the case, he needs to get some reps in. While he did have good chemistry with Suzuki and Caufield last season, he played his best hockey towards the end of the year skating in the middle.

What are your five predictions?

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