The Canadiens have the flexibility to chase help if they need it, but for now the plan sounds pretty clear: wait, watch, and let the season tell them what’s missing.
That was the message Dave Pagnotta laid out Monday on SiriusXM NHL Network Radio with Scott Laughlin and Gord Stellick, when the conversation turned to Montreal’s second-line center spot and whether the team will eventually look outside the organization to fill it. Pagnotta pointed to the cap space the Canadiens have built and said it gives them the ability to make “an impact type of move later on in the season” if the need becomes real.
That need could center on Oliver Kapanen, who appears set to get the first crack at the 2C role. But Pagnotta made it clear Montreal is not rushing to declare that job settled for the long haul. If Kapanen’s play starts to slip, or if he doesn’t hit the targets the team has set, the Canadiens have room to act.
“Yeah, I mean, well, you hit it right there with respect to the cap space that they’ve accumulated and also strategically put in place. It allows them to make an impact type of move later on in the season. And if it does mean that it’s going to be the 2C position, if you start to see a little bit of deficiencies in Kapanen’s, or he’s not achieving whatever set goals they’ve kind of put out there.
Expectations High for Ivan Demidov This Season with the Montreal Canadiens
Then yeah, if you can go out there and address that position, you’ve got the financial space to do it. I think, barring something falling into Kent Hughes’s lap, whether it’s (Kirill) Marchenko or somebody else, and obviously he’s a winger, but barring any other type of situation like that, I think they want to see what they’ve got. They want to give these guys some runway.
Pagnotta said one game of preseason action from Chris Kreider won’t define anything, and he suggested the Canadiens want to give their group some time before making judgments. That includes seeing how the forward unit functions early, how Juraj Slafkovsky looks alongside Kapanen and Ivan Demidov, and whether Demidov can take a big step in year two.
He also said Montreal will be paying close attention to the rest of the roster, from the bottom six to the blue line, before deciding whether a move is necessary.
“Does Kreider, and one game preseason sample isn’t going to define it, but are you going to go two weeks, three weeks, the first month of the season? Let’s see how this forward unit performs.
Let’s see how (Juraj) Slafkovsky performs with Kapanen and (Ivan) Demidov. Does Demidov take a big step this season in year two, and it allows guys like Kapanen and Slafkovsky to go off even more?
What’s the depth of the bottom six looking like? How’s the impact there and so on and so on, and defense and all that.
Pagnotta wrapped it up by saying Montreal is positioned for what he called an “aggressively good season,” and if holes show up, Kent Hughes and Jeff Gorton have the willingness and the cap space to address them. He added that the Canadiens are entering a stretch where they can be more assertive on the trade market, with the idea that the window is “finally fully open.”
He said the last two seasons may have moved faster than expected in the rebuild, which helps explain why Montreal stayed quiet around the trade deadline. This year, though, he suggested that could change once the club gets closer to the end of February.
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For Canadiens fans, the bigger picture is what makes this interesting. Lagesson was part of the March 2022 deal with Edmonton that eventually helped set up Montreals path to Lane Hutson, a prospect whose long-term value already gives that transaction a very different look. It is the kind of chain reaction that makes a trade tree feel alive, especially when one of the old pieces is suddenly back in the news. [Read more 🡒]
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For a prospect already drawing scrutiny, the timing is less than ideal. Pugachyov has recently added significant weight and has faced criticism about both his fitness and his engagement on the ice, so every update around his development now carries a little more weight of its own. The Canadiens will likely be patient, but this kind of early setback only adds another layer to the questions surrounding where he goes from here. [Read more 🡒]