Andrei Markov is putting his money on the Montreal Canadiens to do something no Canadian team has managed since 1993: bring the Stanley Cup back north.
The former Canadiens defenseman recently spoke with RG.org and made it clear where his faith lies. While Edmonton has had chances in recent years, Markov thinks Montreal is the club best positioned to break the drought.
"I really hope it will be Montreal," Markov said. "In recent years, Edmonton had a big chance, but they didn't use it. Right now I would probably bet on Montreal."
That drought has now run for more than 30 seasons, with the last Canadian champion coming when Montreal beat the Los Angeles Kings in 1993. Since then, Canadian teams have reached the Stanley Cup Final eight times, and the Oilers have accounted for three of those trips, including the two most recent as well as their appearance in 2006.
Montreal, meanwhile, has only been back to the Final once in that stretch. That came in 2021, when the Canadiens lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning in five games. Last season, they got as far as the Eastern Conference Final before falling to the Carolina Hurricanes.
Markov’s belief in the Canadiens is tied to the group they’re building now. He played 990 games for Montreal and spent his entire NHL career with the franchise, so he knows the organization as well as anyone. Since retiring in 2017, he has watched a very different version of the team than the one he once anchored on the blue line.
Even so, he likes what he sees from the current crop of young talent, pointing to Ivan Demidov, Juraj Slafkovsky and Lane Hutson. Markov, who knows defensemen, singled out Hutson’s skating and puck-moving ability.
"A small guy, with an unusual skating style, but the way he moves the puck, the way he moves himself - that's what I liked," Markov said. "And you can see that not only him - many young players on the team enjoy what they do. That's a very important factor."
The Canadiens are heading into this season without any major changes, and the hope is that growth from Demidov, Slafkovsky, Hutson, Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield can push them to another level. If that core isn’t quite enough, Montreal still has the kind of cap flexibility that could let it strike if the right trade comes along.
In Other News...
Canadiens Prospects Just Gave Fans Three New Reasons To Pay Attention
The Canadiens NCAA pipeline keeps giving the organization more to track as another college season approaches, and the latest group of prospects brings a little bit of everything. Michael Hage is headed back to Michigan, LJ Mooney is coming off a strong freshman year at Minnesota, and Timofei Runtso is moving into the college game after a productive WHL run. For a club still trying to build out its future, those are the kinds of names that can quietly start shaping the conversation around what comes next.
Mooney is the one who already looks closest to forcing a decision, since his play at Minnesota has put him on the radar for a possible entry-level contract if he keeps trending up. Hages return gives Montreal another important look at a player whose development path has already been tested, while Runtso adds another fresh layer of intrigue once he settles in at Miami. The Canadiens do not need all of these prospects to hit at once, but they do need some of them to keep moving, and this fall should tell the team a lot about which ones are ready to push forward. [Read more 🡒]
Kirby Dach Just Put A Canadiens Bounce-Back Season Back In Focus
Kirby Dach is back in Brossard as the Canadiens continue their lead-up to training camp, and his return puts a familiar offseason storyline back at the center of Montreals plans. After a limited and disappointing last season, the forward heads into the new year with a new contract in place as a restricted free agent, and his presence at the teams training base arrives as several teammates are already getting work in before camp officially opens.
The bigger question around Dach remains the same one that followed him through the spring: whether the flashes he showed in the playoffs can carry into a full bounce-back season. Montreal has spent much of the summer talking about growth, health and internal improvement, and Dach sits right in the middle of that conversation as one of the players whose next step could shape the teams outlook. [Read more 🡒]
Canadiens Goalie Situation Suddenly Hinges On Winnipegs Next Move
The Canadiens goaltending picture is suddenly tied to a bigger conversation out in Winnipeg, where any serious trade talk involving Connor Hellebuyck could ripple across the market and put Montreal in a spot it may have to address before long. Samuel Montembeault sits at the center of that uncertainty, with the current chatter suggesting the Canadiens could be watching the deadline landscape closely rather than treating their crease as settled.
Montembeaults future is already a talking point because a move before the deadline has been viewed as plausible, and the uncertainty only grows if the Jets decide to shift course. If Winnipeg starts asking around on Montreals goalie, the discussion could widen quickly, but for now it remains all speculation and there have been no confirmed transactions to report. [Read more 🡒]