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The Habs rank among the NHL’s best off-season
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The Habs didn’t have the most active off-season in the NHL. Nobody in Tennessee thinks the Habs were more exciting than the Preds, let’s say.

Yes, Ivan Demidov and Michael Hage came to town… yes, Juraj Slafkovsky was signed long-term… but on the ice in October, it doesn’t make the club any better.

And yet, Dom Luszczyszyn (The Athletic) ranked the Habs 15th in the NHL among the most improved teams in the off-season in a recent paper.

I won’t hide the fact that I thought it was high. After all, the Habs are the highest-ranked team to have, according to the journalist, no major additions to note on this fall’s roster.

The only key departure is Johnathan Kovacevic.

I didn’t expect to see the Habs anywhere but in the bottom quarter of the standings. To see it in the top 16 means that improvements will come from within…

And that The Athletic columnist likes the quality of the club’s prospects.

Johnathan Kovacevic is replaceable defensively, and there’s a good chance the Habs can replace what he brings internally.

They have plenty of blue-line prospects ready to step up. – Dom Luszczyszyn

Since the Habs won’t have a different offense (aside from the return of Kirby Dach, who wasn’t mentioned in the text), it’s clear that the defense is the game-changer.

Seeing the young defensemen get some mileage will help.

But above all, we mustn’t forget that the Lane Hutson, Logan Mailloux, Adam Engstrom and David Reinbacher of this world, to name but a few, are changing the picture. And Dom Luszczyszyn seems to believe it.

Perhaps, too, not having made any mistakes (like giving Joel Edmundson four years with the state of his back in 2024) has helped the Habs’ cause?


Overtime

– They can come back to the NHL.

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