There’s a good chance of seeing Lane Hutson sign at a discount

1. Lane Hutson, underpaid compared to Nick Suzuki?
My friend Georges Laraque went on the Poolcast podcast, hosted by Pascal Cameron and Marco Normandin (HabsolumentFan). Glad I could contribute to making this episode happen.

I’m going to take a step back. It’s still one more than Dominic Iankov this season…

Georges started strong, telling Pascal Charles Pellerin, who replaced Pascal, and Marco that in his opinion, Lane Hutson won’t have a higher average salary than Nick Suzuki in his next contract. And if that’s the case, it won’t be more than Patrik Laine…

« We all know that if he wants, he can have eight times ten. He deserves it. That’s for sure, he deserves it […] This guy loves hockey so much. He doesn’t have the temperament of a guy who will ask his agent… The Canadiens, that’s what they want, it’s the hierarchy, Suzuki the highest paid […] Lane Hutson loves hockey so much, I don’t see him being a guy who will demand, who will ask for $10 million per year. I would be surprised if his contract is more than $8.5 million. It’s a pay cut […] Already, he’s loved in Montreal, you can give him the keys to the city. » – Georges Laraque

I hope Big Georges is right…

2. Jakub Dobes’ last start in 2024-25?
The Canadiens have about nine out of ten chances of making the playoffs. It’s not all set in stone, but it would take a disaster for the team to miss the playoffs in the next two or three weeks.

The team only has five games left on the schedule, including three at the Centre Bell. And the statistical models on the HockeyReference website give them a 91.8% chance of making the playoffs this morning.

Jakub Dobes, who will likely start in goal for the first or second game in as many days, might face the Senators in Ottawa on Friday or the Maple Leafs in Toronto on Saturday. After that, it will be the end of the back-to-back games.

And in the playoffs, there are usually no back-to-back games.

In short, unless the Canadiens secure their playoff spot in their last game (April 16), I don’t expect Dobes to have another start after this weekend.

The only scenario I see is if the Canadiens are guaranteed a playoff spot and can’t move up to seventh place; the game against the Hurricanes would be meaningless, and they might decide to rest Samuel Montembeault, who will have a heavy workload in the following weeks.

3. Jacob Fowler’s first start
The Rocket players played in British Columbia on Sunday and returned to Quebec on Monday.

Pascal Vincent gave them the day off today. They will be back at practice in Laval tomorrow.

It will be Fowler’s first professional practice, who has been training alone or taking shots from a few spare goalies from the Canadiens for a week.

We should also get an update on Connor Hughes’ health, who left the Rocket’s last game due to an injury.

I don’t know how Fowler will react on the ice against professional players, but if it goes well, he could get a start this weekend: the Rocket will be in Rochester on Friday and in Syracuse on Saturday.

Otherwise, it will be the following week against the Belleville Senators.

I’m repeating myself, but I expect the playoff starts to go to Cayden Primeau. He’s been incredible lately and deserves it. And the Rocket will want to increase their chances of winning in the playoffs…

We’ll also be keeping an eye on David Reinbacher’s presence – or lack thereof – tomorrow. It’s starting to get concerning, his situation… even if he skated this morning.

David Reinbacher pic.twitter.com/yLpdKPkbUU

— Renaud Lavoie (@renlavoietva) April 8, 2025

4. No first for the Canadiens
The Canadiens haven’t made the playoffs in the last three seasons, and before the start of the campaign, we all agreed that they would miss the playoffs for a fourth time in a row.

The Canadiens have never missed the playoffs four years in a row in their history.

However, this first won’t happen this year. Good thing!

Everything indicates that the Habs will stop their streak of seasons ending in mid-April at three.

No one will complain about that. Except maybe the Snake, who was dreaming of another high draft pick…

5. Stanley25 X DansLesCoulisses X Hockey30
During our first season of Stanley25, Jean Trudel and I had an idea: let’s interview David Garel to learn more about the man behind Hockey30.

The rest is history.

When David invited us to his podcast, saying no would have been a huge disrespect. So we accepted the invitation with pleasure and played along with the guy who, by his own admission, is probably the most polarizing and black sheep in the Quebec sports media.

We talked about traditional media, anecdotes about the Canadiens (including Guy A. Lepage and Tout le monde en parle), independent sites in 2025, David’s transition from Stanley25 to Hockey30, hypocrisy in the industry, the sale of 25Stanley, covering the CF Montreal daily, and people’s curiosity in Quebec newsrooms.

Want to hear about an experience? Go :