Free washer | The metamorphosis of the Canadian

Crazy how things can change significantly in the world of hockey, especially in the rejuvenation phase.

Mathias Brunet
The Press

The annual Canadian golf tournament, presented in about ten days, will allow us to achieve this.

Only a year ago, Marc Bergevin was still the general manager of the Canadiens, Trevor Timmins one of his right arms, Dominique Ducharme the head coach, with Luke Richardson assigned to the defense.

From this Stanley Cup finalist formation in August 2021, there are only eight players left: Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Brendan Gallagher, Jake Evans, Joel Edmundston, Paul Byron, Joel Armia and Josh Anderson. And still, it is not known when Byron will be able to return to the game.

The two great leaders of the last few years, Carey Price and Shea Weber, will probably never play hockey again. Just like Eric Staal.

Phillip Danault and Corey Perry took advantage of their autonomy to move to the sun at the dawn of the 2021-2022 season.

Ben Chiarot, Artturi Lehkonen, Brett Kulak, Tyler Toffoli and Jeff Petry have been traded by Marc Bergevin’s successor, Kent Hughes. Toffoli netted a late first-round pick that drafted Filip Mesar and got Emil Heineman, Kulak netted defenseman Lane Hutson late in the second round, Chiarot netted Ty Smilanic, Cédrick Guidon and first-round pick in 2023, and Lehkonen earned young defenseman Justin Barron and a second-round pick in 2024.

Unhappy in Montreal, Petry was sent to Pittsburgh for Mike Matheson, a significantly less gifted, but somewhat less expensive, and above all more enthusiastic defender to play in Montreal, and Hughes got rid of Weber’s contract and welcomed a forward borrowed for a year, Evgeni Dadonov.

Even those considered to be centers of the future in Montreal, Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Ryan Poehling, left the metropolis in the last year (and some dust).

The future of the Canadian in the center now passes through Nick Suzuki and Kirby Dach, obtained on draft day in exchange for 13^e Islanders’ overall pick, previously obtained for Alexander Romanov.

In the 2021 playoffs, the Canadiens had six players 30 or older, fourteen 27 or older, and only four 23 or younger.

The Canadiens could enter next season with seven players aged 23 or younger in important roles: a trio of 18-year-old Juraj Slafkovsky, 23-year-old Nick Suzuki and 21-year-old Cole Caufield; Kirby Dach, 21, in a second center role; Justin Barron, 20, Jordan Harris, 22, and Kaiden Guhle, 20, defend.

Only Brendan Gallagher, 30, Evgenii Dadonov, 33, Mike Hoffman, 32, David Savard, 31, Chris Wideman, 32, and Jake Allen, 32, are past their thirties. Dadonov is the dean of the group and he is not 34 years old.

The Canadian also has five first-round picks at his disposal over the next three seasons and 49 prospects drafted in the last five vintages (to give an order of measure, the Pittsburgh Penguins, more focused on short-term successes, have some drafted 24 during the same period).

Are you ready for a new era in Montreal?