The preseason over-under was 91.5 points. They scored 106. Cole Caufield became the first American player to score 50 goals in Montreal Canadiens history. Nick Suzuki hit 100 points. Jakub Dobes was one of the playoffs' best goaltenders. They beat Tampa in Game 7 and Buffalo in Game 7 overtime. They won Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final in Raleigh against Carolina, the team that would go on to win the Stanley Cup. They lost the next four to the champions. This was the best Montreal Canadiens season since 2021. It arrived two or three years before anyone expected it to.
By Mike Holloway · June 2026 · 2025-26 Season Review Series · #3 of 32 · Playoff Teams · Eastern Conference Final Exit
Oct-Apr · 24 Comeback Wins
Tied franchise record with 1992-93 and 1975-76. Caufield chased 50 all season. A team whose belief never diminished with the scoreboard.
R1 G1 · Slafkovsky Hat Trick
Three goals in his first playoff game against Tampa Bay. The statement arrived before anyone outside Quebec was watching. The first overall pick from 2022 vindicated.
R1+R2 G7 · Newhook Delivers Twice
Game 7 against Tampa. Game 7 overtime against Buffalo. The depth piece who became the headline twice in three weeks.
ECF G1 · 5-2 at Raleigh
Slafkovsky 2G+A. Suzuki 3A. Dobes 25 saves at PNC Arena. Beat the team that finished 16-3 and won the Cup. Then lost four straight.
The Montreal Canadiens entered the 2025-26 season with 50-to-1 Cup odds and a preseason over-under of 91.5 points. The rebuild that Jeff Gorton and Kent Hughes began in 2022 with the explicit understanding that the franchise would spend two to three years developing its young players before competing was, by every external projection, still one or two summers away from producing a genuinely competitive team. They finished with 106 points. They beat the Tampa Bay Lightning in seven games in the first round. They beat the Buffalo Sabres in seven games - on an Alex Newhook overtime goal - in the second round. They won Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final in Raleigh against Carolina, the team that would go on to win the Stanley Cup with a 16-3 postseason record, by a score of 5-2. They lost the next four games in that series. They are the third-best team in the NHL in 2025-26. This is the sentence that, in October, nobody would have written.
Caufield's 50+ Goals Made History. Suzuki's 100+ Points Made the Franchise Credible. Both Are 25. Neither Has Hit Their Ceiling.
Goals · First American player to score 50 in franchise history · no Canadien has led the NHL in goals since Guy Lafleur in 1977-78 · second in NHL behind MacKinnon at one point · 4G in playoffs vs Buffalo · 9 pts (4G-5A) in 14 playoff games heading into ECF
Points (29G, 72+ A) in 81 games · 100-point threshold crossed in penultimate regular-season game · 13 pts (4G-9A) in 14 playoff games · team leader all categories
Jakub Dobes: 8-6, 2.52 GAA, .910 SV% in 14 Playoff Games. Won Game 7 Against Tampa (2.03 GAA, .923 SV% in the Series). Lane Hutson: 14 Points in 14 Playoff Games - More Than Any Other Montreal Skater.
Jakub Dobes is 24 years old. He started every playoff game the Canadiens played. He went 8-6, posted a 2.52 goals-against average and a .910 save percentage across 14 games that included a seven-game series against Tampa Bay and a seven-game series against Buffalo. His Game 7 against Tampa - 25 saves, the decisive individual performance of the most important game of the Canadiens' postseason through mid-May - was the moment that confirmed this team had a goaltender ready to go deep. His 2.03 GAA and .923 save percentage in the Tampa series are elite-tier individual playoff goaltending numbers against a team with Kucherov (130 regular-season points) and Brayden Point. He was not the reason the ECF was lost. He was 25 saves in Game 1 of the ECF and then facing a Carolina team that was 16-3 overall and the most dominant collective unit in the postseason.
Lane Hutson's 14 points in 14 playoff games led the entire Canadiens roster. Fourteen points. In fourteen games. For a defenceman who, entering this season, was still being described in the context of "developing." He had 12 assists among those 14 points - the offensive blue-line activation that made the power play function and the transition from defence to offence possible. With Hutson at the point, the Canadiens' power play had a quarterback. Without him, it would not have existed in its 2025-26 form. He is young. He is here. The franchise's defensive future looks nothing like the defensive present of three years ago.
Juraj Slafkovsky had a hat trick in Game 1 of the first round against Tampa Bay - the moment that, before any other result, signalled to anyone watching that this was a different Montreal team than the one that had been rebuilding quietly for three years. The first overall pick in 2022 - selected over Shane Wright and Logan Cooley and all the other candidates - had been developing at exactly the pace the franchise projected, and then he had a hat trick in a playoff Game 1 and the projection became reality. He finished with nine points (four goals, five assists) in 14 playoff games heading into the ECF. In ECF Game 1 he scored twice and assisted once in a 5-2 win at Raleigh. The rebuild's top pick delivered in the series that mattered most.
Alex Newhook scored seven goals in the playoffs - the team's most by any player. He scored the overtime winner in Game 7 against Buffalo. He scored the overtime winner in Game 7 against Tampa. He is 25 and has spent the last two seasons becoming exactly the depth forward a playoff team needs: someone who scores in the moments that other players don't, who isn't the one anyone is watching when it gets to overtime, who scores anyway. His seven playoff goals from a middle-six role is the depth scoring that took the franchise's offensive star power and made it team-wide rather than dependent on Caufield and Suzuki specifically.
The 2025-26 Montreal Canadiens won 24 games after trailing at some point in the game - tied for the most in a single season in franchise history, matching the 1992-93 team that won the Stanley Cup and the 1975-76 team that swept the Philadelphia Flyers in the Cup Final. The 1992-93 Canadiens were the last Montreal team to win the championship. The parallel is not lost on anyone who followed the 2025-26 season closely. The comeback wins are not a reflection of poor starts - they are a reflection of a team whose belief in itself does not diminish when the scoreboard says it should. Martin St. Louis built that culture. The 24 comeback wins are its most visible expression.
First series win since 2021 Final · Slafkovsky hat trick G1 · Dobes .923 SV% in series · Suzuki and Newhook scored in G7
Buffalo led 3-1 series · Newhook OT winner · Hutson 14 pts in 14 games total · Dobes competitive
Won G1 5-2 at Raleigh · lost G2-G5 to eventual champions · Dobes 25 saves in G1 · Slafkovsky 2G+A in G1
MTL
Slafkovsky 2G+A. Suzuki 3A. Caufield G+A. Dobes 25 saves. The Habs beat the team that would lift the Stanley Cup on their own ice in the most important game any of these players had ever played. It is the evidence that this group can compete at the highest level available. Then Carolina won four straight.
| Player | POS | GP | G | A | PTS | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nick Suzuki | C | 81 | 29 | 72 | 101+ | First Habs captain to hit 100pts in modern era · 13 playoff pts |
| Cole Caufield | RW | ~82 | 51+ | 37+ | ~90 | First American 50+ goals in franchise history · 9 playoff pts |
| Juraj Slafkovsky | LW | ~80 | - | - | - | Hat trick R1 G1 · 9 pts in 14 playoffs · 2G+A in ECF G1 |
| Ivan Demidov | W | ~75 | - | - | - | PP goal vs NYI · developing alongside core · young piece arriving |
| Alex Newhook | C/W | ~80 | - | - | - | 7 playoff goals (team leader) · 2x G7 OT winners · the clutch piece |
| Lane Hutson | D | ~80 | - | - | - | 14 pts in 14 playoff games (team leader) · 12 assists · PP quarterback |
| Jakub Dobes | G | - | - | - | 8-6 | 2.52 GAA · .910 SV% in 14 games · 2.03 GAA .923 SV% vs Tampa |
“"We played to our identity tonight. It was a nice balance. We let the puck do the work. We were very opportunistic on our chances, but we didn't spend too much time that we took the instinct out of our players."”
— Martin St. Louis, after ECF Game 1 - a 5-2 win at Raleigh that was the season's most complete single-game performance
The 5-2 win in Raleigh is the game that defines what the 2025-26 Montreal Canadiens actually are. Not the two Game 7 wins - those are evidence of character. Not the 51 goals from Caufield or the 101 points from Suzuki - those are evidence of talent. The win at Raleigh, in the Eastern Conference Final, against the team that finished the postseason 16-3 and lifted the Stanley Cup, is the evidence that this group can compete at the highest level available. Slafkovsky scored twice and assisted once. Suzuki had three assists. Caufield scored. Danault scored. Dobes made 25 saves. The entire team competed and produced. Then Carolina won four consecutive games, because the team with Jordan Staal and Nikolaj Ehlers and Brandon Bussi and Logan Stankoven winning on 25-of-25 power-play kills is the best team in the Eastern Conference by a significant margin and the Montreal Canadiens are not quite that yet.
Not quite. Yet. The qualifiers are the point of the 2025-26 season. A team that was 50-to-1 to win the Cup, that massively exceeded an over-under of 91.5 points, that won two Game 7s and reached the ECF, that had Caufield make franchise history and Suzuki hit 100 points and Hutson emerge as the best young defenceman in the Eastern Conference playoffs and Dobes prove he can start playoff games on the road in round after round - that team is not quite good enough yet. It will be. The rebuild produced a contender two or three years before anyone expected. The contender will produce a champion. Whether it is 2026-27 or the year after that, the direction is unmistakable. The most storied franchise in NHL history has its next chapter underway.
Season statistics sourced from NHL.com, Hockey-Reference, CBS Sports, and the Montreal Canadiens official site. Montreal Canadiens finished 48-24-10 (106 points), 3rd Atlantic Division. Preseason odds: +5000 (50-to-1); O/U: 91.5. Cole Caufield: 51+ goals and ~90 points - first American player to score 50 goals in franchise history; second in NHL goals at peak of season (2 behind MacKinnon); 9 playoff pts (4G-5A) in 14 games. Nick Suzuki: 101+ points (29G, 72+ A) in 81 games - hit 100-point threshold with one game left; 13 playoff pts (4G-9A) in 14 games. Alex Newhook: 7 playoff goals (team leader); scored G7 OT winners in both R1 (vs Tampa) and R2 (vs Buffalo). Jakub Dobes: 8-6, 2.52 GAA, .910 SV% in 14 playoff games; 2.03 GAA, .923 SV% in R1 vs Tampa. Lane Hutson: 14 playoff pts (2G-12A) in 14 games - team leader. Juraj Slafkovsky: R1 G1 hat trick vs Tampa; 9 playoff pts (4G-5A); 2G+A in ECF G1. Ivan Demidov: developing young core piece. 24 comeback wins - tied franchise single-season record (1992-93, 1975-76). Won R1 vs Tampa 4-3 (G7); Won R2 vs Buffalo 4-3 (G7 OT, Newhook winner); Lost ECF vs Carolina 1-4 (won G1 5-2 at Raleigh, lost G2-G5). Carolina went 16-3 to win the Stanley Cup. Coach: Martin St. Louis. Next in series: #2.
50-to-1. 106 Points. Caufield Made Franchise History. Suzuki Hit 100. Two Game 7 Wins. Newhook Twice in Overtime. Hutson 14 Points in 14 Games. Won ECF Game 1 in Raleigh 5-2 Against the Eventual Champions. Then Lost Four Straight. The Rebuild Is Three Years Ahead of Schedule. The Cup Is Not Yet Here. Both Sentences Are True.
The A-minus is for an extraordinary individual season from a team that was supposed to be a year or two away from genuine contention. They are not a year or two away. They are here. The Eastern Conference Final, reached by a team with 50-to-1 Cup odds, says so.
The deduction from an A is the ECF result - 1-4 against Carolina, who won the Cup - and the gap it revealed between what this team is and what the best team in the East is. Caufield is not yet Ehlers. Hutson is developing toward the Slavin tier. Dobes is not Andersen. These are honest comparisons made in the context of a 2021 rebuild that was supposed to produce a contender in 2027 or 2028 and has produced one in 2026.
The next chapter of this team is the most anticipated in Canadiens hockey since the last one - since Lafleur and Robinson and Shutt, since Roy and Damphousse and Carbonneau, since the era that felt like it would never come back. It has come back. The team that won ECF Game 1 in Raleigh - beating the eventual champions 5-2 on their home ice in the most important game any of them had ever played - is the team that will contend for the Stanley Cup. Not quite yet. Coming very soon.