Lane Hutson was one of the wild cards heading into last season. After a Calder-winning campaign, he’s now someone the Canadiens are heavily counting on. What should they be expecting from him in his sophomore year?

As the 2025-26 regular season approaches, let’s look at some common arguments about the Canadiens last season and see how those themes held up statistically.

There are few consistencies in preseason hockey. One is a complaint about fitness testing. One is that people say it’s too long. Evidently, another one is Montreal and Ottawa matchups devolving into sheer stupidity, most recently evidenced by Tuesday’s contest.

Tuesday’s penultimate preseason game was an eventful affair as the Habs and Senators combined for over 150 penalty minutes. Meanwhile, the Canadiens had plenty of on-ice success, leading to a 5-0 victory.

On Sunday, Montreal put five players on waivers for the purpose of assignment to Laval. All five of them cleared on Monday and were sent down to the Rocket.

With the Habs going into Saturday’s game with 60 players on their training camp roster, cuts were bound to happen at some point.  That has now happened with Montreal trimming that roster by 25 players.

After getting outclassed by a much weaker Toronto lineup on Thursday, the Habs flipped the script on Saturday in the rematch. The Canadiens sent a much weaker lineup on the road but it didn’t matter as Montreal picked up the 4-2 win.

The Habs kicked off the middle portion of their preseason schedule on Thursday as they hosted Toronto. It was a game they’ll want to forget in a hurry as the Maple Leafs took it 7-2 despite having the weaker roster.

After kicking off the 2025 preseason with a win on Monday, the Habs looked to make it two straight victories as they hosted Philadelphia on Tuesday. While they got a bit of a scare in the second, they were able to hold on for the 3-2 win.

The Habs trailed for a good part of Monday’s preseason opener against Pittsburgh but a third-period goal from Owen Beck was enough to force overtime and Oliver Kapanen potted the winner in the shootout as Montreal earned the 2-1 win.