The NHL announced their All-Rookie team today for this past season, a list comprising of the league’s top first year players over the course of the campaign.
Montreal Canadiens fans will be happy to hear that two of their players made the running. Forward Ivan Demidov and goaltender Jakub Dobes were featured on the rookie team. Others included the Anaheim Ducks Beckett Sennecke, the St. Louis Blues Jimmy Snuggerud, the New York Islanders Matthew Schaefer and the Carolina Hurricanes Alexander Nikishin.
Demidov and Dobes Were Sensational for Montreal
Both Demidov and Dobes had impressive seasons for Montreal; it is not a surprise they made this team. On a young Canadiens squad that took massive strides forward this year, these two players played a key part in making it happen.
Demidov was selected 2nd overall by the Canadiens in the 2024 entry draft. He got a brief taste of the NHL towards the end of the 2024-2025 season. He thrived in his first full year with the club, leading all rookies in production with 19 goals and 43 assists for 63 points in 82 regular season games. His game did drop off in the postseason, with just three goals and six assists for nine points in 19 games. With that said, the 20 year old Russian has asserted himself as an elite top-six piece in Montreal’s forward core.
Like Demidov, Dobes made his initial appearance in the league last season. Dobes surprisingly took the reigns of Montreal’s crease this year, getting better and better as the season developed. He amassed a 29-10-4 record with a 2.78 goals against average (GAA) and .901 save percentage (SV%) during the regular season. In the playoffs, he registered a 9-6-4 record with a 2.66GAA and .908SV%. After years of struggles in net, it looks like Montreal has finally found their guy with Dobes.
Montreal Has Building Blocks for Success
Demidov and Dobes will continue to play important roles in driving this Montreal team forward in the future. However, they are just a couple pieces of what is a very promising core that has been steadily built by the Canadiens over the course of this rebuild. This team has officially signaled that their rebuilding days are behind them with a breakout year that saw them reach the eastern conference finals.
The Canadiens have the tools at their disposal to win a Stanley Cup with. This franchise has not won Lord Stanley since the 1992-1993 season. Their 33 year gap in victories is among the highest in the league, a disappointing statistic for a team that has won more championships than any other organization with 24.
Canada’s best hopes for breaking its long Stanley Cup drought appear to lie with this Montreal team. This group showed that they are not far away from being a true Cup contender after a successful playoff run that saw the team go deeper than expected. If general manager Kent Hughes can make a couple more big fish additions, particularly to the team’s top-six forward core, they should be among the favorites to win it all next season
Like HEAVY’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was originally published on HEAVY
The post Multiple Canadiens Make NHL’s All-Rookie Team appeared first on HEAVY.