"We’re finishing 25th in the league" "Missing playoffs again": NHL fans react to Montreal Canadiens' projected roster for upcoming 2024-25 season

The Montreal Canadiens ended up eighth in the Atlantic Division last season. They missed the playoffs with a 30-36-16 record. On Tuesday, the NHL posted on X (formerly Twitter) asking Canadiens fans for their thoughts on the projected lineup for the team. The tweet from the NHL's official account read,

"How do you feel about this projected lineup for the bleu-blanc-rouge, @CanadiensMTL fans?!"

NHL. com Projected Lineup for Montreal Canadiens:

Forwards:

• Juraj Slafkovsky, Nick Suzuki, and Cole Caufield
• Alex Newhook, Kirby Dach, and Josh Anderson
• Joel Armia, Jake Evans, and Brendan Gallagher
• Michael Pezzetta, Christian Dvorak, and Rafael Harvey-Pinard

Defensemen:

• Mike Matheson, David Savard
• Kaiden Guhle, Justin Barron
• Arber Xhekaj, Jordan Harris

Goaltenders:

• Samuel Montembeault, Cayden Primeau

Following the post, fans began reacting with a mix of opinions on X.

"missing playoffs again," one fan said.

"we’re finishing ~25th in the league," another fan commented.

"Lineup changes are always a gamble. I'm not convinced by some of these moves. They're gonna need to prove themselves on the ice, that's for sure. And don't even get me started on the power play unit... seems like more of the same old, same old to me," one X user said.

Take a look at some more reactions from NHL fans on X.

"Stop projecting lineups please...," a fan tweeted.

"I can pretty much guarantee this isn’t the opening night roster except maybe the first line, first d pairing and goalies," a fan commented.

"It’s promising for the future, but it’ll still be tough this year. The D is still very young, so prone to mistakes. I doubt we see that line up on D very often. Savard does not belong on a 1st pair, but the young guys probably aren’t ready yet. Hutson will be in the line-up imho," one fan said.

Ivan Demidov might join the Montreal Canadiens' roster soon

The Montreal Canadiens drafted Russian forward Ivan Demidov with the fifth overall pick in the 2024 NHL Draft. Demidov might be NHL-ready soon. There’s speculation that he could join the Canadiens this season, similar to how the Philadelphia Flyers brought Matvei Michkov to North America.

Stu Cowan from the Montreal Gazette suggested that the Canadiens could negotiate a transfer fee for Demidov.

"If St. Petersburg doesn’t keep Demidov with the KHL team, expect the Canadiens to enter negotiations to establish a transfer fee for him like the Philadelphia Flyers did this summer with Matvei Michkov," Cowan said.

Currently, Demidov is under contract with SKA St. Petersburg in the KHL.