Canadiens’ Dach, Newhook shift trade perception

Kirby Dach and Alex Newhook struggled with injuries after Montreal trades, but their playoff surges are reshaping how the deals are viewed.

A late playoff burst is doing what injuries and stalled seasons couldn’t: changing how the Canadiens’ most prominent post-rebuild bets are being judged.. As Montreal pushes deeper. Kirby Dach and Alex Newhook are showing the kind of impact the club envisioned when it traded for them in successive drafts-and-deal swings.

The Canadiens. according to the thinking laid out at the time. weren’t only trying to land talent for the next few months.. The broader goal was to accelerate the early part of their rebuild by swapping away surplus and adding two young players who could “pop” quickly. helped by more opportunity and tailored development.

That approach began in 2022. when general manager Kent Hughes traded left-handed. bruising defenceman Alexander Romanov to the New York Islanders for the 13th overall pick.. Romanov was part of an organizational surplus. with Kaiden Guhle. Arber Xhekaj and Jayden Struble already in the system. and the Canadiens used that return to move again.. The Bell Centre erupted when the 13th pick was then flipped—along with the 66th pick—to the Chicago Blackhawks for Dach. the former third-overall selection from 2019 who is now a central figure in Montreal’s postseason momentum.

Dach’s upside had been visible even with setbacks.. With the Blackhawks. he had not fully reached his massive potential over three seasons. and his early development was repeatedly disrupted. including missing a significant portion of his first season and much of his second due to injury.. Still. Montreal believed the profile fit: a centre who can blend with skilled linemates while providing size down the middle. a scout had said at the time.

The Canadiens’ public reasoning for the move was twofold: Dach offered the potential to become a top-six forward. but also had the ability to complement skill-heavy teammates immediately as a top-nine option.. The trade was built to convert that potential into value quickly. even though it required patience on a player whose availability had not been steady.

A year later, the same kind of bet returned with Newhook.. The Canadiens’ interest followed the storyline of a former Colorado Avalanche player who had already experienced elite validation—Newhook had won the Stanley Cup as the Avalanche’s third-line centre just days before Montreal drafted Slafkovsky and then moved for Dach.. The club targeted Newhook with the expectation that his second chance in a new environment. at age 22. could lead to a rapid rise.

Newhook arrived on a large payroll commitment for a young player: he signed a cost-controlled four-year, $11.6-million deal.. Dach, meanwhile, signed a matching four-year, $13.45-million contract less than two months after coming to Montreal.. The package for Newhook was priced as a strong value bet on future output. involving the Canadiens’ second first-round pick (31st overall after they selected David Reinbacher fifth). a second-round pick. and B-prospect Gianni Fairbrother.

But the hoped-for short-term dividends never fully arrived, and the reasons were twofold. Both trades were derailed largely by “devastating injuries,” and neither player managed to sustain their highest form over long stretches in Montreal.

For Dach, the turning point toward promise arrived late in his first season.. He finished 2021-22 with 14 goals and 38 points in 58 games. with much of that production coming alongside Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield.. Montreal then expected that momentum to translate into his next step—ready to take charge of his own line.

That plan was interrupted dramatically in 2023-24.. In Game 2 against his former team. a freak collision with Jarred Tinordi caused Dach to tear the anterior cruciate ligament and medial collateral ligament in his right knee.. Just over a year later, he suffered another major blow when he tore the same ACL again.. Even after returning. every time he gained positive momentum it was cut short: a broken bone near his ankle cost him 10 weeks. and an upper-body injury kept him sidelined from March 15 to April 7.

Newhook’s experience followed a similar pattern of early sparks followed by injury setbacks.. He began the season with the best stretch of his career, posting six goals and 12 points in 17 games from Oct.. 8 to Nov.. 13.. Then came a displaced fracture of his ankle that forced him to miss 15 weeks.. The result was an uneven first part of his Montreal timeline that didn’t match the high expectations attached to the acquisition.

Before that, his trajectory had been gradual.. Over his first 82 games with the Canadiens. he produced 14 goals and 30 points—followed by a noticeable uptick the next season. where he scored 15 goals and 34 points in his first 54 games.. However, a high-ankle sprain in Game 55, combined with a slower-than-ideal processing of the intricacies of coach Martin St.. Louis’ very detailed system, contributed to a downturn.. Last season ended with totals of 15 goals and 26 points across 82 games. leaving much of the public convinced Montreal had come up short.

The postseason, though, is where perception is beginning to tilt.. Newhook has taken over the goals lead in the Round 2 series against Buffalo. scoring two goals in Game 3 and extending his impact with the winner in Game 7 against the Tampa Bay Lightning.. After the puck dropped in Buffalo last Wednesday. he added four more goals. reinforcing the idea that his speed and finishing can translate into decisive games.

Dach’s return to form has been more roller-coaster earlier in the playoffs, but the latest stretch matters.. He began these playoffs with the same wobbly foundation he has carried for much of his time in Montreal and was involved in two costly errors in the Canadiens’ Game 2 overtime loss to Tampa.. He rebounded in Game 3 with a goal and an assist and has since added three more timely goals.

In Sunday’s 5-2 Canadiens win. as Buffalo pushed hardest to make it 4-3. Dach delivered what was framed as perhaps his biggest moment.. Like Newhook, he has been arriving when it counts—at key junctures that often determine whether a series flips.. That timing is now doing the heavy lifting in the debate about how much Montreal got for its assets.

St.. Louis pointed directly to the difference between short-term negativity and a fuller view of a player’s role.. He said he’s “happy for the player. ” emphasized that it’s easy to inflate a negative situation beyond what it is. and stressed that he knows both the ability and the character of Dach.. He also linked Dach’s most recent contributions to the idea of momentum—describing how Dach’s offensive actions and his third-period goal provided a critical shift when Buffalo was attacking.

Newhook, for his part, has framed the challenge less as proving management right and more as proving it to himself.. The 25-year-old said he doesn’t necessarily track “perception. ” but he knows the organization and coaching staff believed in him. and he has been focused on helping the team become a winner.. His current role on Montreal’s second line. alongside direct centre Jake Evans and super-talented winger Ivan Demidov. has provided a stage for his speed and finishing skill.

Still. even with the playoff momentum. the Canadiens have work to do before the trades are considered full successes in the final ledger.. The injuries meant neither player delivered the sort of immediate payoff the club hoped for early on. and neither fully reached the peak of what the deals were meant to unlock.. Yet, as the report stressed, Montreal never made those trades solely for short-term dividends.

For now, both Dach and Newhook are giving the organization what those early bets were built to secure: a clear sign that the long-term payoff may be arriving—just later than everyone wanted.

Montreal Canadiens Kirby Dach Alex Newhook NHL playoffs player injuries Kent Hughes