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When Martin St. Louis coached his first game with the Canadiens — a 5-2 loss to the Washington Capitals at the Bell Centre on Feb. 10, 2022 — his six defencemen in the lineup were Jeff Petry, Ben Chiarot, Brett Kulak, Alexander Romanov, Chris Wideman and Kale Clague.
A lot has changed since then and all six of those defencemen are no longer with the team.
During the four-year rebuilding process, president of hockey operations Jeff Gorton and general manager Kent Hughes have provided St. Louis with defencemen who fit the style of play he wants. He now has puck-moving defencemen who can skate and play an aggressive style of defence in the neutral zone while also pinching often at the offensive blue line, knowing forwards will back them up within the system St. Louis has built.
We’re really seeing the results this season, with the Canadiens ranking second in points by defencemen with 152 after Monday night’s 4-3 overtime loss to the Wild in Minnesota. The only team with more points by their defencemen is the Colorado Avalanche with 162.
The Canadiens ranked 27th in the NHL in scoring the season when St. Louis took over from Dominique Ducharme as head coach, averaging 2.66 goals per game. This season they rank fourth, averaging 3.43 goals per game.
Lane Hutson leads the Canadiens defencemen in scoring with 9-48-57 totals and heading into Tuesday’s games ranked third among NHL defencemen behind the Columbus Blue Jackets’ Zach Werenski (19-41-60) and the Edmonton Oilers’ Evan Bouchard (15-45-60). Hutson has one more point than the Avalanche’s Cale Makar (15-41-56) after winning the Calder Trophy last season as the NHL’s top rookie with 6-60-66 totals.
Lane Hutson finds Ivan Demidov for a BEAUT 🤌What a goal by the kids!NHL x @massmutual pic.twitter.com/nDe1UAyC7I— NHL (@NHL) February 3, 2026
Noah Dobson has 10-26-36 totals
in his first season with the Canadiens
with his 10 goals already matching his total from each of the last two seasons with the New York Islanders.
Alexandre Carrier
has 6-12-18 totals with five goals in the last 11 games. His previous season high for goals was four with the Nashville Predators in 2023-24.
Hughes
acquired Matheson from the Pittsburgh Penguins on July 16, 2022
— six months after being named GM. Matheson’s role with the Canadiens has changed with each step of the rebuilding process and his willingness and ability to accept new roles is a big reason for the team’s success.
Matheson had his best offensive season in 2023-24, posting 11-51-62 totals while quarterbacking the power play. He was asked to provide offence on a team that still struggled to score — the Canadiens ranked 26th in the NHL in offence that season, scoring 2.83 goals per game — and that played a role in him finishing with a minus-24 differential with more offensive risk-taking.
Matheson lost his power-play spot to Hutson last season and then became an effective penalty-killer. The arrival of Dobson and Kaiden Guhle returning to the lineup in January after missing three months with a partially torn adductor muscle has turned Matheson into a shutdown defenceman who can be matched up against the other’s team top line while still producing offence. The 31-year-old has 5-23-28 totals this season and is plus-12.
Cole Caufield finishes a beautiful feed from Mike Matheson for the game’s first goal 🚨📺: Canadiens 🆚 Bruins live on Sportsnet pic.twitter.com/rep0Iji7yS— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) January 25, 2026
“He’s a guy we lean on back there to shut down their top guys and he does that every single night,” Cole Caufield told reporters in Buffalo on the weekend about Matheson. “I know in the locker room we appreciate it. We know the kind of talent that he goes up against every night. His ability to skate with those guys, shut them down and be hard in their face, it’s very good to have back there. It’s calming to know he’s back there.
“I think the offensive side of the game hasn’t dipped,” Caufield added. “He makes the simple plays that probably go under-noticed and without those things maybe we don’t get in the offensive zone as easily. He’s been huge for us all year and probably one of the best back there.”
Matheson had Dobson as his regular defence partner until Guhle returned from his injury and they have been paired together for the last three games while Hutson has played with Dobson.
St. Louis loves the mix of mobility and physicality he now has on his blue line.
“I feel like we’re both,” he said last week after deciding to switch up his defence pairings. “Mike Matheson is very mobile, but he’s very physical, too. Lane is very mobile and he’s very physical, too, but not the same way. I think you got to be both and when you’re both you’re hard to play against on both sides.
“I feel our D plays with a lot of pace,” St. Louis added. “Defensive pace, but offensive pace, too. We’re not just a finesse D corps. I feel like we have a great mix of not just players, but those players themselves, they can do a lot of things. A Carrsy (Carriere) can defend well. He’s got good enough feet he can be physical, but he also can keep the offence going, too. So they’re all a mix, but I feel they bring both.”
They also bring a lot of offence.
scowan@postmedia.com
x.com/StuCowan1
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