Here are the likely new lines for the Canadiens and there's an unpleasant surprise

Even though the 2023-2024 NHL season won't start until early October, some armchair managers are already speculating on the composition of lines and defensive pairs for the Canadiens for the upcoming season.

With the arrival of Alex Newhook, the departure of Jonathan Drouin, and the return of Sean Monahan, we can assume the dynamics within the team will be different and Habsolumentfan.com has made its predictions for the CH lineup at the start of the 2023-2024 season.


First observation, the first line composed of Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, and Kirby Dach remains intact and we recall that the three had a lot of success when Martin St-Louis united them at one point during last season.

However, some fans might grit their teeth when they see that Mike Hoffman is preferred to Raphaël Harvey-Pinard in the regular lineup. Which is definitely a surprise for us, a bad surprise.

On defense, we have roughly the same lineup as last year, with the obvious exception of Joel Edmundson's departure for Washington.

However, no sign of Logan Mailloux.

Well, it is clear that this is just a probable lineup and there will definitely be surprises during training camp, but at first glance, it doesn't seem like the Canadiens will be competitive with this lineup in the powerful Atlantic division.

That being said, the team will still be in its rebuilding phase in 2023-2024, but there will likely be many changes to the Canadiens' lineup next season.