Nick Suzuki made it sound like the decision was out of his hands.
A year ago, Suzuki opted not to play for Team Canada at the men’s world championship despite the Montreal Canadiens missing the playoffs. He was left off the Canadian team that won the 4 Nations Face-Off, a tournament he said was a bit difficult for him to watch on television, knowing he was in the running to make that team, especially with the early games being played at his home rink.
Suzuki said Friday that he would need to be cleared physically by the Canadiens to play at the Worlds, which would suggest that if cleared, he would play this time. Suzuki would only say that he was “pretty banged up” down the stretch and in the playoffs and refused to get more specific than that.
But with the Olympics on the horizon, the Canadiens would be well served to allow Suzuki to play, assuming whatever was “pretty banged up” is not too serious. Having Suzuki play in that tournament in Italy next February would help him take another step, surrounded by the best players in the game.
That Olympic team is very important to Suzuki.
“It’s pretty big,” he said. “It’s been a dream of mine ever since I was a kid to play in the Olympics. I’ll do anything I can. Whether or not I can play in the Worlds, I think I’ve shown what I can do as a player and really kind of took my game to a different level coming down the stretch and in the playoffs.
“So if I have a good start next year, I think I can put my name in the hat for the team.”
Since Suzuki said those words, sending him to the Worlds has become even more beneficial for the Canadiens because on Sunday, Hockey Canada announced Sidney Crosby had been added to the roster, and TSN’s Darren Dreger reported it was likely Nathan MacKinnon would be joining Crosby.
The Canadiens should jump at any opportunity for Suzuki to be in the orbit of those two players.
ROSTER UPDATE | Sidney Crosby has been added to 🇨🇦’s National Men’s Team for #MensWorlds.
MISE À JOUR | Sidney Crosby s’ajoute à l’équipe nationale masculine du 🇨🇦 pour le #MondialMasculin. pic.twitter.com/U4oIXRXNe4
— Hockey Canada (@HockeyCanada) May 4, 2025
It was interesting to hear Juraj Slafkovský say that he and the Canadiens front office jointly concluded that he should not play for Slovakia at the worlds, while both Cole Caufield and Lane Hutson said they had not yet decided to play for the United States when both of them would be on the bubble to make the U.S. Olympic team.
Slafkovský and Caufield went to the Worlds last year. For Caufield, it didn’t help him make the 4 Nations team. For Slafkovský, he was a star attraction with the tournament being played in his backyard in neighbouring Czechia, with throngs of fans attending Slovakia’s games with his jersey on their backs.
“It was pretty cool, but I’ve got to take care of my body, make sure I’m ready when my new contract starts,” Slafkovský said. “Like I said, I want to be good as soon as October. I had a long season last year, and maybe that was a factor in why I wasn’t good right away.
“I’m not trying to find an excuse, it doesn’t matter, I still should have been better. But we will try it like this this year, and we will see how it goes.”
Perhaps the Canadiens see the Worlds as more of a hindrance to success than a stepping stone. Then again, Mike Matheson is going to play for Canada, and if anyone on the team needs a rest, it would be him.
However, the opportunity ahead for Suzuki is too good to pass up, for both him and the organization. If he is physically able to go, the Canadiens should not only let him go, but they should drive him to the airport.
Perspective matters when it comes to Patrik Laine
Some people seemed a little put out that Laine expressed satisfaction with how his season went.
On the ice, which is what all of us are exposed to, it was a mixed bag. Laine finished fourth on the team with 20 goals in 52 games, all but five of those goals coming on the power play. When he wasn’t on the power play, it was sometimes — oftentimes — difficult to watch Laine perform. His decisions with the puck were often irresponsible, filled with hopeful plays and turnovers in bad areas of the ice.
But for Laine, this season was about far more than on-ice results. It was about finding joy in the game after coming close to retiring last season, seeking help from the NHL/NHLPA player assistance program and hoping to rekindle his love of the game in Montreal. It was a new start for him at age 26 (he turned 27 two weeks ago) and an opportunity to get his life on track.
And in that sense, it sounds like it was a successful season for Laine despite it starting with a gruesome knee injury that cost him the first two months of the season.
“The only goal I had for myself this year was to enjoy playing again,” Laine said. “I definitely did that. Even though it was hard at times, I still enjoyed every bit of it. For me individually, people are always going to talk about numbers, but for me, it was a success that I got to enjoy this awesome sport again.”
Doesn’t that sound like a good thing?
Rather than getting all indignant over a player whose performance you are unsatisfied with, it is sometimes good to take a step back and understand the context of that player’s performance.
“You can always play better,” Laine said. “When you look at the circumstances, which a lot of people don’t when they judge you, a guy who hasn’t played in a year and was almost going to retire came back, then obviously a knee injury right away and then came back and did what I did this year still, I’m still happy with that.
“I know a lot of guys wouldn’t have done as well as I did when you look at the circumstances that weren’t easy, at all. And I had a ton of fun doing it, which is the only thing I wanted to do this year. Everything on top of that was going to be a bonus.”
The Canadiens have two players whose context is important to consider when evaluating what they can offer in the future.
Laine is one of them. He had shoulder surgery last season, and that impacted his ability to prepare properly for this season. He said the knee he decided not to have surgery on is fine, and he should be able to put in a full summer of training to prepare for next season. Let’s see what that looks like.
The other is Kirby Dach, whom we did not get a chance to speak with on Friday. His season was also impacted by circumstances, and next season will be as well. He needs to prove he can stay healthy, but his talent is undeniable.
There was once a belief that Andrei Markov couldn’t stay healthy after multiple knee injuries, and then suddenly he had a four-year injury-free run before missing 20 games in his final season with the Canadiens. He was highly effective and impactful.
Dach can still help the Canadiens get to where they want to go, Laine can too. They are wild cards for this organization, extremely talented wild cards who have had a lot of obstacles thrown in their way.
Dangers of recency bias
It was interesting to hear both Christian Dvorak and Joel Armia talk about their futures with the Canadiens as impending unrestricted free agents.
Dvorak refused to talk about it, choosing not to divulge whether there had been any talks with the front office on a contract extension. However, Armia did reveal that some contract talks had happened and that he was hopeful to stay.
Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes has already stated he does not want to flood the roster with youth next season, and with Ivan Demidov and perhaps David Reinbacher slated to start next season with the big club, there would likely be a desire to add some veterans to the mix as well.
The Canadiens already signed centre Jake Evans to a three-year contract extension worth $2.85 million a season just before the trade deadline, but that contract standoff is important when it comes to both Dvorak and Armia.
The Canadiens refused to get caught up in what was an outlier couple of months for Evans. In December alone, he had six goals and six assists in 14 games, including a five-game goal streak. That allowed him to reach the New Year with 23 points in 37 games. He had 13 points the rest of the season.
The contract Evans signed was fair for what he is, a great penalty killer who wins faceoffs and centres the fourth line. The contract Evans hoped to sign was more in line with how he was suddenly producing over the first half of the season. Ultimately, he decided to take what the Canadiens were offering so he could stay in Montreal.
With Dvorak, he had an excellent second half of the season, but his greater body of work is what needs to be looked at when deciding on a new contract. It was the first time in Dvorak’s career that he played 82 games, and his 33 points this season matched his high watermark in four seasons in Montreal. He’s excellent on faceoffs, and the Canadiens have no one else who can do that job effectively as a left-shot. He also kills penalties very well and has formed a strong veteran line with Josh Anderson and Brendan Gallagher.
After the 4 Nations, Dvorak was fifth on the team in scoring with 16 points in 26 games. But that is not representative of what Dvorak had done while earning $4.45 million a season over the last four years.
Armia provided essentially the same thing for a second consecutive season: fourth-line production, penalty killing and a big body who won board battles. If he does return, it will likely be for less than the $3.4 million a year he just earned.
Dvorak’s first instinct when asked about his time in Montreal was to talk about it in the past tense.
“Yeah, I loved it here,” he said.
Armia’s first thoughts were about how this playoff appearance bodes well for the future.
“I think it’s a great stepping stone to go forward,” Armia said. “I think we’re going to grow from this, and we’ve got a lot of confidence from this moving forward. So excited to see what’s in the future.”
One sounded like someone who is leaving, the other sounded like someone who still had hope of staying. What’s clear in both cases is that it will take a significant pay cut to stay.
Arber Xhekaj sees his development as a positive
Xhekaj had no issues being out of the lineup down the stretch and for the first two games of the playoffs. He said it is difficult to break up a winning lineup, and so he understood the decision.
But he did mention how it typically takes three years for a defenceman to become fully “molded,” and he just completed his third NHL season.
“I might be fully molded next year,” Xhekaj said with a laugh.
It was a joke, but it was also a recognition on his part that he still has work to do. It was an up-and-down season for Xhekaj, but the playoff series against the Capitals showed just how valuable he can be in a playoff environment as a big, physical, defensive defenceman.
He just needs to improve his defence. And he knows it.
“Honestly, this year my main goal was to just work on the defensive side, I just let the offensive side come when it did,” he said. “My identity is just going to be a big shutdown player who can stick up for his teammates and lock it down in any scenario, PK, six-on-five. That’s the kind of guy I want to be.
“I want to mold myself into a guy like Savvy.”
That would be David Savard, and while Savard’s retirement doesn’t impact Xhekaj too much since they play on different sides, his departure does provide a window for Xhekaj to assert himself in that role.
And the best part about it for the Canadiens is that he knows it.
(Photo of Lane Hutson, Patrik Laine, Juraj Slafkovský and Nick Suzuki: Minas Panagiotakis / Getty Images)