Breaking: 3 fan favorites won't be back with the Canadiens next season, per Stu Cowan
Stu Cowan reported Tuesday that Brendan Gallagher, Patrik Laine and Samuel Montembeault won't be back with the Montreal Canadiens next season.
That's three names. Three contracts. And one very loud message about where Kent Hughes is taking this roster.
Gallagher is the most surprising of the three. He's the heartbeat name, the one fans wear, the one nobody really wanted to picture in another jersey.
But the numbers tell their own story. 7 goals and 23 points in 77 games at a $6.5 million cap hit doesn't survive a real cap conversation in 2026.
Laine is the cleaner call on paper. Five games played. Zero goals. A -3 rating. An abdomen issue that landed him on IR and never let go.
At $8.7 million against the cap, a healthy version of that player still wasn't showing up. Montreal can't keep paying for the bet.
Montembeault's exit reshapes the Canadiens' crease
Montembeault is the one that changes the most about next October. He's the incumbent. He's the guy who played the big nights. And now he's apparently out the door at a $3.15 million cap hit.
His season told the truth before the report did. 25 games, a .873 save percentage. The starter's chair sat under him and creaked.
So who handles the crease now? That's a question Hughes doesn't get to punt on. The Canadiens are coming off a 48-24-10 finish and 106 points. This isn't a rebuild anymore. Jakub Dobes and Jacob Fowler are a great duo.
Martin St-Louis has a top-six that scored 283 goals. He has a 7-3-0 stretch over the final 10 games to point to as proof the room is real. He doesn't have a goalie answer past Tuesday.
There's something almost surgical about cutting Gallagher, Laine and Montembeault in the same breath. It's the kind of week that ages a fan base ten years in two news cycles.
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YESTERDAY
MAY 29, 2026
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| G | A | PTS | ||
| Taylor Hall | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Logan Stankoven | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Jackson Blake | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Seth Jarvis | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Cole Caufield | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Shayne Gostisbehere | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Eric Robinson | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Sebastian Aho | - | 1 | 1 | |
| William Carrier | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Nikolaj Ehlers | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Lane Hutson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Alexander Nikishin | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Andrei Svechnikov | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Frederik Andersen | - | - | - | |
| Josh Anderson | - | - | - | |
| Zachary Bolduc | - | - | - | |
| Alexandre Carrier | - | - | - | |
| Jalen Chatfield | - | - | - | |
| Kirby Dach | - | - | - | |
| Phillip Danault | - | - | - | |
| COMPLETE STATS | ||||