Although the Montreal Canadiens came in last place last season and were awarded the first-overall pick, you shouldn't count them out of contending in the stacked Atlantic Division. Ever since the firing of Mark Bergevin, new Habs GM Kent Hughes has been at the helm, making bold moves.
Forward Depth:
The Montreal Canadiens will enter the 2022–23 season as a very deep team. Hughes had a big offseason, bringing in Kirby Dach, Sean Monahan, Evgeni Dadonov, and even Juraj Slafkovský! Montreal is extremely deep up-the middle with the likes of Nick Suzuki, Christian Dvorak, Jonathan Drouin, Sean Monahan, and potentially even Kirby Dach.
Currently Montreal's forward group consists of:
Brendan Gallagher ($6,500,000)
Josh Anderson ($5,500,000)
Evgeni Dadonov ($5,000,000)
Joel Armia ($3,400,000)
Nick Suzuki ($7,875,000)
Christian Dvorak ($4,450,000)
Jake Evans ($1,700,000)
Kirby Dach ($3,000,000)
Mike Hoffman ($4,500,000)
Paul Byron ($3,400,000)
Rem Pitlick ($1,100,000)
Juraj Slafkovsky ($950,000)
Cole Caufield ($880,833)
Sean Monahan ($6,375,000)
Jonathan Drouin ($5,500,000)
The forward group consists of a lot of offensive weapons. They have snipers in Cole Caufield, Mike Hoffman and Evgeni Dadonov. They have physicality in Josh Anderson, Jake Evans and Joel Armia. While they also have younger rookies and sophomores that are looking to make a full-time position, such as Slafkovsky.
The Habs currently have a list of up to 15 skaters that have made NHL rosters before. Montreal will look to balance out the talent within their offensive group, you should not count the Habs out of the Atlantic Division this season!