If it weren’t for Kirby Dach, much more would have been written about Alex Newhook being prone to injury. The speedy winger has now played three seasons with the Montreal Canadiens and was dressed for 179 games out of a possible 246, meaning he featured in only 73% of the Habs’ games; that’s more than Dach’s 47%, but that’s not ideal. In his 179 games, he scored 85 points, a 0.47 point-per-game average. In the playoffs, he put up two points in five games in 2025, but this past season, he managed to score 10 points in 19 games, for a .53 PPG average. Furthermore, he scored both the Canadiens’ series-clinching goals in games 7 against the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Buffalo Sabres.
Those playoffs were an excellent springboard for Newhook, who’s now entering the last year of the four-year deal he signed with the Habs when he was acquired in a deal with the Colorado Avalanche. As things stand, it looks highly likely that he will be able to resume his role on the Canadiens’ second line alongside Ivan Demidov and Oliver Kapanen. In an ideal world, Kent Hughes would have liked to get some reinforcements for his top six, either via trade or in the person of Michael Hage, but at this stage, all signs point to the Canadiens running it back with the same squad, minus Brendan Gallagher.
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Of course, nothing is decided until training camp. If someone outperforms Newhook, he could find himself down in the bottom six, but his performance last season before suffering a fractured ankle, coupled with his playoff production, certainly gives him a head start over a player like Dach, who had to settle for a one-year, $3.6 M contract after being offered a two-way qualifying offer.
Dach might have been a third overall pick by the Chicago Blackhawks, but so far, Newhook has had a much bigger impact on the Canadiens. The speed he brings to the table definitely makes him a good candidate to play alongside Demidov; he can get where the Russian winger will send the puck in a hurry, and he has more of a scoring touch than Jake Evans, for instance, who skated on the second line during the playoffs while Kapanen was a healthy scratch.
So far, Newhook has suffered two serious injuries, a high-ankle sprain in November 2023 and the above-mentioned ankle fracture in November 2025. When he did stay healthy in the 2024-25 season, he put up 26 points in 82 games; he nearly tied that production last season with 25 points, but in just 42 games. Fresh off a confidence-building performance in the playoffs and playing for a new contract, the odds are that Newhook will have the best season of his career, especially if he enjoys some stability when it comes to his linemates.
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A full season riding shotgun with Demidov could really unlock Newhook’s potential to the fullest. If he stays healthy and remains in the top six, it wouldn’t be shocking to see the Newfoundland native reach the 45- or even the 50-point mark, just at the right time to prove to the Habs that he deserves a new contract. On a young and inexperienced Canadiens’ team, Newhook brings a lot of playoff experience; after all, he did win the Stanley Cup with the Avalanche in his rookie season.
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