Some seasons are judged by the standings. This one is judged differently: by how many things happened that had not happened in a very, very long time.
Suzuki: 101 points, and 2 droughts ending together
Nick Suzuki scored 101 points in 82 games — 29 goals, 72 assists. It is the first 100-point season by a Canadiens player since Mats Näslund's 110 in 1985-86. Forty years.
There is a bigger one, and it went largely unnoticed: Suzuki finished 6th in NHL scoring. The last Canadien to finish in the top ten was, again, Näslund — 8th, in 1985-86. Both streaks broke in the same year because both had started in the same year.
Worth noting: 1985-86 is also a Stanley Cup year.
And it is no fluke. Suzuki has improved 5 seasons running:
| Season | Points |
|---|---|
| 2021-22 | 61 |
| 2022-23 | 66 |
| 2023-24 | 77 |
| 2024-25 | 89 |
| 2025-26 | 101 |
Caufield: 51 goals, exactly like Richer
Cole Caufield scored 51 goals in 81 games. The last Canadien to reach 50 was Stéphane Richer in 1989-90 — with 51 as well. Thirty-six years, and the same total to the goal.
What makes it larger still is the league context. In 2025-26, only two players reached 50 goals: Nathan MacKinnon with 53, and Caufield. Scoring fifty is not what it was in the 1980s, when half a dozen players managed it every winter.
Caufield finished 2nd in the NHL in goals.
Hutson: the best Canadiens defenceman since Robinson
Lane Hutson put up 78 points — 12 goals, 66 assists. It is the third-best season by a Canadiens defenceman, in any era. Ahead of him, the same man twice:
| Season | Player | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1976-77 | Larry Robinson | 85 |
| 1985-86 | Larry Robinson | 82 |
| 2025-26 | Lane Hutson | 78 |
League-wide he finished 4th among defencemen, behind Evan Bouchard, Zach Werenski and Cale Makar.
Two elite rookies, two years running
This is the rarest statistic of the season, and the least discussed.
Lane Hutson in 2024-25: 66 points. Ivan Demidov in 2025-26: 62 points. Both rank among the ten best rookie seasons in club history:
| Club rank | Season | Player | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1985-86 | Kjell Dahlin | 71 |
| 2 | 1982-83 | Mats Näslund | 71 |
| 3 | 2024-25 | Lane Hutson | 66 |
| 4 | 1971-72 | Guy Lafleur | 64 |
| 5 | 1984-85 | Chris Chelios | 64 |
| 6 | 2003-04 | Michael Ryder | 63 |
| 7 | 2025-26 | Ivan Demidov | 62 |
Two consecutive seasons in that table is unheard of in the club's recent history.
5 scorers at 60 points: the last time was the Cup year
Suzuki 101, Caufield 88, Hutson 78, Juraj SlafkovskĂ˝ 73, Demidov 62. 5 Canadiens reached 60 points.
The last time the club had that many: 1992-93. The most recent Stanley Cup. The 5th that year was Mike Keane, at exactly 60 points.
SlafkovskĂ˝ deserves his own line: 30 goals and 73 points, after 51 points the year before. It is his first 30-goal season.
The offence: from 27th to 7th in 4 years
The most telling team number is not the points total, it is the scoring:
| Season | Goals for | NHL rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2021-22 | 218 | 27th |
| 2022-23 | 227 | 26th |
| 2023-24 | 232 | 26th |
| 2024-25 | 243 | 17th |
| 2025-26 | 279 | 7th |
The power play follows the same curve: 23.1% this season, against 20.1% last year and 16.1% four years ago.
With 106 points (48-24-10), the Canadiens posted their 12th-best season in 108 years, and their best since 2014-15.
The flip side: one shutout
Every season has an awkward number, and this one has a good one. Canadiens goaltenders recorded a single shutout all year — Jacob Fowler's.
It is the club's lowest total since 1955-56, tied rather than beaten: seven other seasons also sit at one. A team that scores a lot is not necessarily a team that closes the door.
Every figure in this article comes from the site's data warehouse, covering the 108 seasons since 1917-18.