2025-26 Depth Assessment: Right Wingers

The Habs have some impactful right-shot wingers on their roster heading into next season.  But from an organizational depth perspective, it’s one of their weaker spots.

While we know Martin St. Louis often likes to line up players on their off-wings, we’re going to keep it simple here.  Right wingers for this piece will be wingers who shoot right-handed similar to the left winger piece which focused on left-shot players.  But we know wingers are largely interchangeable in Montreal’s system.

NHL

Signed: Josh Anderson, Cole Caufield, Brendan Gallagher, Patrik Laine
RFAs: None
UFAs: None

Caufield may be undersized but he has certainly found a way to make an impact.  After being more of a true shooter coming out of college, he has really done well to round out his game the last couple of years.  He’s still an above-average sniper but his playmaking has come around to make him an all-around threat offensively.  Defensively, he’s still a work in progress but some positive strides have been made there as well.  He’s locked up for six more years at a reasonable rate that should only look better as the cap goes up, making Caufield a core piece for the long haul.

Laine is Montreal’s highest-paid forward after being acquired from Columbus last summer.  Year one certainly had some ups and downs.  He suffered a knee injury in the preseason, came back and went on quite a heater, then struggled down the stretch to the point where it looked like he was going to be healthy scratched in the playoffs before being listed as out with an injury.  At a minimum, his shot is a big weapon on the power play but the rest of his game was lacking.  Will a fully healthy summer and the motivation of a contract year bring out a more consistently impactful player?  He’s one of the bigger wild cards the Habs have this coming season as we await the answer to that question.

Who had Gallagher finishing in the top five in team scoring last season from a bottom-six spot?  I’m not sure even he did.  The contract (which still has two years left) is still an overpayment but Gallagher has done well to modify his game to fit his new role, one that was more of a veteran tone setter.  Can he keep up this type of 20-goal production?  Probably not but he has shown he can still be a quality contributor to this team.

Anderson was also somewhat of a pleasant surprise last season as he also changed his game to be more fitting of the crash-and-bang energy line he was on.  Notably, he also became part of the rotation on a penalty killing unit that punched about its weight class last season.  Like Gallagher, I’m not sure the offensive production from that lineup spot is sustainable but he’s going to be a high-priced valuable depth piece for the next couple of seasons.

Needs Assessment: Low – Beyond Caufield, there are three question marks with varying levels of upside.  Anderson and Gallagher likely play together on this year’s ‘veteran’ line (perhaps with Jake Evans or Alex Newhook) but will they be as successful without Christian Dvorak?  And who knows what will happen with Laine?  That’s a lot of questions for one particular spot in the lineup, especially their highest-paid forward group.  However, with the right-shot centres they have, they’re not in a spot where they can really add another right-shot winger as having too many same-side-shooting players poses a challenge.  Some work needs to be done here, just probably not this year.

AHL

Signed: Alex Belzile, Filip Mesar, Tyler Thorpe
RFAs: None
UFAs: None
AHL Contracts: Joseph Dunlap
AHL Free Agents: None

While Alex Barre-Boulet departed as expected in free agency, the Habs brought in a capable veteran replacement in Belzile.  His time with the Rangers didn’t yield the more consistent NHL look he was hoping for as he instead played exclusively with Hartford where he was their leading scorer by a significant margin.  He’ll be a top-liner with the Rocket, either on the wing or at centre where he has dabbled in the past.

While Belzile is more proven, there are question marks beyond that.  Expectations for Mesar heading into last season were largely tempered given his performance in junior but he still didn’t live up to them.  An early-season injury didn’t help but he wasn’t very productive when he was in an offensive role and he showed that he can’t contribute in other ways, leading him to be a healthy scratch for all but the last playoff game.  He’s a wild card for Laval for the upcoming season as if he can hold down a top-nine spot and contribute, he can stay on the prospect radar.  Otherwise, he could wind up being an afterthought.

Thorpe actually produced at a lower point-per-game rate last season in junior compared to the year before which generally isn’t ideal for prospects.  However, it was his play without the puck that likely got him signed.  His penalty killing was solid as was his board play which is to be expected from someone who was one of the biggest players in the league.  It wouldn’t be surprising to see him get the same treatment that Florian Xhekaj got last season as a rookie, that being fourth-line minutes at five-on-five with some penalty killing time, allowing him to gradually adjust to playing in the pros.

Dunlap was brought in late in the year after his fifth and final season at Ohio State where he didn’t crack their top five in scoring.  Given Laval’s depth up front in general, it’s safe to say that his likely starting point next season is with Trois-Rivieres with the hopes of playing his way into an in-season recall.

Needs Assessment: Medium – The interchangeability of a lot of Laval’s forwards mitigates this but basically, when you only have one impact player at a position, there’s work that could be done to improve it.

Other Prospects

Vinzenz Rohrer’s numbers don’t exactly jump off the sheet in his two years in Switzerland but he’s someone who should have an NHL career at least as a two-way complementary winger.  (He can even cover down the middle in a pinch.)  While he’s on the smaller side, his aggression might make him more effective on the smaller rinks which he has some experience with from his time in junior.  Signed to an entry-level contract, he might get a look at training camp with Montreal but would have to go back to Zurich if he doesn’t make the team.  But late in the year, he could get a look with the Habs or Laval so he may be heard from at some point in the spring.

L.J. Mooney was a fourth-round pick back at the draft in June but talent-wise, he should have gone much higher.  However, at 5’6 or 5’7 (depending on which site you look at), that lack of size scared teams off.  But he has legitimate top-six potential if he can show that he can produce against bigger and stronger players.  He’ll get that next taste of that this year at the University of Minnesota where he’ll need to spend at least two seasons there.

Montreal’s other prospect at this position is one of their late-round dart throws.  Makar Khanin was a seventh-round pick last year with their scouts noting his offensive skill earned him a look.  But instead of moving up from the VHL to the KHL, he was dropped to the MHL (junior league) where he produced less than in his draft year.  It’s only one season and it’s far too early to give up on him outright but right now, he’s a project that’s still years away at a minimum.

Needs Assessment: Medium/High – There’s not much quantity here compared to the other forward positions but Rohrer and Mooney give the Habs a couple of pieces with potential NHL upside.  But there is a definite need for help here given that three of Montreal’s four options will be done their contracts by 2027 and there isn’t much help in Laval coming behind them.  Yes, wingers can be flipped to their off-side in Montreal but it helps to have some balance and right now, they have several more lefties in the system than righties.

2025-26 Depth Assessment: Goalies
2025-26 Depth Assessment: Left Defencemen
2025-26 Depth Assessment: Right Defencemen
2025-26 Depth Assessment: Left Wingers
2025-26 Depth Assessment: Centres