Cowan: How much longer will Canadiens management remain patient with rebuild?

MONTREAL CANADIENS Cowan: How much longer will Canadiens management remain patient with rebuild? Two weeks before the start of training camp, no key players have been added to the roster this summer. Can Alex Newhook fill a top-six forward spot after leading the Canadiens with seven goals in 19 playoff games last season? (John Mahoney / Montreal Gazette) By Stu Cowan September 2, 2026 at 2:28 p.m. Last Updated: September 2, 2026 at 2:29 p.m. Season 3 of The Rebuild: Inside the Montreal Canadiens premiered Tuesday on Crave with the first two episodes streaming. At the beginning of the first episode, Kaiden Guhle asks a good question to André St-Pierre, director of the behind-the-scenes docuseries. “Are you guys going to change the name, no?” the Canadiens defenceman says while holding up a clapperboard with the title The Rebuild III. “The Build, yeah? Built?” President of hockey operations Jeff Gorton and GM Kent Hughes have done a very impressive job of quickly rebuilding the Canadiens from the worst team in the NHL during the 2021-22 season to finishing sixth in the overall standings last season with a 48-24-10 record. As the youngest team in the playoffs for the second straight season, the Canadiens advanced to the Eastern Conference final before losing to the Carolina Hurricanes, who went on to win the Stanley Cup. The Build would have been a better title for the docuseries this year because the Canadiens aren’t a finished product yet. But they are getting closer to the ultimate goal of The Rebuild when it started: building a team that not only makes the playoffs for several consecutive years, but is also a legitimate Stanley Cup contender. Patience has been a virtue since this rebuild started and it will be interesting to see how patient Gorton and Hughes are willing to remain with fan expectations continuing to rise. Two weeks before the start of training camp, no key players have been added to the roster this summer, while Hughes continues his search for a top-six forward and possibly an experienced right-shot defenceman to play alongside Lane Hutson. The Canadiens have the core of their roster locked up to long-term contracts, with players willing to leave some money on the table to help build a championship team. “We’ve studied the teams that have had success,” Gorton says on the first episode of The Rebuild III. “And a lot of these teams that have won have had their players understand that they’re going to get paid, but they may not…