Dach Skated with the Top Line. Don't Read Too Much Into It.

Kirby Dach was on the ice with Nick Suzuki and Juraj Slafkovsky in Brossard on Tuesday, which is the kind of thing that gets noted and then immediately contextualized. The team was quick to say it doesn't signal anything about where Dach lands when training camp actually opens. Fair enough. Informal skates in September are not lineup cards.

Still, the image is worth something. Dach signed a one-year, $3.6 million deal in July, and the thinking behind that signing was always about depth — giving Montreal a forward who could absorb minutes and produce without leaning on the Suzuki line to carry everything. Last spring, the Canadiens averaged 2.8 goals per game over their final 10 games, a full goal below what they'd been putting up in the month prior. Suzuki was doing his part at 1.1 points per game across 49 games; the issue was what came after him in the lineup.

Dach is one answer to that. Berard is another. The front office spent the summer building out the forward group specifically so the offense wouldn't collapse again the moment the top line had a quiet week. Whether Dach ends up centering a second unit or slotting in elsewhere, his presence gives Martin St. Louis options he didn't have in March.

Camp will sort the lines out. For now, a Tuesday skate in Brossard is just a Tuesday skate in Brossard.