The logo on the screen looked strangely familiar on a night it wasn’t supposed to: that tilted C-and-H glowing beside a man in black and silver who was never meant to look out of place anywhere. Phillip Danault didn’t speak after the game in San Jose. He didn’t have to. The bench did the talking for him in the third period, and the silence that followed said the rest. What happened between a coach’s decision and a veteran’s stare is where this story stops being obvious—and where it starts getting interesting.

There’s a version of events that is tidy: a scoring slump, a message delivered, a reset. But then you begin to pull on the loose threads. Eleven games without a goal for a player long trusted to stabilize chaos. A Tuesday night where the clock kept moving and Danault didn’t. A postgame confirmation that there was no injury, no equipment issue, no mystery illness—only a choice. And then, curiously, the conversations that shouldn’t have started began to spread in places you wouldn’t expect: text chains between scouts, late-night radio in two time zones, a whisper from a former coach who knows how rooms shift when a familiar voice walks back through the door.

Could a return ever be more than a headline? The easy answer is no—contracts, clauses, cap math, California sunshine, all those immutable hurdles that keep fantasy out of the real world. And yet, sometimes the data doesn’t quite explain the mood. Three assists and a plus-three won’t calm a fan base that remembers what he used to erase, the fires he put out before they became seasons. Nor does it calm a coach who wants a different beat to the music. Somewhere between those two truths is a detail that hasn’t been printed, one that reframes what a “benching” actually set in motion.

In Montreal, patience always has a stopwatch. In Los Angeles, reputation has a ledger. Somewhere between Brossard and El Segundo, there’s a file with a note in the margin—a note written recently—that changes how people talk behind doors that don’t stay closed for long. The note isn’t about goals, not really. It’s about a role that doesn’t quite fit the way it used to, a center who covers for others until the covering becomes the story, and the moment a club asks if protection is progress or just pause.

What would it take for a reunion to move from theory to plan? The answer, apparently, is not just a phone call. It’s timing, leverage, a clause that protects the man and a number that protects the team, and a third piece that no one will put on the record yet. It lives in a question someone important asked this week—a question that, if answered the way one side hopes, would change the depth chart on two continents of expectation.

For now, all you need to know is this: something small just changed around Phillip Danault, and whenever that happens, the echoes tend to travel back to the same address. The Kings have a decision to clarify. The Canadiens have a conversation to finish. And there’s one more element to this that you haven’t heard yet—the one that makes “impossible” sound a little less certain.

LA Kings forward Phillip Danault, Canadiens Logo

Photo credit: All Habs / Martin Chevalier TVA Sports

Phillip Danault and the Los Angeles Kings are going through a tougher stretch, as the former Canadiens center was recently benched.

And now several analysts are wondering if a return to Montreal could actually be realistic.

Since the start of the season, things haven’t been easy for Phillip Danault in California.

The Quebec native, always known for being so reliable at both ends of the ice, still hasn’t scored after eleven games, and his lack of offensive production is starting to raise concerns.

Given his past seasons, I have to admit I’m quite surprised to be reading this.

And on Tuesday night, against the San Jose Sharks, his coach Jim Hiller decided to keep him on the bench for most of the third period.

Phillip Danault benched by the Los Angeles Kings, according to TVA Sports

As reported by TVA Sports, Hiller confirmed that Danault was not injured at all. We can therefore conclude it was a disciplinary decision from the coach.

“It was a coach’s decision, nothing more,” summarized Hiller, who was clearly trying to send a message to his 32-year-old veteran.

On average, Danault has been playing nearly 17 minutes per game this season, recording three assists and a +3 differential.

However, his lack of goals and recent offensive struggles are starting to raise real questions about his long-term role with the team.

In an analysis published by Marc-Olivier Cook of DansLesCoulisses, former coach Jack Han even suggested that the Canadiens might consider bringing the veteran back.

“What if the ideal solution was Phillip Danault?” he said, referring to his leadership and defensive reliability.

It would truly be great to see the former Hab return after all these years!

Danault, who earns $5.5 million per season through 2027, has a partial no-trade clause.

In my opinion, a Danault return could make sense – if the price is right. He’d bring a strong veteran presence to help guide the younger players.