Pre-Game Talk: 2023-2024 Habs Rookie Camp & Training Camp

[JianYang]

Matheson plays a high risk/high reward type of game. He’ll help bring offense but will definitely make a lot of mistakes in the process.

I think they will be competitive on game to game basis, but standing wise the chances are pretty low. The Atlantic is just way too strong and you have some top teams in the Metropolitan.

I think Chicago, San Jose and Philadelphia are guaranteed to finish under us. Same could be said about Anaheim, unless the addition of some young prospects push them in the second tier.

Then you have Arizona, Columbus and us.

With some injuries that might change a bit. It’s pretty much a top 10 pick again.

Matheson is very aesthetically pleasing. Graceful skater, and it seems like msl has given him the green light to do things he usually wouldn't try in other organizations.

As for being competitive, I think you will see some stretches where they are competitive on a day to day basis but I still expect a fair amount of volitility, injuries or not.

Thats the normal trials a tribulations of a team that depends so much on really young guys who are also trying to put their stamp in the league.

 

[ChesterNimitz]

The Habs will be competitive in the sense that it won’t be an easy matchup for any team.

But they are still a step behind everyone else in the division. That’s the hard part.

With the development of one or two of our prospects, that step can close quickly. The difference between the teams that draft 1 OA and 15 OA will be marginal. A major injury here, a hot run there, and the final draft order may change significantly. Such is the effect of parity and free agency.

 

[le_sean]

With the development of one or two of our prospects, that step can close quickly. The difference between the teams that drafts 1 OA and 15 OA will be marginal. A major injury here, a hot run there, and the final draft order may change significantly. Such is the effect of parity and free agency.

Not in our division. The only argument that can be made is that we are on par with Detroit. But Tampa, Boston, Toronto, Florida, Buffalo and Ottawa are quite clearly ahead. That pushes the team down the standings on its own.

 

[RationalExpectations]

When will the rosters of teams red and white be made public ? I assume there will be numerous cuts before this game, right ?

 

[Milhouse40]

If it's not Matheson, Guhle, Hutson, Mailloux, Reinbacher, or Xhekaj that we trade, I'm not sure we could get another good piece at another position

Doesn't have to be the main piece either, Habs should be looking at quantity for quality at some point and that goes pretty much for every position. Not look to get rid as much as going for the missing pieces.

We overdrafted for the last 6 years, we boosted it up by trading some of those picks for Dach and Newhook, we already have 11 picks for each of the next 2 years.....Other than top picks, we don't need much much more.

 

[Destopcorner]

Love the chemistry between Newhook and Andy, just gotta find the right third wheel.

Caufield-Suzy-RHP
Roy-Dach-Mony (Heineman next year)
Slaf?-NH-Andy
Armia/Pezz-Evans-Gallagher
Ylonen

Second line could be deadly if Emil gets it togheter. Could play against any top line out there.

Sure hope RHP gets a chance to prove himself on the top line.

 

[Gaylord Q Tinkledink]

Should change Gallagher's nickname from Gally to MM(Muffin Man) because of the muffins he's always lobbing around

 

[Jack Skellington]

We can get two pieces for Chris Wideman.

Pieces of gum maybe

 

[HABitual Fan]

Price and Weber contracts turned out great. Price was either still going to be worth 10.5M (as he proved in our cup run) or LTIRetire due to injury and come off the cap. Weber was either going to decline in his final years and have his contracted traded to a team that needed to get to the floor (because his salary was so much lower than his cap hit) or be LTIRerire due to injury. Those two contracts didn't hurt us, as I expected all along.

I am a hardcore Bergevin hater. But those contracts weren't the problem.

I don't agree with you regarding Price's contract. Any competent GM would have the real dollars come down in the last years of an 8 year deal and not have signing bonuses in the last 4 years of the deal. A team interested in using the 10.5M in LTIR does not take a player getting 6.5M in real money not covered by insurance due to signing bonuses. They look for two like Tyler Myers earning 1M in real money. Inseason LTIR limits the spending in the offseason so the team has 10.5M less to spend, and you think that is good?

 

[Vachon23]

Love the chemistry between Newhook and Andy, just gotta find the right third wheel.

Caufield-Suzy-RHP
Roy-Dach-Mony (Heineman next year)
Slaf?-NH-Andy
Armia/Pezz-Evans-Gallagher
Ylonen

Second line could be deadly if Emil gets it togheter. Could play against any top line out there.

Sure hope RHP gets a chance to prove himself on the top line.

Keep Roy in the AHL, he will need time

 

[HABitual Fan]

I really think we will see Trudeau in the NHL at one point this season. He's that good.

I wonder if them playing Matheson on the right side is to open a potential spot for him on the left side defense.

Guhle Matheson
Trudeau Savard
Wifi Kovacevic
1 of Barron or Harris

 

[SannywithoutCompy]

Xhekaj is ma man. MSL better help him as much as he plans to help Slaf.


Top 4? Come on. The dude wouldn’t make it on a semi decent team. He’s got no speed , no playmaking, not to mention zero physical presence. No clue why Habs see in him.

Strong underlying numbers, rare mistakes, good penalty killing?

 

[Habs10Habs]

Not in our division. The only argument that can be made is that we are on par with Detroit. But Tampa, Boston, Toronto, Florida, Buffalo and Ottawa are quite clearly ahead. That pushes the team down the standings on its own.

I'm not so sure about Boston. Yes they still have a very strong defense core, and incredible goaltending. But they've lost a lot of offence, that they haven't replaced.

 

[viceroy]

We just lack Zegras. Throw them Barron, 2x1st, one of our young F (Mesar, Beck or Kidney) and some salaries to make things work (like Dvorak + Armia)

I'm thinking more of a Slafs + Mesar + Harris + Kidney/Farrell/1st

He also has the chance to be the guy up there.

So rewarding incompetence?

Sure as hell not going to waive Ylonen for the sake of that bum

Losing Ylonen is a nothing burger.

Slaf is going to be a special player. He have high offensive talent, great two-way ability and physical to dominate and put PPG type of season every year.

When is he gonna show any of this in the NHL?

The good new is we got the best player in the 2022 draft in the second round.

Beck and Hutson were the balm that helped soothe my heart.

There’s many reasons why we haven’t been relevant for thirty years.

I don't know if you've been keeping track but the Habs were in the Stanley Cup Finals like 2 seasons ago.

Nobody can't denied that Slaf is really really good on forecheck like Lehkonen !

Yeah he's like a bigger dumber Lekhonen.

It's not the line for him

I'd swap Heineman with Newhook Josh, and Slaf with Suzuki Caufield

Slafs has never worked with Suzuki and Caufield.

He should be should've been in the AHL.

Fixed it for you.

I like HuGo's updated deluxe version of the BargainBin... Dach and now Newhook... I'm intrigued

Yeah, Bergevin shopped at Value Village whilst Hughes shops at Winners.

People are being really childish with Slafkovsky

But many more are apologists for Slafs.

After 39 games in his first season, and 2 days of camp... why isn't he dominating yet???

Well could he at least've shown us something in the NHL?

Matheson - Barron
Guhle - Lindstrom
Xhekaj - Savard
Kova
Harris

No way is Lindstrom ahead of Kovacevic.

Contracts aside, we could easily bring in a guy like Beck if Gallagher, Armia, Evans weren't here.

Evans? How the heck is Evans' contract preventing us from anything? You know we will have to pay a 4th line C some money right?

There's no reason to even bring Beck in early and start the countdown to free agency/burn a year off his ELC when we're not competing.

We can give him 9(8?) games right? Let's do that as a reward and then tell him to own the O like Suzuki did in the OHL's playoffs.

Does Smilanic get an AHL contract?

I'm thinking he needs plenty of icetime in the ECHL and we pay for some therapy for the kid. He has potential and needs to work things out I'd hate to find out in a couple of years that his life had gone down the skids.

Not in our division. The only argument that can be made is that we are on par with Detroit. But Tampa, Boston, Toronto, Florida, Buffalo and Ottawa are quite clearly ahead.

I'm thinking Detroit, Buffalo and Ottawa will probably still underwhelm. I just want the kids to improve and could see a 80pt season for us. Well outta the playoffs.

 

[SlafySZN]

Slafs has never worked with Suzuki and Caufield.

He played so many minutes with them, you must be right everything indicates he doesn’t work well with them!

 

[MasterD]

Evans? How the heck is Evans' contract preventing us from anything? You know we will have to pay a 4th line C some money right?

A contract is not just money. It's also 1 less contract available under the limit (50), it's also a guy you have to put somewhere. I'm saying 3 years for a tweener like Evans was ludicrous, and Beck could have a spot. Or anyone else.

Price and Weber contracts turned out great. Price was either still going to be worth 10.5M (as he proved in our cup run) or LTIRetire due to injury and come off the cap. Weber was either going to decline in his final years and have his contracted traded to a team that needed to get to the floor (because his salary was so much lower than his cap hit) or be LTIRerire due to injury. Those two contracts didn't hurt us, as I expected all along.

I am a hardcore Bergevin hater. But those contracts weren't the problem.

LTIR is a problem in the offseason.

 

[Rapala]

Matheson plays a high risk/high reward type of game. He’ll help bring offense but will definitely make a lot of mistakes in the process.

I think they will be competitive on game to game basis, but standing wise the chances are pretty low. The Atlantic is just way too strong and you have some top teams in the Metropolitan.

I think Chicago, San Jose and Philadelphia are guaranteed to finish under us. Same could be said about Anaheim, unless the addition of some young prospects push them in the second tier.

Then you have Arizona, Columbus and us.

With some injuries that might change a bit. It’s pretty much a top 10 pick again.

He does which is one reason I hope they start him On RD with Ghule who is by far our best Dman against 2 on 1's. Not to mention we don't have two higher quality Dmen who can interchange on the fly.

 

[Vachon23]

Beck could have a spot

Beck should go dominate in the OHL and have big WJC tournament in big role. No need to play him in the NHL

Evans is a fine 4C make a good job on PK

 

[Rapala]

Had the Habs stayed healthy for the entire season, how many wins do you think they would have ended up with? Close to 40?

Probably not. If they hover around .500 it will probably be because they've stayed in more tight games. I'm thinking 35 would be more realistic then add another 4 OTL puts us at 80 pts. But you never know a hot little run or two with no real serious losing streaks could get them there.

 

[Colezuki]

Probably not. If they hover around .500 it will probably be because they've stayed in more tight games. I'm thinking 35 would be more realistic then add another 4 OTL puts us at 80 pts. But you never know a hot little run or two with no real serious losing streaks could get them there.

I say we finish 10th in the draft this year and next year the “p” word starts being lobbed around by management.

Highly unlikely but the free agency class next year is stacked could be the year they try and go big game hunting

 

[Big Lurk]

Sadly I don't see an NHL future for Cayden Primeau. Six years after being drafted, he simply hasn't evolved or improved.

He still hasnt played enough pro games.
I remember Stephane Waite saying he has great potential but would need at least 250-300 games in the A. I think hes just over 120. We'll lose him to waivers

 

[RationalExpectations]

I say we finish 10th in the draft this year and next year the “p” word starts being lobbed around by management.

Highly unlikely but the free agency class next year is stacked could be the year they try and go big game hunting

I really want the season to begin before making predictions because it seems unwise right now to estimate what kind of step young players will take.
If Dach Newhook reach what I hoped by D+5 when they got drafted (yes I was very high on Dach, even thought he could be better than Hughes if he improved his shot) this could be a playoff team. If they don't improve since last year but are a bit more healthy, bottom 3-7 again.

 

[viceroy]

He played so many minutes with them, you must be right everything indicates he doesn’t work well with them!

So we're in agreement. Coolsies.

 

[yianik]

We are not challenging for a Cup. If all goes perfectly maybe we would have some chance at hanging around a playoff spot, which we likely won't get. So once again, development is job1.

We need to give chances to those guys that are about out of time, like Ylonen and Kovacevic. Seems like successful teams have developed a surplus of good players, especially at D, like the AVs and Canes, so they are able to move a quality piece in a package even, for a good piece back. That's what we need, and the best way of doing that is seeing how high a ceiling a player has. I agree that a guy like Harris doesn't seem to have great tools, but I think it's too early to trade him, let see what he does this year if we can, because right now he isn't going to get us anything of value.

 

[A55P2]

He still hasnt played enough pro games.
I remember Stephane Waite saying he has great potential but would need at least 250-300 games in the A. I think hes just over 120. We'll lose him to waivers

We've all seen him play plenty. He's too slow. We see Dobes coming in year one looking like he's in fast forward compared to Primeau. It just ain't happening. Maybe a #2 at some point.