Toronto focused on developing the forwards and getting Tavares too.
Habs seem focused on developing the defence. That is crucial to future success.
If Barron or Mailloux, Guhle and Xhekaj can even come CLOSE to a Big Three of Glory Days, and guys like Harris can be the Bill Nyrop or Brian Engblom to complement, look out!
If they do not all pan out, we have about $15-$20M we can spend annually within two years on UFA studs to fill the gaps in our prospect pool.
The Habs have too little talent and not enough prospects at forward right now and that is despite finishing out of the playoffs in four of the last five years.
You're saying if three of our d-men become HoF level players it would be good -- yeah I'm sure it would be.
Losing has an inconsistent and unreliable ROI is what I'm saying --- you could lose and lose and lose and not have much to show for it when the rubber meets the road.
It's simply very frustrating to watch a team with so much deadweight. Dadanov, Drouin, Byron, Hoffman, Gallagher, Armia, Savard... with Monty as a 1B goaltender
mon dieu this stinks. I hope this is resolved ASAP and those players replaced ASAP. Taking the long, scenic route will be painful.
Another irrelevant post. You are listing teams with incompetent management/owners. Pittsburgh had no problem, Chicago had no problem. Tampa had no problem. And it didn't hurt most of their players to tank for 2-3 years. The key factor is very competent management. HuGo is definitely that.
Forget your examples, what about MY even fewer, less relevant examples? Hmm?
Pittsburgh and Chicago were on the verge of bankruptcy and they sucked for a long time due to not spending on talent or facilities and they also benefited from the previous draft/lottery rules. The Habs will not likely see themselves in a similar position. Tampa is exceptional in many ways and is as irrelevant to the discussion as it gets.
The fact is that Toronto tanked and hasn't won a playoff round, they have two more years before Matthews leaves or re-ups and zero playoff run experience. Buffalo has had three tanks under one entire mega tank and are nowhere close to winning. Arizona isn't even a tank, it's a submarine - its where prospects go to die. Edmonton is cruelly wasting the prime of two of the best hockey players of our lifetimes because of their losing culture. Ottawa purposefully kept costs low and tanked and now they have loaded up on a team that is brittle and has very little playoff experience. Florida cut costs and tanked for years and are now scrambling to instill a winning environment before their terrific prospects spoil and rot.
Colorado was on the verge of the same thing, between picking up Duchene and MacKinnon and Cale Makar it was a long, long time.
In 2022, belief in losing for the sake of winning later is like believing in the good luck candy mountain.
Once the deadweight is jettisoned the Habs have to make shrewed moves and get rolling.
