Are we heading in the right direction? 2025 Version

[Lafleurs Guy]

Washington's coach heaping praise on our first line and Hutson.

Capitals Coach Gushes over Hutson, Suzuki Line, ‘And They’re So Young’

 

[rahad]

Yes and no. We will become a playoff team for the next 10 years. I don't know if we are going to be a Stanley cup winning team. I'm little bit worry with Dach And Reinbacher injury. We really needed a 2C and RHD. I has hoping Dach take the next step and become our 50+ pts 2C center.

We will see what Kent does this summer.

 

[Quatre Vingt Treize]

I asked this a couple of years ago. Are We Headed in the Right Direction?

How do you feel today? Are we on the right track? Do you feel differently now than you did before? Discuss.

We'll see
We were headed in right direction under Gainey. With Price, Subban, McDonagh, Plekanec were the Suzuki, Caufield, Hutson and Slafkovskys. Kovalev, Markov, Koivu, Souray were the veterans. Then it all fell apart.

 

[HabzSauce]

 

[Legend123]

Sure, but the opposite it's generally more true. Hedman, Weber, Ekholm, Forsling, Heiskanen, Pietrangelo. We just dont have that and I am confident it's a necessary piece to achieve success.

Because makar hughes hutson fox are quite rare and almost impossible to find. There's a reason there's only 4 of them

 

[Spearmint Rhino]

We were close last 2 mgmt teams but couldn’t find the missing pieces and windows closed, remains to be seen if Hughes can - track record shows he’s trying more than others but he needs to hit a home run this offseason IMO

 

[Habssince89]

We were close last 2 mgmt teams but couldn’t find the missing pieces and windows closed, remains to be seen if Hughes can - track record shows he’s trying more than others but he needs to hit a home run this offseason IMO

Hughes has done a better job in general and he's done it way faster than his predecessors. He's given himself a wider window than any other Habs gm has had in a while. There's no doubt he'll keep adding to this roster in a sustainable way

 

[Spearmint Rhino]

Hughes has done a better job in general and he's done it way faster than his predecessors. He's given himself a wider window than any other Habs gm has had in a while. There's no doubt he'll keep adding to this roster in a sustainable way

True, to be fair he's the only one that was given a rebuild mandate where the other's stayed in the half pregnant lane but now it's time to flip the script which is magnitudes harder than just picking high and selling off. 2C & Top 4 RHD are must adds this offseason, 2W would be nice but can see if anyone steps up or trade for in season, should not be as hard to find.

 

[CzarDemidov]

I never understood sports fans who felt like they also have to be personal fans of the GM/management.

Who cares if we're heading in the right direction? Every team can claim that. Some NY Rangers fans think the Rangers are back on the right track with Mike Sullivan in as coach.

What matters is getting there. Until we get there, we're not there. The rest is fluff to make yourself feel good and productive.

To wit: I felt like the Bergevin Habs were strange from the moment he signed Michel Therrien and acquired Francois Bouillon. But alongside a vast majority of the fanbase, I felt we were going in the right direction on account of the youth and talent on the roster. What happened? Year after year and more questions than answers. More bizarre decisions, more bizarre non-decisions.

To the very last day and for long after that, a huge contingent of fans still felt the Bergevin Habs were doing things in the right direction.

It's meaningless pablum.

Until we win playoff series years in a row and see a higher level of performance and expectations, we won't be able to say that we got there.

 

[Habssince89]

True, to be fair he's the only one that was given a rebuild mandate where the other's stayed in the half pregnant lane but now it's time to flip the script which is magnitudes harder than just picking high and selling off. 2C & Top 4 RHD are must adds this offseason, 2W would be nice but can see if anyone steps up or trade for in season, should not be as hard to find.

Bergevin cheaped out like the stingy bastard he is every time he had the chance. Hughes has a different mandate but he's clearly better at managing a hockey team.

 

[Kaiden Ghoul]

I love him but I highly doubt a team can with the Stanley Cup playing a 5'9' dman 25 minutes a night. If I'm wrong I'll gladly eat crow, the Avalanche won with Makar playing a big role -- but he is, yes, bigger, better defensively, better supporting cast. There is no Devon Toews playing along Hutson neither.

So IMO the most important change is to bring Bowen Byram, Noah Dobson or a guy like them who can take the most of the minutes and let Hutson do his things.

Boyle did it with TB and they did not have a great D overall either

I like your idea of Byram but it will cost more since the inter division and Dobson with Hutson would make us lose our hair. Would rather aim for Pulock if I'm dealing with NYI

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

We'll see
We were headed in right direction under Gainey. With Price, Subban, McDonagh, Plekanec were the Suzuki, Caufield, Hutson and Slafkovskys. Kovalev, Markov, Koivu, Souray were the veterans. Then it all fell apart.

Yep. But this board knew immediately that the Higgins/McDonaugh trade would be a disaster. We haven't seen anything close to that here. That core absolutely should've won some cups. But we hired a horrible coach and did absolutely nothing to help that group. Just a horrific waste of talent.

Another big difference is the depth of quality players/prospects we have now vs then. Price and Subban were two players who were best in league at their positions. Both offered up HOF caliber play. We don't know yet if that's going to happen with anyone in our group but there are some encouraging signs.

I'm ready to say Lane Hutson is a blue chip superstar. His rookie year was simply a repeat of everything he's done in junior. He may not reach the heights of Carey Price (who for a few years was arguably the best player in the league) but he SHOULD have a longer - maybe better - career. Demidov is now considered by many to be the best prospect outside the NHL. He's the other guy I'd say who has the best chance of becoming a superstar.

Then you've got Suzuki, Caufield, Slaf, Reinbacher and Guhle. I believed that Caufield was destined to become a superstar and that hasn't happened. When healthy under MSL he's a 40+ goal per 82 game player. A big part of that is injuries but we'll see how he does next year. At the very least, he's a solid number one winger. At least as good as Max Paccioretty. Suzuki has gone from excellent 2A center to legit number one over the past couple of seasons. He's the best center we've had probably since the early 90s and has shown glimpses of putting up legit superstar numbers. Much, much better than Thomas Plekanec or Alex Galchenyuk (who should've been a much better player than he turned out to be.) And then we have Slaf. He may be a bit of a mystery box but the potential is there for at least a first line winger. Reinbacher looks like a really good big two way blueliner in the mold of a Roman Hamrlyk. And Kaiden Guhle has 1D potential and at worst is an excellent 2nd pairing physical blueliner. That's an incredible young core.


For fun, let's include McDonnaugh in the mix even though he was gone by the time we got Galchenyuk. Let's look at the foundational cores of both eras. Of course for every Beaulieu there's a Maillioux, Joshua Roy type who have great potential but may not make it here. We will omit those kinds of players here. I'm also going to omit guys like Eller who aren't really core players.

Group 1
Price, Subban, McD, Plek, Galchenyuk, Gallagher, Paccioretty

Group 2
Hutson, Demidov, Caufield, Guhle, Suzuki, Slafkovsky, Reinbacher

For arguments sake let's just give a tie to the following: Hutson = Price. Caufield = Max. Guhle = McDonnaugh.

That leaves the following:
Subban, Plek, Galchenyuk Gallagher

Demidov, Suzuki, Reinbacher, Slafkovsky

Suzuki, Slaf and Reinbacher crush Plek, Gallagher and Chuck. But Subban's the big superstar here. A lot depends on whether or not Demidov can level up to be the superstar we all think he'll be. If he is, then this second group is far, far better than the first.

I think today's core is a fair bit better. Price is the best player of all but injuries limited him and he's not enough to sway this towards the old team. I also think our GM and coaching is miles better. Coaching seriously held us back especially in the case of Galchenyuk. We don't have that problem now.

 

[The Gr8 Dane]

We were close last 2 mgmt teams but couldn’t find the missing pieces and windows closed, remains to be seen if Hughes can - track record shows he’s trying more than others but he needs to hit a home run this offseason IMO

We we're never close imo , still aren't but we are getting there and much more promising than previous renditions of the team

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Hughes has done a better job in general and he's done it way faster than his predecessors. He's given himself a wider window than any other Habs gm has had in a while. There's no doubt he'll keep adding to this roster in a sustainable way

This is I think, the biggest differentiator. We have people at the helm with a plan who know what they're doing. There's absolutely no reason they couldn't have added to that core in the past. Moreover, the coaching held us back to such an extent that it fractured the dressing room. That's not the case now and even if you think MSL is overrated, he at least is a decent coach.

I'm excited to see what we do going forward. Still lots of work to do as we have some big holes but we're in a really good position now.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

We we're never close imo , still aren't but we are getting there and much more promising than previous renditions of the team

It'd be like Bergevin taking this core over now and doing nothing to improve it.

That's exactly what happened with the old core. Just like today, we had some holes that should've been relatively easy to fill but we just left it there and then added guys like Douglas Murray, Boullion... and got Dale Weiss to play on our first line. It was just mind boggling. To make matters worse, we had Therrien destroying young players and putting David Desharnais as our 1C.

Imagine if four years from now Hughes was sitting there after doing nothing and saying 'well, there are no centers available so...'

It's one thing to not be able to do it over a summer. But Bergevin had YEARS to fix things and did nothing.

 

[The Gr8 Dane]

It'd be like Bergevin taking this core over now and doing nothing to improve it.

That's exactly what happened with the old core. We had some holes that should've been relatively easy to fill but we just left it there and then added guys like Douglas Murray, Boullion... and got Dale Weiss to play on our first line. It was just mind boggling.

Yeah we could have been close but it would have taken a massive move for a forward , as in getting a real core piece superstar , that's why imo we were never close , the cup run on carey's back was fun but that team could simply not even compete with tampa in the finals , like not even close.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Yeah we could have been close but it would have taken a massive move for a forward , as in getting a real core piece superstar , that's why imo we were never close , the cup run on carey's back was fun but that team could simply not even compete with tampa in the finals , like not even close.

I don't think we needed a superstar. I think we needed a good center and a good coach. We could've gotten so much more out of the team we had just by having a different coach.

Carey Price didn't need much support. But we gave him none.

 

[Andy]

There's absolutely no reason they couldn't have added to that core in the past.

Exactly. I know people are unhappy with the Newhook, Laine, and Dach trades, but to a certain extent, this is what MB should have been trying to do to support Pacioretty, Subban, Markov, Gallagher, Price, Plekanec.

Yah, two, maybe even all three of those trades are failing, but it shows an understanding that you can't just sit around and hope the draft stars align. Proactivity is required. Proactivity will result in some failures, but it shouldnt discourage risk.

Basically, every off-season, HuGo have tried to add depth to the top 6. We've seen Monahan, Newhook, Laine, Dach come in. I wish MB had that type of aggressivity with the previous core.

The current Ops team has the right approach of balancing drafting, accumulation of assets, and risk taking via trades.

 

[Quatre Vingt Treize]

Yep. But this board knew immediately that the Higgins/McDonaugh trade would be a disaster. We haven't seen anything close to that here. That core absolutely should've won some cups. But we hired a horrible coach and did absolutely nothing to help that group. Just a horrific waste of talent.

Another big difference is the depth of quality players/prospects we have now vs then. Price and Subban were two players who were best in league at their positions. Both offered up HOF caliber play. We don't know yet if that's going to happen with anyone in our group but there are some encouraging signs.

I'm ready to say Lane Hutson is a blue chip superstar. His rookie year was simply a repeat of everything he's done in junior. He may not reach the heights of Carey Price (who for a few years was arguably the best player in the league) but he SHOULD have a longer - maybe better - career. Demidov is now considered by many to be the best prospect outside the NHL. He's the other guy I'd say who has the best chance of becoming a superstar.

Then you've got Suzuki, Caufield, Slaf, Reinbacher and Guhle. I believed that Caufield was destined to become a superstar and that hasn't happened. When healthy under MSL he's a 40+ goal per 82 game player. A big part of that is injuries but we'll see how he does next year. At the very least, he's a solid number one winger. At least as good as Max Paccioretty. Suzuki has gone from excellent 2A center to legit number one over the past couple of seasons. He's the best center we've had probably since the early 90s and has shown glimpses of putting up legit superstar numbers. Much, much better than Thomas Plekanec or Alex Galchenyuk (who should've been a much better player than he turned out to be.) And then we have Slaf. He may be a bit of a mystery box but the potential is there for at least a first line winger. Reinbacher looks like a really good big two way blueliner in the mold of a Roman Hamrlyk. And Kaiden Guhle has 1D potential and at worst is an excellent 2nd pairing physical blueliner. That's an incredible young core.


For fun, let's include McDonnaugh in the mix even though he was gone by the time we got Galchenyuk. Let's look at the foundational cores of both eras. Of course for every Beaulieu there's a Maillioux, Joshua Roy type who have great potential but may not make it here. We will omit those kinds of players here. I'm also going to omit guys like Eller who aren't really core players.

Group 1
Price, Subban, McD, Plek, Galchenyuk, Gallagher, Paccioretty

Group 2
Hutson, Demidov, Caufield, Guhle, Suzuki, Slafkovsky, Reinbacher

For arguments sake let's just give a tie to the following: Hutson = Price. Caufield = Max. Guhle = McDonnaugh.

That leaves the following:
Subban, Plek, Galchenyuk Gallagher

Demidov, Suzuki, Reinbacher, Slafkovsky

Suzuki, Slaf and Reinbacher crush Plek, Gallagher and Chuck. But Subban's the big superstar here. A lot depends on whether or not Demidov can level up to be the superstar we all think he'll be. If he is, then this second group is far, far better than the first.

I think today's core is a fair bit better. Price is the best player of all but injuries limited him and he's not enough to sway this towards the old team. I also think our GM and coaching is miles better. Coaching seriously held us back especially in the case of Galchenyuk. We don't have that problem now.

Might be, might not. Hughes wants to improve. Acquiring good #2 center be crucial taking next step. Dach over Strome was a major mistake. Plus lost a first. Newhook we lost 2 firsts. Not a good impression. Same as right D, Barron was mistake, costs us another first.

Gainey started great also. Kovalev, Price, Subban, McDonagh. Upset heavy favour Bruins his first playoffs. Bergevin did too. Upset Bruins his first round. Dale Weise, Weaver, Ryder, Weber, Suzuki,Vanek.

I seen a lot of GMs start with a lot of hype but making it cup contender takes another level.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Exactly. I know people are unhappy with the Newhook, Laine, and Dach trades, but to a certain extent, this is what MB should have been trying to do to support Pacioretty, Subban, Markov, Gallagher, Price, Plekanec.

Yah, two, maybe even all three of those trades are failing, but it shows an understanding that you can't just sit around and hope the draft stars align. Proactivity is required. Proactivity will result in some failures, but it shouldnt discourage risk.

Basically, every off-season, HuGo have tried to add depth to the top 6. We've seen Monahan, Newhook, Laine, Dach come in. I wish MB had that type of aggressivity with the previous core.

The current Ops team has the right approach of balancing drafting, accumulation of assets, and risk taking via trades.

Yep. Exactly the kinds of risks you want to take. Even if it doesn’t always work out, it’s worth doing. And the Dach trade should’ve worked.

Contrast this with how we handled Galchenyuk who showed all kinds of promise. It was clear Therrien didn’t like the way he played. So rather than trade him we moved him down the lineup behind inferior players and used DD as our first line center. Absolute madness.

 

[Boss Man Hughes]

So far none of HuGo's moves have been mistakes. Some moves (trades) haven't turned out the way they hoped but they were the right move at the time.

 

[Habs Halifax]

We'll see
We were headed in right direction under Gainey. With Price, Subban, McDonagh, Plekanec were the Suzuki, Caufield, Hutson and Slafkovskys. Kovalev, Markov, Koivu, Souray were the veterans. Then it all fell apart.

Not the same situation. The Habs stock pile of youth and picks over the last 7 years is just not a normal situation. Yeah, you might look at the core parts in the NHL now and compare but the major difference is we have lots of players that will fill depth holes. Some will say this is meh and you can find this in the open market but that is just wrong. The difference between filling depth holes with ELC/Bridge deals is not the same as filling them with trades or UFA bloated contracts.

Go look at how many top 100 picks we had from 08-11. I've said this for years. The Habs past management did add pieces (Price, Subban, McDonagh, Pleky, etc) but there was a massive gap after them. Both Gainey and Bergevin were trying to fill holes with trades and UFA signings which is a fools game.

I feel confident we will be a top 10 or top 10-15 team in the foreseeable future but the unanswered question is can we get in the top 5 or top 5-10 range. Based on what we have been seeing, I do feel we will become a top 5 team (+/-) but that might take a few years yet. We need our youth to be in their prime years and that's going to take a bit. Most contenders don't shine until their core is 24/25+. Right now, we have some at that age but so many younger ones coming.

Next year or two are still transition years. Then the 2-5 year span is where we really start to see how good this core is.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Might be, might not.

In terms of progress, it's tough to see how it's not a success so far. If we knew four years ago where we'd be right now I think everyone would be ecstatic.

Going forward is obviously a we'll see. But it's hard to criticize much from the GM so far.

Hughes wants to improve. Acquiring good #2 center be crucial taking next step. Dach over Strome was a major mistake. Plus lost a first.

I don't think getting Dach was a mistake. I think we had bad luck after he got here. That move should've worked. I don't think it's accurate to say we lost a first. The move was Romanov for Dach. You can make the right move and get the wrong result. I think that's what happened here.

Newhook we lost 2 firsts. Not a good impression.

We gave the 31st and 37th for Newhook. About market price for him.

You could be right... that could blow up on us. But I think Newhook should at least be a good bottom six for us going forward.

Same as right D, Barron was mistake, costs us another first.

We used the pick we got with Barron to trade up for Hage. And then flipped Barron for Carriere. That's excellent and I'm good with it.

You have to look at these move in the context in which they were made. I think they were good gambles at the time. These things don't always work out but sometimes they do. And look at some of the other trades. Two firsts for Monahan coming and going. Matheson was a first. Hutson was from a rebuild trade...

Sam Pollock used to make these kinds of trades all the time. It's how he got Larry Robinson and Ken Dryden. But there was a lot of other junk that he collected along the way. No, it won't always work out. But you're going to get some gems and you can always leverage what you have for other things (as we did moving up on the Hage pick.)

Gainey started great also. Kovalev, Price, Subban, McDonagh. Upset heavy favour Bruins his first playoffs. Bergevin did too. Upset Bruins his first round. Dale Weise, Weaver, Ryder, Weber, Suzuki,Vanek.

I seen a lot of GMs start with a lot of hype but making it cup contender takes another level.

Yep. And he's got a long way to go.

But we're off to a really good start.

 

[Lshap]

The second youngest roster in the league makes the playoffs – that's damn impressive. It's as ironclad proof as you can get that the team is headed in the right direction.

Due to develop/improve: Demidov, Hutson, Slafkovsky, Dobes.
Incoming high-end potential: Fowler, Reinbacher, Hage

That's as good a position as any young team in the league. The argument that Montreal is a couple of key injuries away from regressing applies to any team. No point assuming worst case scenarios. It's more logical to assume this young roster will progress and improve.

Contrast Montreal with Ottawa, whose roster has far less room to improve than ours. Aside from Sanderson, their core is either already in their prime or, in the case of Giroux and Perron, past it.

Yes, there's still work to be done. The toughest individual hole to fill is a 2C. However, the main roster weakness is our defense. Reinbacher could become a crucial top-4 D; then we need to add big, smart depth players in the backend. Could Struble and Xhekaj become those guys? Maybe, but we should be looking at solid veterans who can allow Hutson to do his thing. We're not getting another Weber, we might be lucky enough to find another Petry, but there's no reason we can't add another Edmundson/Chiarot.

 

[Captain Mountain]

The second youngest roster in the league makes the playoffs – that's damn impressive. It's as ironclad proof as you can get that the team is headed in the right direction.

Due to develop/improve: Demidov, Hutson, Slafkovsky, Dobes.
Incoming high-end potential: Fowler, Reinbacher, Hage

That's as good a position as any young team in the league. The argument that Montreal is a couple of key injuries away from regressing applies to any team. No point assuming worst case scenarios. It's more logical to assume this young roster will progress and improve.

Contrast Montreal with Ottawa, whose roster has far less room to improve than ours. Aside from Sanderson, their core is either already in their prime or, in the case of Giroux and Perron, past it.

Yes, there's still work to be done. The toughest individual hole to fill is a 2C. However, the main roster weakness is our defense. Reinbacher could become a crucial top-4 D; then we need to add big, smart depth players in the backend. Could Struble and Xhekaj become those guys? Maybe, but we should be looking at solid veterans who can allow Hutson to do his thing. We're not getting another Weber, we might be lucky enough to find another Petry, but there's no reason we can't add another Edmundson/Chiarot.

I think Ottawa is a good example of the pitfalls the team faces this offseason (and from the tone of HuGo in their end of season press conference, I think they recognize that).

Montreal can't sacrifice major futures for quick fixes in the present, the way Ottawa did (DeBrincat, Chychrun). Development still needs to be the focus, just with adding veterans more able to help the transition out of the rebuild.