Are we heading in the right direction? 2025 Version

[Lshap]

it all hinges on KH making to correct moves, Reinbacher, Demidov, Dach and Laine.

If Reinbacher isn’t a legit above avg top 4, the D probably isn’t strong enough or acquiring the missing piece will be too expensive.

Demidov, need to be a impact player to strengthen the top 6.

Dach chance is are we can no longer hope he surpasses Suzuki but if he able to be a 2C or elite 3rd liner that would still be a pretty win

Laine if he can get back to ppg form it would be pretty miracle but even if he only give us what he gave us last year with a little more consistency. That would be a big help even if it is just short term

Even if CC Suzuki Slaf Hutson Improve, I have a hard time thinking they can be pull the team more than they they already did…
we are still min 2 players away and KH will have a lot of pressure a fill to hole quickly but I think this is where we have to be even more patient even team is waiting for him and we made the playoff but we could very easily not make them next year.

Montreal is the 2nd youngest team in the league and the youngest playoff team, which leaves more time and space for improvement than anyone else around us.

Improving: Demidov +++, Hutson ++, Slafkovsky +, Dobes ++, Guhle +

That doesn't include positive impacts from incoming Reinbacher and Fowler, or incremental improvement from Heineman, Kapanen, Struble, or even Newhook. Obviously not all young players will pan out, but some will. Any improvement improves the team.

Contrast the Habs with Ottawa. Aside from Sanderson, a terrific young D, who on their roster is likely to improve? Cozens is new and could help them a bit, but everyone else, including Stutzle and Tkachuk, are what they are. Meanwhile, they're still leaning on Giroux, who's 37.

And then there's regression. How much longer do you think Florida is hanging on as a contender? Likewise, Tampa begins its downward slide next season.

Ottawa may improve its position thanks to other teams getting weaker, but Montreal's in a much better position to actually improve.

Of course nothing is linear. Players and teams often defy predictions. But based on what we see, Montreal is built better for improvement than most teams around us.

 

[Sorinth]

Montreal is the 2nd youngest team in the league and the youngest playoff team, which leaves more time and space for improvement than anyone else around us.

Improving: Demidov +++, Hutson ++, Slafkovsky +, Dobes ++, Guhle +

That doesn't include positive impacts from incoming Reinbacher and Fowler, or incremental improvement from Heineman, Kapanen, Struble, or even Newhook. Obviously not all young players will pan out, but some will. Any improvement improves the team.

Contrast the Habs with Ottawa. Aside from Sanderson, a terrific young D, who on their roster is likely to improve? Cozens is new and could help them a bit, but everyone else, including Stutzle and Tkachuk, are what they are. Meanwhile, they're still leaning on Giroux, who's 37.

And then there's regression. How much longer do you think Florida is hanging on as a contender? Likewise, Tampa begins its downward slide next season.

Ottawa may improve its position thanks to other teams getting weaker, but Montreal's in a much better position to actually improve.

Of course nothing is linear. Players and teams often defy predictions. But based on what we see, Montreal is built better for improvement than most teams around us.

For the record I 100% believe we are heading in the right direction but I would caution against relying too much on the whole youngest team to make the playoffs stuff. One of the problems with Bergevin's tenure was that the over reliance on young guys improving, it felt like we wouldn't address any real holes thinking a prospect would soon fill it, or a young guy would take the next step.

Now I'm not too worried that Hughes has the same mindset, and on top of that MB did nothing to help the young guys develop and if anything put hurdles in their way whereas Hughes seems to actually get how the team environment influences player development. So Hughes isn't going to be gun shy, and he'll get more out the draft then MB anyways, so it's going to come down to targeting the right players and not letting the pressure adversely influence things.

 

[Soaker]

I want some dogs that bark and bite, have enough softies already.

 

[Scriptor]

It's not just individual players he got though. We stockpiled pick.s

Pollock did the same thing. Tons of this moves 'didn't work out' but it didn't matter. Some WILL work out. As an example we got Hutson out of it. We got Hage out of it...

Totally disagree. Dach was a fantastic move.

The biggest concern I had was the wrist. That's it. And they did their dilligence and turned out to be right. The wrist wasn't an issue. Unfortunately you can't predict other injuries and his knee gettting wrecked in game two was not something foreseeable.

That was a great trade, it just didn't work out.

Newhook went for market value. It's okay to not like that trade but I don't see it as some kind of terrible move.

Kovacevic was one that was unforced. He's gone onto what looks like a great career. Yes, we picked him up off waivers. It's not what I'd call an 'obvious' mistake but we definitely could use him right now.

It's going to be interesting. I'd probably try to move Matheson over the summer but I'll understand if they don't. He's still eating a lot of minutes.

There's too many unproven quantities on the D-Corps -- especially on the right side with Savard's spot opening up -- and Matheson will be needed, IMO, to eat up difficult minutes as players like Reinbacher (and maybe Mailloux) get accustomed to the pace at the NHL level with less pressure and responsibilities to start.

Others like Xhekaj and Struble, on the left side stilled to progress to have a bigger impact.

Players like Hutson and Guhle will still progress, but they are already having a genuine positive impact on the games they play.

Carrier, while limited in his play, still has a structuring effect the D-Corp and provides an honest effort every shift, holding his own in a shutdown role.

It will definitely be interesting to see what happens up front in the offseason, but Idon'tthinkmuch happens there than testing the waters regarding Matheson. He'll likely get moved only at the trade deadline next season, if he isn't signed to a team friendly extension instead.

With Matheson in a 3rd pairing role, you have puck movement on all three pairings, he can exploit his strengths against lesser opposition while seeing his weakness be less exploited, and you can dose out the TOI more evenly between the three pairings.

Matheson also becomes a worthwhile insurance policy in case of an injury to Guhle or Hutson.

Keeping Matheson at the right price and with the right role, on up to a 4-year contract extension after next season (until he is 35/36), for added puck-moving depth might not be a bad thing.

It would perhaps open the possibility of trading Xhekaj if he has good value in a trade.

 

[Scriptor]

I don't think it's a big deal if you've got two guys who like to pinch. I actually think it would be devastating to opposing defenses.


I think the hard part is landing superstars. They're really hard to get and if you tank and don't get them... you're really screwed. Hutson (in my view) is a true blue superstar. I've seen enough to say that he's going to be a better blueliner than we've seen in a long time. And that's saying a lot considering we had Subban a few years back. Demidov we'll have to see on but he's probably the most touted player not in the NHL right now.

I'm not saying the next few years will be easy, but I'd much rather have that issue than starting from scratch and hoping you land a superstar player.

I don't think it's a bad idea to have two Ds that like to pinch either. I think it's better, though, if you have one on two pairings, because it doesn't give much of a breather to opposing Ds to have a continual onslaught in the O-zone. I think it is even better to have such a D on all three pairings.

For example:

Hutson (pincher) - Shutdown RHD
Guhle - Reinbacher (pincher)
Xhekaj - Mailloux (pincher)

 

[Scriptor]

For the record I 100% believe we are heading in the right direction but I would caution against relying too much on the whole youngest team to make the playoffs stuff. One of the problems with Bergevin's tenure was that the over reliance on young guys improving, it felt like we wouldn't address any real holes thinking a prospect would soon fill it, or a young guy would take the next step.

Now I'm not too worried that Hughes has the same mindset, and on top of that MB did nothing to help the young guys develop and if anything put hurdles in their way whereas Hughes seems to actually get how the team environment influences player development. So Hughes isn't going to be gun shy, and he'll get more out the draft then MB anyways, so it's going to come down to targeting the right players and not letting the pressure adversely influence things.

The most important part about Bergevn's failure to support the young players' development was his inability to find a genuine #1C (while he was still around, because he was the one that got Suzuki, in the end) and ended up playing 2Cs as #1 Cs.

Now, Hughes inherited from Bergevin and has a genuine #1C. Not finding a genuine 2C, however, something that should somewhat be easier than finding a #1C, can still have the same negative effect on the development of his younger players.

This is when we see Hughes true talents as a GM.

The easy part of discarding 80%-90% of the bad contracts should be over by the end of this offseason, with only Anderson and Gallagher's overpriced contracts (for what they bring) still on the books.

Hughes was good enough to accumulate quality draft picks, going beyond just flipping veterans for picks, optimizing his Cap room for first round picks as demonstrated by his acquisition of Monahan, the trade of Petry (with salary/Cap held back) that yielded a 2nd round pick and getting paid another 2nd round pick for taking on Laine's salary.

Finding the right missing pieces within a time frame that makes sense will be more difficult for Hughes, but he has assets to trade and shouldn't be unable to do it.

 

[Sorinth]

The most important part about Bergevn's failure to support the young players' development was his inability to find a genuine #1C (while he was still around, because he was the one that got Suzuki, in the end) and ended up playing 2Cs as #1 Cs.

Now, Hughes inherited from Bergevin and has a genuine #1C. Not finding a genuine 2C, however, something that should somewhat be easier than finding a #1C, can still have the same negative effect on the development of his younger players.

This is when we see Hughes true talents as a GM.

The easy part of discarding 80%-90% of the bad contracts should be over by the end of this offseason, with only Anderson and Gallagher's overpriced contracts (for what they bring) still on the books.

Hughes was good enough to accumulate quality draft picks, going beyond just flipping veterans for picks, optimizing his Cap room for first round picks as demonstrated by his acquisition of Monahan, the trade of Petry (with salary/Cap held back) that yielded a 2nd round pick and getting paid another 2nd round pick for taking on Laine's salary.

Finding the right missing pieces within a time frame that makes sense will be more difficult for Hughes, but he has assets to trade and shouldn't be unable to do it.

MB's failure to support the young players' development was his hiring of incompetent coaches at both the AHL and NHL level. But I really don't want to get into MB too much.

You're right about the easy part of any rebuild is always the tear down and accumulating picks portion. The hard part is the actual building a contender, and although we aren't there yet, my opinion is that we are closer to that then the general consensus on these boards might have us believe. We have young pieces that could potentially fill all the teams holes, however banking on that is not the right approach, we should, and I expect Hughes is trying to fill those holes with established NHLers, but they do have to be good fits who want to be here, so that's not easy and we shouldn't try to force a bad fit just to be seen as trying to solve the problem.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

MB's failure to support the young players' development was his hiring of incompetent coaches at both the AHL and NHL level. But I really don't want to get into MB too much.

You're right about the easy part of any rebuild is always the tear down and accumulating picks portion. The hard part is the actual building a contender, and although we aren't there yet, my opinion is that we are closer to that then the general consensus on these boards might have us believe. We have young pieces that could potentially fill all the teams holes, however banking on that is not the right approach, we should, and I expect Hughes is trying to fill those holes with established NHLers, but they do have to be good fits who want to be here, so that's not easy and we shouldn't try to force a bad fit just to be seen as trying to solve the problem.

I think the hardest part is finding superstars. Hutson's one. Demidov may be another. If that's the case, we're in really good shape. You can make mistakes after this and still recover but if you don't get the superstars you're going nowhere.

 

[Sorinth]

I think the hardest part is finding superstars. Hutson's one. Demidov may be another. If that's the case, we're in really good shape. You can make mistakes after this and still recover but if you don't get the superstars you're going nowhere.

I mean it's not particularly hard to do, stay in the bottom for long enough and you'll eventually get some because that's the NHL's way of balancing teams. It's easy to do if the owner let's you tank, which very much was the case for us under Hughes.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

I mean it's not particularly hard to do, stay in the bottom for long enough and you'll eventually get some because that's the NHL's way of balancing teams. It's easy to do if the owner let's you tank, which very much was the case for us under Hughes.

Yeah, but you also have to get a bit of luck. Look at us... Slaf was a weak year. We lucked out getting Hutson. Easily could've missed Demidov. Then where are we? Our rebuild would've been extended.

 

[Sorinth]

Yeah, but you also have to get a bit of luck. Look at us... Slaf was a weak year. We lucked out getting Hutson. Easily could've missed Demidov. Then where are we? Our rebuild would've been extended.

Which is why I said you just have to be there long enough, a one off top pick like 2012 or 2005 requires luck. But if you actually want to suck and stay at the bottom for multiple years it's actually quite easy to do that.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Which is why I said you just have to be there long enough, a one off top pick like 2012 or 2005 requires luck. But if you actually want to suck and stay at the bottom for multiple years it's actually quite easy to do that.

If you want to sit at the bottom for years? Yes. But if you are hoping to rebuild quickly, you need some luck.