Growth isn't nonstop and some prospects haven't grown as we'd hoped yet. Slaf is having a pretty tough year so far. Most of the young guys are young enough that we can still expect some improvement as they age, and the team has enough holes that it's reasonable to expect many players to improve if those holes ever get filled.
The problem is that most of the holes are roles like "top 2 D" and "play driving forward, ideally a center," that is to say holes that may not be filled properly any time soon. It's really easy for rebuilding teams to say "this player has not produced as we projected, we'll trade him for whatever we can get and draft someone else." Watch that player go to a good team that can put him on a line with other players who can open space, including some who need to be double covered, and watch the dumped player score now that he has some space.
I'm not talking about guys like Hyman who dig pucks for generational players and whose stats vanish if that player has a minimal decline, more Florida and Colorado who can pick up good players from bad teams and make them look good.
The habs have to hang on until they get more play drivers. Some may develop, but it is going to be a major challenge. most teams don't give up such players intentionally.
The hope is that Demidov will become that play-driving option in the top-6, even if it is from the wing.Perhaps such a winger can help turn Dach's game around or provide the opportunity for another C prospect (like Hage?) to reach their full potential?
I believe that Demidov won't be another winger that needs to play with Suzuki in order to progress or come closer to is ceiling as a player.
Hopefully, the 2025 draft, without yielding the 1st OApick, necessarily, brings one or more play driver to the fold.
It could be playmaking Misa at C for the top-6, or such a 3rd line pivot in Desnoyers, or a speedy power forward with skill like Carbonneau?
IMO, in three more years after this one, there will be enough young, progressing, NHL-ready talent to transform the fortunes of this team.
Suzuki and Caufield have already proven themselves,IMO, and will continue to progress.
Slafkovsky is only 20 and already has a 20-goal, 50-point season under his belt. He's slightly under the same pace for points as last year, but ahead of his point production prior to the New Year last season. As for the goals, Slafkovsky has started to use his body more and to increase his shooting of late. He must keep doing this to be a larger threat out on the ice. Keep in mind that it is harder for a 20-year old than it is for an older Suzuki to keep producing and progressing with so little offensive depth in the lineup.
The addition of Demidov and a gradual return to form of Patrick Laine will go along ways to providing Montreal with an actual top-6 in the short-term. Montreal will still need another C to step up in a 2nd line role for the offense to actually take off, though, whether that is sooner, rather than later, with a more confident Dach that has recovered both physically and mentally from his knee injury, or within the three years mentioned, either from Kapanen taking a large step forward, from Owen Beck seizing an opportunity to play higher up in the lineup, from Hage progressing steadily and living up to projections as a top-6 pivot, or as the result of great fortune at the upcoming draft that fills the hole at Center immediately (Hagens/Misa)!?
Someone from Beck, Hage, Dach, or Kapanen can surely fill 3rd line Center duties more than admirably and Evans can be re-signed as a veteran depth presence down the middle. And that doesn't take into account the possibility of acquiring another higher end 3rd line pivot like Desnoyers with the CAL first rounder.
As for depth players, all those mid-6 players missing out on a rollin the top-6 will undoubtedly provide quality depth on the bottom-6 and provide injury insurance higher up in the lineup.
The Habs' D-corps, with more experience, and some injury luck, should round out nicely as a D that can transition well to offense and shut down opponents, but, surely, some other key element will need to come from outside the organization (most likely via the UFA market) to solidify it:
Guhle - Reinbacher
Hutson - UFA
Xhekaj - Mailloux
Engstrom, Struble
