Do you think the building of the core is done?

[Matthew McConaughay]

I'm really looking forward to seeing Hutson on ine of the top 2 pairs and Matheson in the other.

I honestly don't know if it is or isn't a winning formula to have a dman that drives offense the way the both do on the ice for 40 plus minutes. It will be like having 4 forwards on. But I do think it will be entertaining. I can't wait to see it. I just hope it's not only entertaining but also helps us win. I think Lane and Demidov will be magic together.

Lane and Demidov will be a ankle breaker duo lol.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

The point was not that he popped because of his linesmate.....it's more that I believe there's a lot more in Suzuki that we haven't seen yet because he played with crappy linesmates.

Yeah, and on that point I agree. I think we have a skilled top six and with our D developing as it is we should be able to score some goals going forward.

I can’t wait to see what Hutson can do.

 

[yianik]

We don't have the positions filled, but we have good prospects such that they it's likely the positions are filled.

Suzuki is a no.1 C. Talent wise Dach to me is a 2C for sure, maybe better, for crying out loud let him just stay healthy. Slaf , Caufield , Demi top line if not top 6 wingers. Some other guy like Roy, Newhook or a UFA , trade, to round out the top 6. And that top 6 has everything including speed to score off the rush, cycling ability and PP guys.

Bottom 6 has C potential in Beck, Hage and Kapanen. We may have a gap as I'm thinking Evans may price himself out of Montreal next year and guys likely not ready. Then cross fingers and hope a bunch from Tuch, Florian X , Roy , Heineman grab spots. Again, we likely have gaps here because most guys won't be ready for a while. But the C position is most important and we have potential there.

Defensively I see Guhle as a no.2. Then hope 1 and 3 spots are taken by Reinbacher , Hutson, Maillioux , Barron ( not giving up ). Wild card in Xheraj . Also Struble, Engstrom and a half dozen others to grab 4, 5 ,6 and 7 spots. So top end not many darts but we have a few.

Goalie wise we have a couple decent guys and Monty is pretty good. Fowler could be the long term answer.

Hopefully we have multiple good players at positions so that we can trade for any missing pieces. So if we have 3 top 6Cs that would be very valuable.

There is good reason to be hopeful. Next 2-3 years we will really see the pay off.

 

[Canadiens98]

I'm going to say no because until they've established themselves at the NHL level I can't say yes. However I will say I do believe the group of young guys we currently have CAN realize that goal.

 

[yianik]

We don't have the positions filled, but we have good prospects such that they it's likely the positions are filled.

Suzuki is a no.1 C. Talent wise Dach to me is a 2C for sure, maybe better, for crying out loud let him just stay healthy. Slaf , Caufield , Demi top line if not top 6 wingers. Some other guy like Roy, Newhook or a UFA , trade, to round out the top 6. And that top 6 has everything including speed to score off the rush, cycling ability and PP guys.

Bottom 6 has C potential in Beck, Hage and Kapanen. We may have a gap as I'm thinking Evans may price himself out of Montreal next year and guys likely not ready. Then cross fingers and hope a bunch from Tuch, Florian X , Roy , Heineman grab spots. Again, we likely have gaps here because most guys won't be ready for a while. But the C position is most important and we have potential there.

Defensively I see Guhle as a no.2. Then hope 1 and 3 spots are taken by Reinbacher , Hutson, Maillioux , Barron ( not giving up ). Wild card in Xheraj . Also Struble, Engstrom, Harris and a half dozen others to grab 4, 5 ,6 and 7 spots. So top end not many darts but we have a few.

Goalie wise we have a couple decent guys and Monty is pretty good. Fowler could be the long term answer.

Hopefully we have multiple good players at positions so that we can trade for any missing pieces. So if we have 3 top 6Cs that would be very valuable.

There is good reason to be hopeful. Next 2-3 years we will really see the pay off.

 

[sandviper]

So far in the rebuild, we acquired:

Two potential first line wingers; Slaf and Demidov
A top-6 forward; Dach
A middle-6 forward; Newhook, Hage
Bottom-6 forward; Beck
Two potential top-4 D; Reinbacher, Hutson
Goalie; Fowler

There’s also some promise with Engstrom, F. Xhekaj, Mesar and Volokhin.

Still think we need a real top-pair defender, but as a group our defence does look good.

 

[TesseractPrice]

Missing a very big physical top 9 winger/center hybrid. A relatively talented sandpaper versatile center would balance the lineup and some redundancy would come in handy in case of injury

This player can be obtained by trade

 

[InAG-P]

If Dach doesn't work out or is perpetually injured, imo Hage could very well be that #2 C we're looking for based on the games i've seen with him.