Post-Game Talk: Gorton & Hughes End of Season Media Avail 9:30Am EST

[Scotianhab]

Is that press conference today?

 

[red devil]

Is that press conference today?

Yesterday

 

[Player 61]

I miss him.

Wonder if there's any chance his knee healed this season and he can return next year.

Price won't be back it's over. Houses are sold. One of MTL's best players ever.

 

[CDN24]

It’s been fairly no heavy lifting till now for HuGo, both Toffoli & Lekhonen deals have been avg-mediocre returns, I like a Dach deal & they’ve done solid things on the hockey ops / culture side. IMO MSL has been their best move to date

As Gorton himself stated accurately, this summer will be the tough task, should have more data to assess HuGo’s performance by start of season… let’s see how it plays out

Its hard to evaluate returns when most of the returns are futures (picks that are unknown) some picks will be a home run and some will flop its about having enough of them to get enough good ones.

Starting with the TT deal return was Heineman, a 2022 1st rounder (used on Mesar) and a 2023 5th. In my mind that is a decent return. TT did not fit in rebuild plans, moving him when they did helps you finish last and get Slaf so he had to be moved. Doubt you get a better return than he did. Can't evaluate based on who he picked with the pick- that is a separate decision. Had he used that pick to take Hutson instead of the 2nd rounder it does not change value of return.

The Lehkonen trade, Barron and a 2nd (this year) In 87 games this year and last (bit over a 82 game season equivalent) Barron has 11G and 17 A for 28 Pts. and a -5 That's not bad, he may be overshadowed by some of our other D prospects but if we did not have a Maillioux and reinbacher on the right side we might be happier with what Barron has done at age 21 and 22 seasons. Guhle in those 2 years has 10G 30A 40 pts and a minus 27 in 114 games. Don't write Barron off yet, he may be part of a trade for a F or he may be retained but he still has value.

 

[Mikah]

Caufield- Suzuki- Slaf
Newhook- Dach- xx/Roy
Roy/RHP- Dvorak- Armia
xx- Evans- Gallagher
If we could get 2nd line F trade, Roy can slide to 3rd line. Then RHP might be expandable. Dvorak, Armia, Evans are fighting for new contract, I expect solid performance from them. I hope Anderson and Ylonen are gone this summer.

I agree that's where the hole is, and that's where they will need to make a decision on where they stand.

Do they want to push for the playoffs now and add a strong UFA now? Target Reinhart or Guentzel? See if they can fish out Marchessault for a couple of years? Or be patient and wait it out with another year of tanking, and see what they can get at the trade deadline for Dvorak, Savard and Armia?

Adding a 70-80 points winger with a full season of Dach would sure make the team competitive, but it may be one season too early to call off the tank...

 

[Gillings]

Hutson was drafted by Hughes/Gorton and Barron was drafted by Colorado and traded for by Hughes/Gorton.

And that pool wouldn't look so insane if we didn't change our player development philosophy.

Plus HuGo got two 1sts for (and) Monahan after Bergevin threw away a 1st and 2nd for Dvorak.

My apologies on Hutson and Barron; I could have sworn Timmins drafted Hutson.

As far as the development thing goes, that’s anyone’s guess but I agree it’s looking better.

 

[schwang26]

It’s been fairly no heavy lifting till now for HuGo, both Toffoli & Lekhonen deals have been avg-mediocre returns, I like a Dach deal & they’ve done solid things on the hockey ops / culture side. IMO MSL has been their best move to date

As Gorton himself stated accurately, this summer will be the tough task, should have more data to assess HuGo’s performance by start of season… let’s see how it plays out

You have to include the drafts in there as well

Bergevin who was terrible had four 100 point seasons in 5 years.

Ya and what were we left with? How was the development? His trades were generally piss poor. The development was horrible. The drafting was horrible. I’d much rather start from scratch with one of the deepest pools in the league.

 

[schwang26]

Bergevin who was terrible had four 100 point seasons in 5 years.

Ya and what were we left with? How was the development? His trades were generally piss poor. The development was horrible. The drafting was horrible. I’d much rather start from scratch with one of the deepest pools in the league. If not for Price, you can forget about those 100 point seasons for sure

 

[Karma Police]

Bergevin who was terrible had four 100 point seasons in 5 years.

Good thing we had one of the best goaltender of our generation in net that made us win a ton of games that we had no business being in

 

[LaP]

Conroy did well on his Toffoli trade to NJ when he received Sharangovich who scored 31 goals this year

He did. But when Sharangovich was 22 he was playing in the KHL and was not dominating it far from it.

Sharangovich at 21 in the AHL only 25 points in 68 games
Sharangovich at 22 in the KHL 25 points in 34 games (Spooner had 39 points in the same team)

Those were the numbers of a "fledgling NHLers at best".

Sharangovich is kind of proving my point.

I mean we got Mesar, Volokhin and Heineman in the Toffoli trade. Can we wait them to be at least 24 before doing a final evaluation of the trade.

 

[Ozmodiar]

An area this team really needs to improve next year is their own zone play if they want to take the next step. At the moment they have given up the 4th most goals in the league and Chicago right now are 4 goals behind them who still have one more game left. I didn't calculate shootout goals or empty goals but the point still stands. They need to make the necessary improvements in their defensive play if they are to become a more competitive team.

I’d like to know how many different D pairings they ran. The young D corps not only have a lot to learn, but they have to learn it playing with different partners.

 

[therocket9]

Yeah, he did a great job drafting and developing Price, Subban, Pacioretty, Gallagher, etc. No, wait, he didn't do any of that, he just inherited a decent young core (and two get of jail free cards) and failed to build around them.

He left one of the biggest messes any GM has left an organization with in the salary cap era.

What part of Bergevin was terrible didn't u quite grasp.

 

[red devil]

I’d like to know how many different D pairings they ran. The young D corps not only have a lot to learn, but they have to learn it playing with different partners.

That can be an issue but defensive zone play also has to do with the forwards understanding where they need to be during the play. The best teams have a structure for the defensive zone that each player can trust and understand where each other should be during the play. Obviously there is going to be break downs as hockey is a free flowing game but getting back in position as quickly as possible can be difference a no goal and a goal

 

[Captain Mountain]

What part of Bergevin was terrible didn't u quite grasp.

But thats the point. It generally takes a really long time to clean up the kind of mess he created. You can't really judge by year 3, because that's frankly as long as it takes to mostly clean up the cap mess.

 

[red devil]

He did. But when Sharangovich was 22 he was playing in the KHL and was not dominating it far from it.

Sharangovich at 21 in the AHL only 25 points in 68 games
Sharangovich at 22 in the KHL 25 points in 34 games (Spooner had 39 points in the same team)

Those were the numbers of a "fledgling NHLers at best".

Sharangovich is kind of proving my point.

I mean we got Mesar, Volokhin and Heineman in the Toffoli trade. Can we wait them to be at least 24 before doing a final evaluation of the trade.

I'm not into rushing young players want them to develop and only make a jump to the NHL when they are ready. I liked the Dach and Newhook trades as they are looking for players that are young and NHL ready players. That's why I would like to see a young player traded for again this summer who may just need more of a chance to play in the top 6.

 

[Gabriel Sagala]

They say the same thing they always say, that they won't sacrifice anything to accelerate the rebuild, and that they can progress without making the playoffs

Of course it was an exaggeration lol

that's called a plan and sticking to it. Im all in

 

[LaP]

They say the same thing they always say, that they won't sacrifice anything to accelerate the rebuild, and that they can progress without making the playoffs

Of course it was an exaggeration lol

I've been saying since day 1 of this management that they wont force anyhing until the summer of 2025. If they can acquire a good player under the age of 26 they wil but anyone expecting them to sign Marchesseault will be disappointed.

 

[donghabs98]

Good thing we had one of the best goaltender of our generation in net that made us win a ton of games that we had no business being in

The fact Bergy wasted Price's prime years bothers me. All he needed was to add offense to the 2015 and 2017 teams but he added grinders. Then in 2017-18 he extended Price only to quickly pivot to a short lived retool.

 

[Guy Larose]

The season is over for 1 day and now we're already bashing HuGo...and praising a Pejorative Slur like Bergevin. You can't make this shit up LMAO. This place man.

 

[Egresch]

I agree that's where the hole is, and that's where they will need to make a decision on where they stand.

Do they want to push for the playoffs now and add a strong UFA now? Target Reinhart or Guentzel? See if they can fish out Marchessault for a couple of years? Or be patient and wait it out with another year of tanking, and see what they can get at the trade deadline for Dvorak, Savard and Armia?

Adding a 70-80 points winger with a full season of Dach would sure make the team competitive, but it may be one season too early to call off the tank...

No Guentzel or Reinhart, that could ruin the whole rebuild. Marchessault could be fine for 2 years, finally some vet who would contribute in top6. I think this is a good summer to make key moves, it is not too early.

 

[Walksss]

I think the other poster is being too harsh, but it's true that selling/tanking is a much easier then actually building a winning team. So yeah there's a case that Hughes has looked good doing the easy part of the job and now has the hard part of the job ahead which is where most GMs stumble and stop looking good.

That said I think Hughes has shown enough signs that he understands and can handle the more difficult rebuilding aspects of the job as he's already added core pieces through the trades which was something a guy like Bergevin said could only be done if he traded Price.

All you guys are selling the job that Hughes has done very short, you must have short memories.

Our hero MB left us a straight-up last place team that was somehow in cap hell. We didn't have any flexibility and he had managed to sign so many bad contracts it was insane, the ones that are left are just the lasting hangover.

The job Hughes has done to create flexibility and work his way out of that situation and into where we are today is not 'the easy part', it is impressive what he has accomplished so far. It would be hard to point at a single move and say that it was an outright mistake.

 

[Sorinth]

All you guys are selling the job that Hughes has done very short, you must have short memories.

Our hero MB left us a straight-up last place team that was somehow in cap hell. We didn't have any flexibility and he had managed to sign so many bad contracts it was insane, the ones that are left are just the lasting hangover.

The job Hughes has done to create flexibility and work his way out of that situation and into where we are today is not 'the easy part', it is impressive what he has accomplished so far. It would be hard to point at a single move and say that it was an outright mistake.

I'm well aware that MB left us in a bad spot, but no dealing with bad contracts is not the hardest part. Like there's no doubt 8m to Dvorak and Armia contributed to us being in "cap hell", but doing nothing for a few years and the problem fixes itself. So there's no way clearing that 8m by simply waiting out the contracts like we are doing is the hard part compared to actually building a contending/winning team.

 

[The Real Timo]

Sounds like Burrows and Letankski will be back.

This is so f***ing stupid. They are not serious about building a contender. It’s a joke.

 

[26Mats]

This is so f***ing stupid. They are not serious about building a contender. It’s a joke.

I will say, the pp had a lot of good movement down the stretch. But there were years on end when it was static before that.

 

[KevSkillz4]

I have big faith with Gorton and Hughes. They do a amazing job since day one.