Speculation: Habs finish 28th and bottom 5 in 24-25 season

[The Last Red]

in the marketplace you have to exceed the competition and the market place. habs have not improved. it is that simple but i do hear of pundits state they are on the playoff bubble.

Like who? And "playoff bubble" could mean like 10-15 points out which is not impossible.,

You are entitle to your opinon. I respect that.
I dont want to cast a judgement now as much can happen still before the season start. I prefer to beleive that we are not done... KH manage each year to pull interesting move over the summer. why would it be different now??

I guessed you missed the memo. from Mr. Repetitive that the off-season ended on July 2, 2024.

 

[Scintillating10]

After a good draft and FA period I see a bottom five finish. Utah is better. Upgrades there. Columbus is better. Detroit, Buffalo and Ottawa goaltender upgrade are better. It is your organic growth vrs others organic growth and upgrades. We add a Kirby Dach. I can not see a bubble playoff year. New Jersey has goaltending . Washington upgraded. Hughes needs to add in the summer and use cap space to avoid a 4th year of bottom 5 finishes.

Habs never added much to help this season. Most other teams did. They should finish around .500. Draft 12 th.

Unless hit hard by key injuries

 

[CristianoRonaldo]

Bottom-10 would be good.

 

[McGees]

Habs will draft 9th.
bookmark me

 

[The Gr8 Dane]

I don’t mind the losses if they’re trying and putting on a show. Add Hutson to the mix and the new D getting their footing and the on-ice product should be at least fun. Had to tune out when this team also had Drouin Dadonov Hoffman taking shifts.

I also would not mind a top RW and a bottom 10 finish instead of 5 gotta say.

Yeah i don't think we finish bottom 5 , weren't we the team that was in the most 1 goal games last season (not counting the empty net daggers)

 

[Price is Wright]

Until Anderson and Gallagher are off the books I don't see this team getting out of the gutter. Both have ugly buyouts so it's trade or wait.

 

[Hoochi Papa]

Bergevin's three Shitsketeers, Anderson, Gallagher and Dvorak report for duty. With them around, 5th overall is always in the mix. Armia being his usual self and maybe a trade for Matheson and we're cooking.

 

[Egresch]

UFA is just reshuffling of players not improving. Only improved teams in conference are NJD and OTT because they addressed their weakness in goal and fixed it. All other teams just reshuffling and will be worse next year, e.g. TBL Stamkos, Sergachev out, Guentzel, McDonaugh in.

 

[SnapVirus]

I think we will be similar. Around 5 overall.

Last year we traded Monahan. This year we dont have him to start the season, but we have an unknown Dach. Can he play good all year? Will he be injured again? What's his ceiling?

Plus I think some players will have a season a little bit worst than last year (gallagher, anderson, dvorak, matheson). We also had a lot of win in overtime/shootout and might not be as lucky as we were. And if we trade Dvorak/Savard/Armia because they are all UFAs, then the last part of the year might be intense.

But on the other hand, I think Slaf and specifically Hutson, might bring more offense to our team.

So we should do about the same.

 

[rahad]

Another top 5 draft pick!!!!! Bring it on.....and Calgarys 11th overall pick....hell yeah.

Forget about Calgary draft pick. Is going to be Florida pick in the 2025 draft. With our bad luck with our second first round pick, Florida are going to make the stanley cup final.

With or with out Dach, we are drafting in the bottom 12.

 

[domiwroze]

Slaf was mad last year when we were losing. IIRC he's the first in the past 2-3 years that says '' f*** off, I just want to win ''.

It in itself is a good news, you know the boys want to become men and compete next year. No pressure from management as they didn't set any expectation yet but they will expect a step forward from the core. If there is one, big moves will be made next summer to make this team a serious playoff contender.

My expectation this year is a bubble team right to the end.
The biggest step this team can take is from their core.

-Slaf needs to play a full 82games like he did his last 30 and then some more to continue his growth.
-Suzuki needs to become that prime 2way center next year that also produces a PPG.
-Cole needs to putt 35/40+ next year now that his 200ft game has greatly improved.
-Dach needs to get that monkey off his back and play 70+ games. He can be a PPG player.
-Guhle HAS to learn to be reliable for 22-25min per game and help the offense with great first pass out of the zone.
-Matheson can keep doing what he's doing if Guhle takes over his TOI.
-Hutson needs to improve our PP1 and then grow in the NHL from there, gradually taking more and more responsibilities.

This could go on and on. Xhakej, Roy, Newhook, Mailloux/Reinbacher, Barron and Struble could also continue their growth and improve their status in the NHL.

This team could improve real quick, it really depends on that '' f*** you '' factor coming from the players. They are now entering their '' let's find our identity '' phase of the rebuild.


P.S : we played for .500 when Allen wasn't in net last year even with a god awful PP and PK.

 

[red devil]

Until Anderson and Gallagher are off the books I don't see this team getting out of the gutter. Both have ugly buyouts so it's trade or wait.

After this year I could see one of them being bought out

Here are the cap hits if they are bought after this year in millions

Anderson 1.9, 3.4, 1.4, 1.4
Gallagher 1.75, 4.25, 1.75, 1.75

 

[OnTheRun]

After a good draft and FA period I see a bottom five finish. Utah is better. Upgrades there. Columbus is better. Detroit, Buffalo and Ottawa goaltender upgrade are better. It is your organic growth vrs others organic growth and upgrades. We add a Kirby Dach. I can not see a bubble playoff year. New Jersey has goaltending . Washington upgraded. Hughes needs to add in the summer and use cap space to avoid a 4th year of bottom 5 finishes.

There is no reason to add to avoid a bottom 5 finish... None whatsoever.

You add (especially UFAs, since that's what some people seems to be butthurt about) when you have some clear goals in mind, like making the playoffs, not to save "the honor". If they finish bottom5 then so be it.

 

[GrandmaCookie]

All aboard the top 5 pick. No problem with that, bring the elite talent

 

[BozoTheClown]

Let’s hope they do and let’s also hope we get a good pick for the Monahan Calgary’s 1st.
Maybe one of Savard or Matheson will fetch another extra 1st.

 

[Apoplectic Habs Fan]

Some people believe you need to improve or you have a losing culture. See chicago providing insulation to Bedard. Buffalo did not support Eichel and they still are not in the playoffs

Chicago gutted their team

They needed to insulate Bedard because they left him with literally no one

MTL rebuild started with many young vets who already had a Cup finals experience

Im not sure why some believe Chicago adding TT and Bertuzzi did any thing but give the Hawks a bit of NHL respectability

 

[Spring in Fialta]

As things currently stand, I think they're probably a bottom-5 team barring an insane rise in the young vets and awesome depth contributions. I just hope this doesn't cause a strain in how guys like Suzuki and Caufield lose about the team or craters perception of the team around the league.

 

[HuGo boss]

Finish 10th to last win the lottery and draft 1st obviously

 

[Captain Mountain]

Until Anderson and Gallagher are off the books I don't see this team getting out of the gutter. Both have ugly buyouts so it's trade or wait.

Why? If Montreal would put Price on LTIR, they literally have as much cap space as any team in the league except for maybe Calgary and Anahiem. They have 10 mil in cap space, 10.5 mil in LTIR room they can create and only Xhekaj and Barron as RFAs of note. And this is with Dvorak, Armia AND salary retention on the books.

Gallagher and Anderson's contracts aren't the problem, the problem is that they're too high on Montreal's depth chart. Montreal doesn't have a cap problem anymore, they have a talent problem. That will come with development and becoming a more appealing team to play for.

You can't look at it as who is overpaid, its how much cap space there is and how can it realistically be used.

 

[HabzSauce]

After a good draft and FA period I see a bottom five finish. Utah is better. Upgrades there. Columbus is better. Detroit, Buffalo and Ottawa goaltender upgrade are better. It is your organic growth vrs others organic growth and upgrades. We add a Kirby Dach. I can not see a bubble playoff year. New Jersey has goaltending . Washington upgraded. Hughes needs to add in the summer and use cap space to avoid a 4th year of bottom 5 finishes.

We say this every year and all these dogshit teams (cough cough OTTAWA) always disappoint.

Sharks and Chicago are locks to be ass this year. Columbus and Anaheim SHOULD improve but I'm not holding my breath. Same goes for the Senaturds.

Utah will be better tho I'm pretty confident with that

I'd be happy with a bottom 5 finish if it means we can add another Demidov/Reinbacher level prospect to the potential future core.

But I think we will be better. I'm not sure who will be worse. There are always teams that suck. But we will be better if we are healthy by all the kids being a year older and a year more experienced. And Dach is a big part of the team.

Maybe philly - they were supposed to be trash last year but over achieved big time

 

[BLNY]

I don't see us finishing bottom 5 again - if we're healthy.


I think there's enough offense in the returning group to average 3 goals a game for. It'll be the defense and whether the lineup can improve on their own side of center.

I see 20-22 overall. Based on 2023-24, that's 87 points. Or, and 11 point improvement.

 

[Apoplectic Habs Fan]

Remember when Ottawa, Columbus, Detroit, Buffalo and New Jersey were all gonna take the next step to playoff teams after supposed great offseasons?

How many years in a row was this trumped out and it never materialized.

 

[HabzSauce]

I have no problem being bottom 5 again , in fact I would love it

I cannot take another year of having to give one shit about the turds in Ottawa underperforming and potentially ruining our draft position. Them and Arizona last year made me want to break a window...

As long as Ottawa improves I think I can survive ONE LAST tank year.

 

[First Line]

There was a point last season where a playoff thread was started on this very board. Fun times

There was a point last season where a playoff thread was started on this very board. Fun times

 

[schwang26]

No Monahan, No Allen, rookie d mistakes, deadline trades result 28th or worse.

Dach. No Allen is good. What rookie D? They’re not rookies.