Is the Rebuild almost done? POLL

[MD thaivuN]

We'll need to address that RD situation. I like Reinbacher, but the alternative option to Reinbacher can't just be "Mailloux will somehow learn to play defense".

 

[Gustave]

ROR would not have been an immediate help trade though. He is 2 years younger than Subban and 3 years younger than Patch. For me the expression immediate help refer to trading for a player older than your core who will help immediately for a short period of time. The Carrier trade would probably fit the bill but we gave a guy who was not part of the plan anymore for him so meh. For me trading a top prospect for a top player in his prime is not trading for immediate help it's sinply making a trade to adress a need and fill a hole in your core.

Right, exactly the type of trade I figure Hugo would be going after.

Age wise, one year older than Laine still figures in the « right » group I believe.

 

[Canadienna]

I can see this thread devolving into the definition of a rebuild.

I think the rebuild is done in the sense that the core pieces of the future (hopefully) cup contender are in place.

But it may still be 3+ years until we are that team, and in all likelihood one or more of those core pieces will be swapped out by the time we are ready.

 

[Kaiden Ghoul]

The rebuild is over in my views, the top 6 will be sexy, we should be more than fine with Dobes/Fowler, all we need is a Cernak/Tanev/Pesce type of D but younger and sooner than later, we will aim for more than playoff

 

[HabsWhiteKnightLOL]

no its not over.
Dach is still a huge question mark
Slaf is still a question mark for a 1st liner
The bottom 6 minus Heineman will be completely changed after this season.
Our Defense is god damn soft and lost often. We'll need to make changes if we want to make playoffs in that zone.
Dobes is looking good but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

As for the one who are coming , only Demidov is a sure shot for next season.
Reinbacher is a year behind and he was not NHL ready at all before his injury


Big decisions coming up
NewHook sucks and should have the Barron way
I think Evans unless he accept a 4th line center salary should be gone
Armia Dvorak Pezetta Savard need to be traded for assets.
Anderson and Matheson have to be on the block for the good offer
Gallagher let's hope LITR catch him but we are stuck with him.

Some Pieces are there but they are missing good ones still.
After this TDL we are at the point to OVERPAY for what we need and we should do it

 

[CHfan1]

Does this team have the players in their system now to be a future Stanley Cup contender, not just a team that can make the playoffs, but can win multiple rounds? I’m not sure yet, I think there is still a few questions.

Is Dach the 2C, he’s played well as of late but we’ll see going forward.

There is still questions around their centre depth, especially if Evans doesn’t resign. They’ll go into next season with Suzuki and Dach as the only veteran centres and can we count on their prospects panning out?

There is definitely a question around right defence, with Carrier being the only vet next season and not a ton of prospects at the position, especially top level prospects (maybe only Reinbacher).

They’ll also have to replace 4-5 out of their bottom 6 in the next few years. Obviously easier than the above points, but can they add the needed depth to make long playoff runs?

I’m not sure we can sit here and call the rebuild over at this point after a nice stretch of games. I just hope they don’t make trades like Ottawa did for Chychrun and DeBrincat, trading top picks for players without long term contracts and not knowing they want to stay with the team long term. I really think those trades put Ottawa’s rebuild back a step.

 

[Habano]

I voted we need 2 more pieces. However, we have them in the system. Demidov and Rein, albeit the latter will probably need a season in the AHL. That's not even counting Hage and Fowler among others.

 

[BigDaddyLurch]

RIGHT DEFENSE


...can we trust Mailloux to be it??...

 

[Sorinth]

I've never liked these type of question, rebuilding or not isn't a binary yes/no it's a spectrum. And once you start talking # of pieces away you've lost me because even the league's top contenders have holes in their lineup and are missing pieces, they aren't contender because every hole is filled, they are contenders because the rest of the lineup can overcome whatever weakness those missing pieces represent.

So the question isn't are we missing a top-4 RD or not, it should be is the rest of the lineup good enough to win even without the perfect top-4 RD solution. In other words, is Hutson good enough that using Matheson in that role is viable?

 

[BigDaddyLurch]

So the question isn't are we missing a top-4 RD or not, it should be is the rest of the lineup good enough to win even without the perfect top-4 RD solution. In other words, is Hutson good enough that using Matheson in that role is viable?

...and that answer, imo, is NO...and that's not a knock on Hutson; it's more of a plea to move on from Matheson...

 

[Sorinth]

...and that answer, imo, is NO...and that's not a knock on Hutson; it's more of a plea to move on from Matheson...

I personally wouldn't argue it either way. The evidence this past couple of months would suggest that yes we can in fact be perfectly fine with Matheson in that spot. But since it's Matheson at the back of the mind there's always the question of consistency and whether he can maintain this recent level of play, there's reasons to believe yes and reasons to believe no.

 

[catmanhabsfan]

There is a lot of turnover left for this roster, probably 4 or 5 personell in the next couple years but optimistically maybe, I feel they are fairly easy to upgrade on either from within or a solid FA signing. I feel the larger pieces we have in place such as Caufield, Suzuki, Slaf, Dach, Heineman, Laine, even Newhook,Anderson and Armia if in the right chair and Ghule, Matheson, Hutson, Carrier, Xhekaj are pretty solid and still have room to improve. We really only Need 1 or 2 of our Defense prospects to hit and our forward group of prospects feels like are inn at least solid shape to replace the turnover with our forwards and probably upgrade on them. Hopefully Fowler or Dobes or another turn into a top half of the league starter and we could be a solid team for many years. A few tweaks and good trades , and we have the assets to make trades..I think like someone else said earlier they're done acquiring assets for the sake of acquiring assets and being close to using them. I think we have a really good template or framework or skeleton if you will to work with. Now we hope Ken Hughes knows that he's doing things will be changing especially this off-season I think lol

 

[BLONG7]

no its not over.
Dach is still a huge question mark
Slaf is still a question mark for a 1st liner
The bottom 6 minus Heineman will be completely changed after this season.
Our Defense is god damn soft and lost often. We'll need to make changes if we want to make playoffs in that zone.
Dobes is looking good but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

As for the one who are coming , only Demidov is a sure shot for next season.
Reinbacher is a year behind and he was not NHL ready at all before his injury


Big decisions coming up
NewHook sucks and should have the Barron way
I think Evans unless he accept a 4th line center salary should be gone
Armia Dvorak Pezetta Savard need to be traded for assets.
Anderson and Matheson have to be on the block for the good offer
Gallagher let's hope LITR catch him but we are stuck with him.

Some Pieces are there but they are missing good ones still.
After this TDL we are at the point to OVERPAY for what we need and we should do it

Agreed.........there a some big decisions ahead.
That said, I am loving to see us in the mix with this group and there is some headway already been made.

 

[morhilane]

RIGHT DEFENSE


...can we trust Mailloux to be it??...

Prediction: Reinbacher and Konyushkov will make the Habs before Mailloux.

 

[Benstheman]

Top pair RHD and that’s it for me.

We have everything else to make this team a top tier. Off course we still have some ?? 2C is still up in the air I think but Dach is slowly getting there and we have Hage in the pipeline. Goaltender is still in the air also but we have great depth there. Fowler seems like the real deal. Dobes is showing he is a potential starter and we have Monty as a stop gap, 1b/backup with experience.

 

[ahmedou]

 

[Colezuki]

I'd love to see the arguments people made in favour of a rebuild this year in the tank thread re-evaluated. Not for "crow" purposes but to see if conditions changed or if the 6 weeks of success have really meant something is now different.

One thing is defining the players we already have:

Dach -- is he back and ready to be relied upon or is he still a bit of an unknown or is he unreliable and needs an alternative? This is a "piece".
Carrier -- is he a top4 dman (and thus we don't need to acquire another one) or is a bottom-pairing dman? This is a "piece".
Reinbacher -- does he count as a "piece" and pencilled in as one or (due to his injury) is he an unknown and we need to look at deputies and alternatives?
Slafkovsky -- impressions of the player aside, is he a core contributor ("piece") or is he a very good supporting player?
Laine -- is he a "piece" or a very good supporting player, do we intend to keep him?

I think we're short (at least) a 2C and top2 dman to this roster if we want to declare the rebuild over.

I don't disagree with you in theory, but we can't also keep everyone, I see it as the bottom out phase is over and now we're in the develop and bring players along phase. Even right now for next season assuming we bring no one back and we move newhook to 3rd C.

Slaf- Suzuki- Caufield
Laine - Dach - Demidov
XXXX-Newhook-XXXX
Gallageher - XXXX - Anderson

For those roles you have Roy, Kapanen, Heineman, Beck and Davidson as internal replacements, and potential FA's as external
On D
Hutson - matheson
Guhle - Carrier
Xhekaj - XXXX
with Struble, Reinbacher, Engstrom and others as potential third pair replacements

Short term it feels like our 1/2 is solved at Goal.

Long term about the only real risk I see is that Matheson and Laine leave but I think with the two firsts I'd look to maybe trade Struble and the worst 1st pick to shore up that third pair and grab a top 4 with some term and maybe get a Vet C or re-sign jake evans to shore up the center line up. If you can do that and re-sign laine then when matheson walks in a year we're rolling and we have reinbacher to step in.

I think we're in a really good spot right now so long as the team keeps playing like this

 

[_vivelequebec_]

P/GP in the NHL since 2023-2024, by position :

Spoiler

LW

Laine, 26 years old, is 22th (0.70)
Slafkovsky, 20 years old, is 30th (0.60)

RW

Caufield, 24 years old, is 14th (0.84)

Center

Suzuki, 25 years old, is 18th (0.96)

Defensemen

Lane Hutson, 20 years old, is 10th (0.84)
Mike Matheson, 30 years old, is 17th (0.66)

My projected 2025-2026 lines

Spoiler

Slafkovsky - Suzuki - Caufield
Laine - Dach - Demidov
Newhook - Evans - Anderson
Heineman - Beck - Gallagher
Xhekaj - Kapanen - Roy

Hutson - Matheson
Guhle - Reinbacher
Xhekaj - Carrier
Engstrom - Mailloux

Montembeault
Dobes
Fowler

Next year we have Demidov, Reinbacher and Beck coming for Armia, Savard and Dvorak. It's 3 guys of the new management taking the place of 3 guys from the last management. Plus we will start the year with Dobes instead of Primeau. The missing pieces obviously are 2C and RHD. Too bad we lost Monahan, I'm not really happy with Dach, but I can wait for Hage. RHD I guess Matheson will play there next season, we could draft Mrtaka with CGY pick, but I'm not sure what we'll do in 2026-2027 and possibly 2027-2028. So RHD is my only real concern, and having only one concern wouldn't be a sign that the rebuild is over?

 

[expy]

If Demidov pans out fast next season, then we'll only need an actual #1 goalie. We're not the Edmonton Oilers that have McDavid and Draisaitl making up for Skinner (another fringe starter), we need a true #1 starter, Dobes can take the backup role. I know Fowler is in the pipelines, but I doubt he hits the ground running in the next 1-3 years.

 

[Guy Larose]

Sens announced their rebuild over like 3 years ago or so. We are in year 3. Sens players are overrated and not that good and not much prospect wise (except Yakemchuk). Habs drafted players for the most part haven't even arrived yet. Sens rebuild isn't even in the same league as Habs IMO.

 

[WeThreeKings]

If Demidov pans out fast next season, then we'll only need an actual #1 goalie. We're not the Edmonton Oilers that have McDavid and Draisaitl making up for Skinner (another fringe starter), we need a true #1 starter, Dobes can take the backup role. I know Fowler is in the pipelines, but I doubt he hits the ground running in the next 1-3 years.

Internal solutions like Dobes are pretty much the only solution. Askarov just got traded. Anaheim isn't moving Dostal. Oettinger is with Dallas long term. Vasi is with Tampa long term. Shesterkin signed long term with the Rangers.

Sorokin is probably the only guy that might end up available.

 

[Archijerej]

RIGHT DEFENSE


...can we trust Mailloux to be it??...

I wouldn't.

He's a trading chip, though.

 

[habsterr]

A good #2 C and a top pairing RD then we can contend. Dach/Beck/Hage develop to become a 2nd line C. Add grit/speed in the bottom six.

 

[LaP]

What this team reminds me is the 2003-2004 to 2008-2009 CH. After missing the playoffs 4 times in 5 years we could finally see the light. We had a couple of good kids with potential. Ribeiro, Ryder, Markov, Streit, Plekanec, AK, Higgins, Komisarek, Latendresse, Lapierre, SK, Halak, Price, Hainsey.

We had just acquired Kovalev who was 4 years older than Laine is but he was kind of the same type of player. We iced the kids and the team started to win. I was watching the come back against NYR to other day and i was like this could have been a good team with the right management.

But our management wanted to skip some steps. Traded Ribeiro for Niinimmaaaaaaaaa. Started signing or acquiring vets like Brisebois, Smolinsky, Bouillon, Dandenouille, Lang, Schneider, Metropovit. Decided that we needed to fill the lineup with vets and stop developing. The kids that made us believe again were not good enough anymore.

The result in the 2008-2009 season was a team fulls of useless vets too old to play a major role. That team was quickly discarded in 4 games during the playoffs. Kovalev was shipped out and well we needed moar vets so we traded McDo for Gomez. Nothing but Price, Markov and Plekanec was remaining of a promising batch of young players. Luckily with the lockout free buyouts and the 2007 draft we were able to do a quick turnaround ... just to do the same mistake again.

A good #2 C and a top pairing RD then we can contend. Dach/Beck/Hage develop to become a 2nd line C. Add grit/speed in the bottom six.

In their prime i.e. under 28 like Laine. No more Gomez plz.

 

[SOLR]

Imo let's get a better 2c that challenges Suzuki in all phases of the game.
I like Dach, we can keep him if he keeps progressing, but we should be treating as his impact really is.