Is the Rebuild almost done? POLL

[Rapala]

The intensive acquisition phase is over as per HuGo. The building phase is underway.
This is the phase that will get some heated discussions happening as AAV Term Window Core and Role take center stage. We are seeing it already. I think Balance is still the key as the Carrier acquisition seems to prove.
I said it a while back Hughes isn't going to be able to keep everyone happy but if we keep winning does it matter?

 

[Scriptor]

Ehlers would be totally useless to this team. He is not RHD, not 2C, not big, physical, not playoff beast. In three years, there is like 1% chance he would be a better player than Demidov and Slaf. This would be total waste of money. It is not free because you would waste big chunk of your salary cap to something you dont need.
Investing to Neal Pionk would make way more sense. Same age, UFA, RHD...

I'm not a huge advocate of acquiring Ehlers, specifically, but the point is, coming off his interest in reuniting with his friend Laine, there are options to quickly pimp out the team's offense without ageing the team too much and without sacrificing ANY player or future assets.

Ehlers may not be your favourite player, nor my ultimate acquisition, but he does make his line mates better and adding himtothe fold, while still being able to select more talented players with our draft capital can only make our top nine that much deeper and that much more talented.

As for Pionk that you suggested as another potential UFA acquisition, only on RD, an admittedly more dire need for the Habs, it's an interesting option that would benefit the team for a potential 7-year span, through Pink's 36th birth year.

That's nothing outlandish in terms of age for the smooth skating style of D that isn't very physical and less exposed to wear and tear.

Pionk would make an interesting partner for Guhle, while Reinbacher, at next year's trade deadline, could be paired with Hutson once Matheson gets traded (for another late 1st round pick in 2026) and the Austrian D gets recalled from Laval.

That would provide a physical shutdown pairing partner (Guhle & Reinbacher) for less physical, but more offensively minded D (Pionk & Hutson).

Pionk could quarterback the 2nd PP wave while Hutson runs the offense from the backend on the first wave.

There'd be an offensive touch to most of the time spent at even strength with Hutson and Pionk on different pairings for for around a combined 45 minutes a night.

Ehlers is not a priority need, by any stretch of the imagination and, ultimately, doesn't need to be added to the roster for an immediate improvement to our offense since the D will take some time (Reinbacher, and one of Mailloux or Engstrom) to mature and Demidov, Hage and whomever we selected the 2025 draft, will either not have an immediate impact, or won't be at their best in the short term, anyhow.

I'm happy with adding Pionk now (UFA season), keeping our draft capital for the 2025 draft selections, hopefully with an attempt to move up, and waiting for our forward prospects to fall into place by three years from now:

Demidov - Suzuki - Laine
Caufield - Dach - Slafkovsky
Heineman - Desnoyers/Hage - Hage/Bear
F. Xhekaj - Beck/Kapanen - Davidson/Beck

Guhle - Pionk
Hutson- Reinbacher
Xhekaj - Mailloux/Engstrom
Engstrom/Mailloux

It's all a question how much adding an UFA like Ehlers, Pionk, or some other option would cost, all while trying to add as much talent at as many key positions as we can.

However, with the Cap rumoured to quickly rise to 97M and likely break the 100Mbarrier within five years, as long as Hughes doesn't spend 15M on talented players, rather staying close to the internal Cap with Suzuki's current salary as a barometer, we'll able to add a player like Ehlers or Pionk without any worries and still be able to pay players like Hutson, Demidov and Reinbacher when their 2nd NHL contracts need tote signed.

 

[ahmedou]

Yesterday was bad days... It's behind us...

Today are good days...

I'm hoping that tomorrown are gonna be good days too...

 

[BullLund]

I'd call it the evaluation phase. Still need to know whether players like Laine, Dach, Dobes will prove out long term. It's safe to say that Hutson has proven out. Kid's going to be a superstar in this league. He will only get bigger, stronger and probably more defensively aware from now on.

 

[TheFamousFart]

I'd call it the evaluation phase. Still need to know whether players like Laine, Dach, Dobes will prove out long term. It's safe to say that Hutson has proven out. Kid's going to be a superstar in this league. He will only get bigger, stronger and probably more defensively aware from now on.

Well if you use Laine the right way, like they have, he will be a weapon thats safe to say. Spot on with Hutson.

 

[BullLund]

Well if you use Laine the right way, like they have, he will be a weapon thats safe to say. Spot on with Hutson.

It's the injuries I worry about. Huge fan of the guy, but I wouldn't build the team around him until he can prove that he can play a full season.

 

[HuGort]

Probably 2 more years before they serious cup contenders. They have couple young goalies who need to iron it out. Young defense needs to mature. Once Hutson, Guhle, Wifi, Reinbacher all playing well be good defense.

This summer and next need to sign couple star veteran players to mix with their young forwards. A 50 goal scorer like Rantanen as example. Somebody with a ring and good leadership. Mix with Slaf, Demidov, Caufield.

 

[Sorinth]

It's the injuries I worry about. Huge fan of the guy, but I wouldn't build the team around him until he can prove that he can play a full season.

What's your definition of "build the team around" because I don't think anyone is thinking to build around Laine. But if you ask what building the team around Suzuki looks like, well having a threat like Laine to play on the 2nd line and top PP unit is exactly the type of thing I would say is part of building around Suzuki.

 

[Gaylord Q Tinkledink]

No, but if they can keep their first 4 picks and sign one of the better free agents and then it might be.

Habs need to get some better prospects so they can have a surplus to trade some in a quantity for quality trade.

 

[BullLund]

What's your definition of "build the team around" because I don't think anyone is thinking to build around Laine. But if you ask what building the team around Suzuki looks like, well having a threat like Laine to play on the 2nd line and top PP unit is exactly the type of thing I would say is part of building around Suzuki.

I'm not talking about him being a number 1 guy on the team or anything. But obviously you're going to have to run the power play around him and his shooting ability, and he'd have to be a constant feature on either the first or the second line to have any worth.

If the idea is to just "hide him" by having him play as low minutes as possible while utilizing him as a PP specialist, I don't think it's worth having him around. You'd have to find a center that has chemistry with him, which both Winnipeg and Columbus failed to do. So far I'm not really convinced that Montreal is doing any better on that front. They're playing two guys together, Laine and Dach, who have battled with injuries, along with a winger that will probably be out of the league in a couple of years in Newhook.

If that's the plan going forward then I'd say Montreal is better off trying to get someone else, maybe a legit 2C and play Kirby as a winger.

 

[Scriptor]

The only way the rebuild gets closer to being finished is once we identify (and acquire if not within the organization in the short term) a 2nd line C and acquire a top-4 RHD superior to a Carrier to go along with a developing Reinbacher.

Those two pieces are essential requirements.

Beyond that, we can extend Laine and even land another high end winger as a UFA.

ideally, for me, beck gets slotted in as 4th line, shutdown C, Dach gets pushed down to 3rd line C and Suzuki slots in as an elite, PPG, shutdown, 2nd line C.

That's why I'm leaning towards doing everything possible to move up where we can select Ryabkin that might slide at the 2025 draft and also sign Ehlers as an UFA to play on a line with his buddy Laine.

I see no importance in placing a number ahead of any line because, initially, Slafkovsky - Ryabkin - Demidov could be eased in on a 3rd line, not for less minutes -- because St-Louis could spread out nearly equal minutes across his top-9 -- but to have more beneficial matchups against lower opposition the matchups against the opponents' best players.

In no particular order for the next two years:

Ehlers - Dach - Laine
Caufield - Suzuki - Heineman
Slafkovsky - Ryabkin - Demidov
Anderson - Beck - Gallagher

Next year, we save 11.35M from current contracts ending for Savard, Armia and Dvorak, plus 1.7M gone from Evans being traded, all for just over 13M.

However, apart from replacement players on ELCs or lower Cap hits, there is no major money to give to players with new, expensive contract extensions. some of the gained Cap room could definitely serve to sign Ehlers as an UFA around 7M or 7.5M.

In 2026-2027, the Cap ceiling jumps again up to 104 M, 16M more than this year's 88M Cap ceiling, but both Hutson and Laine would require new contracts if we want to have both in our lineup.

Hutson will get a huge raise up to anywhere between 8M and 9M, while Laine would likely come slightly down from his current 8.7M mark, perhaps closer to the 8M mark. Add to that the savings from Matheson's contract if he ends up getting traded at the trade deadline as a rental in the final year of his current contract.

Still, the added savings from Matheson's contract will likely only be earmarked for an extension to Reinbacher on a 2nd NHL contract.

The following year, the cap would go up 9M to 113M, but we'd need to extend both Demidov and Ryabkin on their 2nd NHL contracts.

Along the way, we'd also need to give Dach a less hefty raise.

IMO, it's all pretty tight, but doable if the G position comes in under 7M (possible with Dobes on a value 2nd NHL contract and Fowler on an ELC) and if the 4th line is a cheap line under 5M.

Lots of juggling for Hughes, but a definite possibility we could ice the best top-9 in the NHL t0 go along with a decent D and G tandem.

A definite contender for more than just a couple of years, with players like Hage moving up the ranks to potentially replace an expensive forward at a lesser cost, initially, and keep the contender thing going.

 

[Miller Time]

1 more piece...

An established (or about to establish himself) impact top 6 or top 4 player in his mid 20's.

Add that piece and let the rest of our young core & great prospect pool do the rest.

 

[Sorinth]

I'm not talking about him being a number 1 guy on the team or anything. But obviously you're going to have to run the power play around him and his shooting ability, and he'd have to be a constant feature on either the first or the second line to have any worth.

If the idea is to just "hide him" by having him play as low minutes as possible while utilizing him as a PP specialist, I don't think it's worth having him around. You'd have to find a center that has chemistry with him, which both Winnipeg and Columbus failed to do. So far I'm not really convinced that Montreal is doing any better on that front. They're playing two guys together, Laine and Dach, who have battled with injuries, along with a winger that will probably be out of the league in a couple of years in Newhook.

If that's the plan going forward then I'd say Montreal is better off trying to get someone else, maybe a legit 2C and play Kirby as a winger.

You don't have to run the PP around him, he's simply there as a threat which opponents are forced to respect. You can still run your PP however you want, ie you could still have the main option be a cross crease pass from Slaf to Caufield as we've seen them do a number of times, or have the main option be a pass to the bumper for a quick shot through traffic, etc...

Playing a guy on the 2nd line isn't trying to hide him either. You seem to be implying that either you are building around someone in the top-6 or you are hiding them. In which case you are trying to build around everyone and therefore not building around anyone, which isn't inherently a bad idea, Vegas arguably uses this philosophy successfully as an example. Not sure that's what we should be doing though, we are probably better off building around Suzuki, and that means having a Laine level threat on the PP, and it means having a high scoring 2nd line. Commiting to Laine even at a lot of money doesn't automatically mean we are building around him, the cap is so high now that even complentary players get big bucks.

Also I would point out Laine did have chemistry with his centers in CLB. Chemistry wasn't the problem there, and his near ppg numbers show that.