HF Habs: Ranking Hughes' moves so far

[Treb]

Ain't no way you got the Reinbacher draft in good

This one is still in the air depending on how he ends up. I still like him as a prospect injuries aside.

I wanted Michkov, but if it goes out in a few years that he pulled a Jagr, I wouldn't be surprised (especially since we know from his agent he did it to Arizona and Washington).

 

[Habs]

I think Leonard will end up being the next best player in that draft, he's special

 

[Treb]

Bad? these are irrelevant trades

Relevant to Laval, which was part of his responsibility.

Schnarr would have done more for Laval than Allard who did bad.
The Legare trade was the opposite of what Laval needed (softer for not much added offence which they had already enough of).
Similar with Mysak where we traded for slight increase in offence (when it wasn't really needed) while losing 2-way play.
We traded Laval's toughness for 4 games of Hammond.

 

[Sorinth]

The not so great:
Toffoli for Heineman +++ (pulled the trigger too fast)
Kirby Dach (rather have Nazar)

Seems strange to be so down on Mesar to not even use his name but then be high Nazar. Both guys are undersized and producing equally in this their first AHL year, Mesar has 5 points in 5 AHL games and Nazar has 4 points in 5 AHL games.

 

[River Meadow]

Reinbacher over Michkov was a stroke of BRILLIANCE.

 

[River Meadow]

Im gonna go again on it but passing on Michkov is a F .
No idea why Reinbacher is a top 5 pick anyways , bro doesnt belong in the top 10 of that year draft to begin with

Newhook trade is awful
Never been a fan of Dach trade neither
Loved the TDL moves tho

Newhook......... so bad.

We get rid of Drouin.

smh.


Also, he could have picked Leonard, if not taking Michkov.

BrUh.

 

[Angler]

Most of his moves have been good. Overall I’m impressed.

 

[GordonGraham]

prospect pool is much better but the actual NHL team didnt get any better

 

[cave troll]

Lehkonen trade - absolutely horrible. When it was done we thought we acquired a great D prospect , but in the end we traded a clutch winger winning big games for a guy who will barely be an NHL-er
Matheson trade - OK. I like it.
Kulak trade - big win. We got Hutson on draft
Dach trade - If Dach can stay healthy and become career good 3rd C it's OK. if not...it's a lose.
Monahan trades - Great
Newhook trade - absolutely horrible. Avs fleeced him again by giving him worse version of Dru for a 1st and a 2nd.
Laine trade - dude got injured the second he stepped onto the ice. We'll see if he is capable of playing good hockey again. I hope he is.

Picks?
Slaf as No1 . OK. Reinbacher over Michkov- absolutely horrible. Mesar - so far I hope it's OK pick. Hutson - big f***in' win. Demidov - great. Hage- OK.

 

[Just this once]

Demidov is what will define his tenure. Lots of it is luck though.
I don't know how to rate individually like that, it's all part of a whole.
Overall I believe he should have sold more veterans right away to tank better and not have the dead wood we still have. Don't care if you have to pay for it.

Otherwise all his moves are pretty good taken individually. He made a lot of quite incredible ones with out of the box thinking and good communication. Good signings as well. He truly is an excellent manager.
I guess his best move imo was getting Matheson for Petry. So far it's what has the most impact.

His dubious move is to get Dach, not that the move is bad, but all his plan seems to be on this move working and it's really risky. It's the type of move that could come and haunt him.
Another is Slaf. I really like the player, but Cooley could have fixed the center for many years.
He'll need to trade now if Dach won't make it, and it so happens Dach was the guy you could use to get that center, but now it's probably too late. He kind of put himself into a corner I believe.

It's just to say, you can win all your trades, it does not mean all that much if the overall plan is not there. I thought Gorton was the guy supposed to do that, and I think it's where the failure is tbh.

 

[HuGort]

Wish he had acquired more grit. Habs are soft team. Sometimes I think they have no push back at all. Probably Gorton doings. A small and soft team what got Gorton fired from Rangers.

 

[Sorinth]

Demidov is what will define his tenure. Lots of it is luck though.
I don't know how to rate individually like that, it's all part of a whole.
Overall I believe he should have sold more veterans right away to tank better and not have the dead wood we still have. Don't care if you have to pay for it.

Otherwise all his moves are pretty good taken individually. He made a lot of quite incredible ones with out of the box thinking and good communication. Good signings as well. He truly is an excellent manager.
I guess his best move imo was getting Matheson for Petry. So far it's what has the most impact.

His dubious move is to get Dach, not that the move is bad, but all his plan seems to be on this move working and it's really risky. It's the type of move that could come and haunt him.
Another is Slaf. I really like the player, but Cooley could have fixed the center for many years.
He'll need to trade now if Dach won't make it, and it so happens Dach was the guy you could use to get that center, but now it's probably too late. He kind of put himself into a corner I believe.

It's just to say, you can win all your trades, it does not mean all that much if the overall plan is not there. I thought Gorton was the guy supposed to do that, and I think it's where the failure is tbh.

I'm not sure why we would be haunted by the Dach trade. Even if he doesn't work out at the end of the day he cost us Romanov, who is a good player and would certainly help in the short term. But as a LD there just isn't much of a future since he'd be behind Guhle and Hutson.

 

[Habssince89]

As an outside fan the balls to pick Slafkovsky 1st overall has to be up there

right move too

 

[River Meadow]

Lehkonen trade - absolutely horrible. When it was done we thought we acquired a great D prospect , but in the end we traded a clutch winger winning big games for a guy who will barely be an NHL-er
Matheson trade - OK. I like it.
Kulak trade - big win. We got Hutson on draft
Dach trade - If Dach can stay healthy and become career good 3rd C it's OK. if not...it's a lose.
Monahan trades - Great
Newhook trade - absolutely horrible. Avs fleeced him again by giving him worse version of Dru for a 1st and a 2nd.
Laine trade - dude got injured the second he stepped onto the ice. We'll see if he is capable of playing good hockey again. I hope he is.

Picks?
Slaf as No1 . OK. Reinbacher over Michkov- absolutely horrible. Mesar - so far I hope it's OK pick. Hutson - big f***in' win. Demidov - great. Hage- OK.

Very good analysis IMO

Wish he had acquired more grit. Habs are soft team. Sometimes I think they have no push back at all. Probably Gorton doings. A small and soft team what got Gorton fired from Rangers.

Which just compounds how bad the Newhook trade was.

 

[HuGort]

Very good analysis IMO



Which just compounds how bad the Newhook trade was.

Newhook a little like Dach. No team is going to trade a recent 3rd overall pick for 13th. Unless there is something wrong with him. Same as Drouin.

They are dumping him before scouting reports get around about him. Get something solid back while they still can. When they realize they made a mistake.

 

[Andrei79]

It's way too soon to write off either Dach or Newhook due to 10 games. Dach was great to end his first year here and looked like the best forward in the team in camp and before he got injured. He did very well with Caufield and Suzuki, but the lack of center means they have to out him back and give someone to Slaf. If you read the Newhook thread, everyone was positive about him to end the year. 10 games on a completely disjointed team doesn't change the step forward he took. Unfortunately, rebuilds aren't linear and there will be peaks and troughs. Newhook is still someone who checked many marks the team needed: cheap, young, versatile, good shot and speed.

 

[WeThreeKings]

It's way too soon to write off either Dach or Newhook due to 10 games. Dach was great to end his first year here and looked like the best forward in the team in camp and before he got injured. He did very well with Caufield and Suzuki, but the lack of center means they have to out him back and give someone to Slaf. If you read the Newhook thread, everyone was positive about him to end the year. 10 games on a completely disjointed team doesn't change the step forward he took. Unfortunately, rebuilds aren't linear and there will be peaks and troughs. Newhook is still someone who checked many marks the team needed: cheap, young, versatile, good shot and speed.

Amen, too bad perspective is a hard thing to come by on this board.

 

[Andrei79]

Amen, too bad perspective is a hard thing to come by on this board.

It happened last year with Caufield. People not seeing the strides he made in his game and panicking at his lack of accuracy after a shoulder injury. A lot of impatience and temper tantrums when things aren't going well.

 

[River Meadow]

It's way too soon to write off either Dach or Newhook due to 10 games. Dach was great to end his first year here and looked like the best forward in the team in camp and before he got injured. He did very well with Caufield and Suzuki, but the lack of center means they have to out him back and give someone to Slaf. If you read the Newhook thread, everyone was positive about him to end the year. 10 games on a completely disjointed team doesn't change the step forward he took. Unfortunately, rebuilds aren't linear and there will be peaks and troughs. Newhook is still someone who checked many marks the team needed: cheap, young, versatile, good shot and speed.

Not worried about Dach,

I am worried about Newhook, because he's not Dach's size, doesn't have Dach's grit (at times) and idk if he is skilled and consistent enough to be a legit 2nd liner.

 

[Whitesnake]

As I will always do, I'm not putting ANY specific picks on the head of Gorton and Hughes. Never for me. It was Timmins before. It's Bobrov/Lapointe now. Everytime you see a round table talking about prospects, both Hughes but especially Gorton do have some words....and they do weigh more heavily than Donald Audette....but in the end, I'm sure they don't take the final decision. Their final decision was to hired Bobrov and Lapointe.

If we end up sucking at drafting. Bobrov/Lapointe should be targeted as being bad....and then Gorton/Hughes as to be targeted for keeping those 2 in charge too long.....if that happens.

As of now, what I will have until proven otherwise against Bobrov/Lapointe, was the Reinbacher pick based on needs, the Mesar pick to which I believe was build on proximity to their 1st overall pick. I don't dislike the goalie strategy at the draft, I too would draft maybe 1 goalie per draft especially with the numbers of picks we have. Now the rest is just waiting to see who succeeds. We did have 12 picks in the top 100 in the last 3 rounds. We have to see a few of those guys play a significant role at one point. We are well en route to that with Hutson, Slaf, Demidov, Hage, Fowler....that looks just great. Then, we will see with Beck and Reinbacher who could join that list.

 

[KFlint]

My deep analysis : We have more wins that loses, can’t be perfect. Nothing worth losing trust in them, at all.

And I’d rather have Dach than Nazar, easy.

 

[Sorinth]

Not worried about Dach,

I am worried about Newhook, because he's not Dach's size, doesn't have Dach's grit (at times) and idk if he is skilled and consistent enough to be a legit 2nd liner.

Keep in mind expectations moving forward are for Newhook to be the 6th best forward. When you look around the league to see who they have as the #6 guy, it's quite often guys who are pretty meh. Only a few teams really have true depth in their top-6/9.