HF Habs: The official 2023-2024 tank thread

[Simarino]

I'm not sure if they could have.. only Hughes knows, but I feel like his performance relative to his contract and the salary cap situation across the league, that the return wasn't really there.

I'd have liked to have moved him as well but I'm just not sure how viable its been to do so.

I wonder if they didn’t bet also( on top of the cap going up) on MSL keep improving game Andy’s game. I thought you could see some improvement on some facets of his game the last 25ish games. . If you combine the 2 factors and you got to sell Anderson after a big season with the cap significantly higher, the return could be alot more intersting.

 

[SOLR]

For me, the Buffalo and Edmonton rebuild took forever not because they try to take short cut but because they didn’t surround their young players with good veteran presence, and these young players felt into bad habits.

Bit of both.

 

[Toene]

I wonder if they didn’t bet also( on top of the cap going up) on MSL keep improving game Andy’s game. I thought you could see some improvement on some facets of his game the last 25ish games. . If you combine the 2 factors and you got to sell Anderson after a big season with the cap significantly higher, the return could be alot more intersting.

Semi-related (I agree with most of your post), but we should cool it with the St-Louis "magic". I know some players improved or got their groove back under him, but it's beginning to become a meme at this point. It seems like this board thinks everybody's going to have a career year next year, which would be a feat rarely seen (not sure it has even happened before). I love him as a coach dont get me wrong.

 

[Archijerej]

For me, the Buffalo and Edmonton rebuild took forever not because they try to take short cut but because they didn’t surround their young players with good veteran presence, and these young players felt into bad habits.

Yeah. I don't remember specific moves, but as far as I can tell their rebuilds were not critisized for taking short cuts. Rather the opposite. They were labeled shameless tankers that were ready to sell everyone and their mother, without the slightest regard for leadership and cohesion, and replace them with a random bunch of hired hands.

 

[Chadstudsky]

Haven't looked in a while, but I'm pretty sure that the 2025 pick is only top 1 protected. So unless they win the lottery, we should be able to keep their pick and if not I think we get their 2026 pick and their 2025 3rd round pick to compensate.

This is what I'm reading..

Scenario: In the event CGY receives FLA’s 2025 1st round pick (they will as long as FLA 1st isn't a lottery pick)

1. If both CGY AND FLA’s picks are NOT top 10, MTL will receive the better of the CGY and FLA 2025 1st round picks. Result: TBD

2. If CGY’s pick is top 10, AND FLA’s pick is NOT top 10, MTL receives FLA’s pick. Result: TBD

Am I missing something?

 

[WG]

What's left to sell?

Anderson will be done when the cap increases.
Dvorak will be traded at the deadline.
Hoffman might garner a late round pick at 50% retention.
Armia is immovable until the final year of his deal and again isn't bringing anything back.

I'm sure they'll trade Savard when the time is right.

But they already did most of their selling.

Big if, but if Monahan is healthy he should generate a good return next deadline.

 

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

Its time to lose like man for Heiserman

You can do better

 

[DAChampion]

Id the team is healthy, I expect a draft rank in the 11-15 range.

 

[Rapala]

Well, when you have 2 of the top 5 under 23 Ds in Dahlin and Power (2 x 1st overall), in the world, I think are underselling Buffalo on this quite a bit. For the next years they really don't need any D prospect at all, they can build around Dahlin and Power.

I agree we are in a good spot with our D, but we are lacking 1st line prospects because Suzuki, Caufield etc. are not yet proven top line guys. They look like them but we'll know in next the 2 years if we can win with them.

Buffalo have played very well in stretches these past three seasons holding a playoff spot early on in each. They fell out of contention because of poor goaltending. They could have ousted FLA. last season had they made any decent TDL moves. Looking at GF last season if Levy can give them any stability in net they will take the step this season.

Draisaitl has high IQ. He’ll still be good.

He will always remain Thomas Vanek good.

 

[HuGo Burner Acc]

The crappiest thing about this year is Habs aren't going to tank and I would actually go as far as to say it would look bad if they did tank. The reason being that they came 5th last in 2022-23 ONLY with having the most injuries in NHL history. So let's just make a fair assumption and say this season, their injury log will revert closer to the average. I'd that's the case they aren't finishing bottom 5 and if they do, it's an indication of the team probably not developing well (unless injuries ramp up again).

I could actually see HuGo trying to do a Dach like deal and package their 1st for a young up and comer even if the price for the player is steeper than what Dach costed

 

[An0n]

The crappiest thing about this year is Habs aren't going to tank and I would actually go as far as to say it would look bad if they did tank. The reason being that they came 5th last in 2022-23 ONLY with having the most injuries in NHL history. So let's just make a fair assumption and say this season, their injury log will revert closer to the average. I'd that's the case they aren't finishing bottom 5 and if they do, it's an indication of the team probably not developing well (unless injuries ramp up again).

I could actually see HuGo trying to do a Dach like deal and package their 1st for a young up and comer even if the price for the player is steeper than what Dach costed

They’re picking top 10.

 

[SlafySZN]

They’re picking top 10.

Top 5

 

[HuGo Burner Acc]

They’re picking top 10.

Hopefully but last year, let's just remember when they were relatively healthy, they were hovering around 20th place. So it's not set in stone they get there. Plus the young kids are a year older so probably better in performance. It's not out of the realm of possibilities or even probabilities that Habs finish around 18th to 20th if relatively healthy. That's a big IF tho

 

[Michelangelo]

Hopefully but last year, let's just remember when they were relatively healthy, they were hovering around 20th place. So it's not set in stone they get there. Plus the young kids are a year older so probably better in performance. It's not out of the realm of possibilities or even probabilities that Habs finish around 18th to 20th if relatively healthy. That's a big IF tho

Let's also not forget that we are not the only young team whose young kids will be looking to take a step forward in performance...

 

[atrud66]

We're the worst team in our division. We should be picking top 10.

 

[Kaladin]

We're the worst team in our division. We should be picking top 10.

Yeah even I think we'll pick around 8-10 probably this season. Can't see it being any higher then that or much lower. We'll be right in the zone to pick some of the best D prospects thankfully that should drop in our lap with some of the high end forwards slated to be picked at the top.

 

[Skip Bayless]

I just hope to see the team get to another level offensively speaking. The o zone movement that we started seeing towards the end of last year needs to continue. Hopefully they can manage to improve the PP, a full year of CC and Suz should help. I just want our young offensive minded players to have all the room to be creative.

 

[RationalExpectations]

Yeah even I think we'll pick around 8-10 probably this season. Can't see it being any higher then that or much lower. We'll be right in the zone to pick some of the best D prospects thankfully that should drop in our lap with some of the high end forwards slated to be picked at the top.

Wait how are the Habs in the 8-10 range ? Worse team in the East. ANA CBJ should get better, SJS and CHI should be worse (ARI too) but except if habs have 0 injury and Suzuki Dach Caufield Newhook Guhle Barron all take a huge step I don t see MTL climbing outside bottom 5.

 

[Lockin17]

Hope we are trying to compete this year .
probably end up with pick #12 or so
Probably end up with Maxim Massé or Sacha Boisvert

 

[BLONG7]

I just hope to see the team get to another level offensively speaking. The o zone movement that we started seeing towards the end of last year needs to continue. Hopefully they can manage to improve the PP, a full year of CC and Suz should help. I just want our young offensive minded players to have all the room to be creative.

 

[BLONG7]

I just hope to see the team get to another level offensively speaking. The o zone movement that we started seeing towards the end of last year needs to continue. Hopefully they can manage to improve the PP, a full year of CC and Suz should help. I just want our young offensive minded players to have all the room to be creative.

If, and it's a big if, they can fix the PP we are going to score more goals easily...
Seems to be something so easy and yet. This should be the first year, where we have skilled players on the ice which should help big time.
Winning the face offs on the PP is the crucial starting point. The entire group of C's need to be better in the dot.

You are bang on, it's time to see our skilled kids, be more creative on offense. Something MSL would love to see.

 

[JoelWarlord]

In a vacuum the Habs feel like they "should" be somewhere around the 20-24th in the league range on paper, but I struggle to put us that high when I look at the actual teams we'd be competing with. I think SJS, CHI, and probably PHI are the only teams clearly worse than us right now. Maybe Anaheim too, I still hate their blue line and I'm not a big Zegras fan either. Arizona and Columbus are ahead of us on paper, and I don't think I'd currently project us to pass at least 3 of the Washington/Detroit/St. Louis/Vancouver/Ottawa tier to pick at 10 or higher pre-lotto. We're also a clear last in our division on paper so we might finish lower than our league-wide ranking if other bad teams get an easier schedule.

There's a lot of variance with how young the team is and even one or two guys taking a big step could be impactful enough to change our overall outlook, but I just don't think we'll have the juice to get much higher than around 28-26th this year. I think we're in a good spot again where the most likely outcome is picking in the 4-7 range, and anything higher will be due to massive progression from young players which is always a good reason to be picking higher.

 

[Skip Bayless]

If, and it's a big if, they can fix the PP we are going to score more goals easily...
Seems to be something so easy and yet. This should be the first year, where we have skilled players on the ice which should help big time.
Winning the face offs on the PP is the crucial starting point. The entire group of C's need to be better in the dot.

You are bang on, it's time to see our skilled kids, be more creative on offense. Something MSL would love to see.

We tend to only talk about the development of our prospects individually, but I think the development of our identity collectively is just as important. I would like to see some red army/Tampa Bay type of sequences this season.

 

[Captain Mountain]

The crappiest thing about this year is Habs aren't going to tank and I would actually go as far as to say it would look bad if they did tank. The reason being that they came 5th last in 2022-23 ONLY with having the most injuries in NHL history. So let's just make a fair assumption and say this season, their injury log will revert closer to the average. I'd that's the case they aren't finishing bottom 5 and if they do, it's an indication of the team probably not developing well (unless injuries ramp up again).

I could actually see HuGo trying to do a Dach like deal and package their 1st for a young up and comer even if the price for the player is steeper than what Dach costed

I'm not sure why you would draw that conclusion, especially when you look at how a number of other rebuilds have developed.

Hockey is a pretty random game and outcome does not always equate to being the better team.

Rebuilds are also almost never linear and are affected by who you play. The East in general and the Atlantic in particular is a meat grinder and there are few teams that are, on paper, equal to or worse than Montreal right now - healthy or not, improvements or not. The only team in the conference whose roster I wouldn't take over Montreal's for next season only is the Flyers. That matters because Montreal's going to be playing bad teams less than teams out West.

 

[Sunfyre]

None of this matters, as we are headed by buffoons. We can tank all we want, but we are going to be Buffalo 2.0 . Good luck to all of us.

If the Habs are as good and talented team as Buffalo in a few years we can consider ourselves lucky