HF Habs: The official 2023-2024 tank thread

[Bouboumaster]

And Gallagher's never ends. Ffs.

Lol don't even get me started on the Gallagher contract

Gallagher absolutly deserved a "Thank You" contract, but Bergevin went crazy with it
Terrible contract, the worse he gave. And he gave some really f***ing bad ones

 

[StCaufield]

Just ignore it. You know you can police yourself on which threads you can and can't see?

No I’d rather bicker about it so everyone can see

 

[Coffee]

You guys are tanking?????

 

[HabsWhiteKnightLOL]

You guys are tanking?????

You think this atrocious roster isnt?

You think adding Newhook and perhaps another rookie on the Def end will make us a playoff team because Drouin and Edmundson are gone?

To be an actual potential playoff team we need to get rid of the vets have atleast 2-3 rookie defs that are studs top 4. A better goalie.
A second good center and more than 1 good top 6 winger in Caufield.

So yeah this is another tanking season. Probably not bottom 5 but close to bottom 10 atleast.

This team is not ready to compete at all for playoffs

 

[bopeep]

Even though the left side of our D looks set for a while, I'm still going to hope we have a shot at this kid from the Swiss juniors with an all time awesome hockey name:

Daniil Ustinkov​

 

[Riggins]

My unsolicited thoughts on the bottom of the league next year:

1. San Jose - will be trash especially once they trade Karlsson for peanuts
2. Anaheim - some minor improvements in Killorn and Gudas, youth will progress, Eakins is gone. They'll still suck.
3. Chicago - Bedard, Hall and co. will help but they will be really bad again
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4. Philadelphia - the rebuild is on but until they clear out more players I'm not sure their downside is bottom 3. Torts will get them more points than they should have.
5. Arizona - seems they want to improve, adding Zucker, Kerfoot and Durzi. Still a strong bottom 5 contender.
6. Montreal - should be healthier, but if goaltending regresses we may find ourselves in a similar place.
7. Columbus - they are the bottom feeder with the best chance of leveling up significantly and not being in this mix. They get Werenski back and adding Provorov and Severson is big. Babcock could coach them into the playoff bubble if all goes well.
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Others in no particular order:
- Detroit - I fear we become this team. Hopefully they add Debrincat. They're the only team in the Atlantic I could see us finishing ahead of.
- Nashville - retooling but should still be respectable at least
- St. Louis - I don't know what to make of these guys
- Washington - could see them playing .500 hockey or making a wildcard spot if all goes well
- Winnipeg/Calgary - too hard to predict with potential for significant trades of players who want out. Neither will rebuild so they probably aren't bottom 10 calibre.
- NYI - too good to finish low, too bad to contend. I would hate to cheer for this team.
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Leveling up and not a bottom 10 contender IMO: Vancouver, Buffalo, Ottawa

 

[TomKosto]

I see us finishing 5-6. If we can get to top3, we can get a real promising prospect.

 

[First Line]

And people were right! It took another historic number of games missed due to injuries for us to squeeze into the bottom 5...

Sure and there’s going be all kinds of excuses why we pick top 10 next year, but the real reason is because we are rebuilding.

 

[Rapala]

I don't think anyone expects us to be bottom 5 again and if we are, either we got hit by injuries again which would be f***ing insane.. or our key components didn't take a step forward, which is bad.

We should be picking around where Detroit picked this year.

Agreed. First of all we weren't tanking last season which was a mistake and we aren't tanking this season unless circumstance brings us there again.
Thirdly this isn't a tank thread it's a bash management thread and could easily be merged into the doom and gloom thread and no one could tell the difference.

 

[First Line]

Agreed. First of all we weren't tanking last season which was a mistake and we aren't tanking this season unless circumstance brings us there again.
Thirdly this isn't a tank thread it's a bash management thread and could easily be merged into the doom and gloom thread and no one could tell the difference.

Wrong on all counts.
We were tanking last year , not as much as Chicago , but there’s different ways to tank and they chose to focus on kids learning above winning games.

This year it’s clear we are not trying to get better just letting kids develop a bit more.
Third, some people may not be happy about finishing low next year but the goal of the tank thread is to realise that rebuilding needs 2 things:
1) high picks
2 ) time

Lastly, there is no doom and gloom in tanking this is just a normal phase of a rebuild. Those people either don’t understand how a rebuild works or they are in the wrong thread.

 

[Rapala]

Wrong on all counts.
We were tanking last year , not as much as Chicago , but there’s different ways to tank and they chose to focus on kids learning above winning games.

This year it’s clear we are not trying to get better just letting kids develop a bit more.
Third, some people may not be happy about finishing low next year but the goal of the tank thread is to realise that rebuilding needs 2 things:
1) high picks
2 ) time

Lastly, there is no doom and gloom in tanking this is just a normal phase of a rebuild. Those people either don’t understand how a rebuild works or they are in the wrong thread.

No we were not tanking look at our record up and until the injuries started around the quarter pole. Those are not close to tank numbers.
Of course we need high picks and time and had we tanked properly we might have snagged a 1C.
The Doom and Gloom is coming off the backs of the people bashing management in year two FFS.
They were no where near as snarky in Bergevin's year five and he was a moron.

 

[First Line]

No we were not tanking look at our record up and until the injuries started around the quarter pole. Those are not close to tank numbers.
Of course we need high picks and time and had we tanked properly we might have snagged a 1C.
The Doom and Gloom is coming off the backs of the people bashing management in year two FFS.
They were no where near as snarky in Bergevin's year five and he was a moron.

I am not willing to say we didn’t tank properly. Tanking is what management does not the players and coach. The team last year looked pretty bad on all counts but performed better because St-Louis’ crazy determination.

Did Chicago not tank properly ? Columbus , who just signed Gaudreau and was not even trying to tank, finished even lower.

 

[SOLR]

Not that bare, we have Roy Beck Ferell Heineman coming up, i guess they will give Newhook the chance to succeed also and like i said its easier to get a top 6 winger than a top 3 D

If Celibrini Eiserman Demidov are here Its a no brainer

That's very bare compared to the best teams in terms of forward prospects. We are in the bottom tier.

Go see Buffalo...Benson, Savoie and Kulich not in the NHL yet, with Quinn and Peterka just getting started. Our prospects are middle 6 players / roles players. For a rebuilding team this ain't enough.

Yes our core is young, but it has not proven it can lead a winning offense yet.

 

[Goldenhands]

That's very bare compared to the best teams in terms of forward prospects. We are in the bottom tier.

Go see Buffalo...Benson, Savoie and Kulich not in the NHL yet, with Quinn and Peterka just getting started. Our prospects are middle 6 players / roles players. For a rebuilding team this ain't enough.

Yes our core is young, but it has not proven it can lead a winning offense yet.

Buffalo is ahead of us in their rebuild and have been rebuilding for yrs. Habs are still headed through 2-3 yrs of struggle, we potentially hold a high Calgary pick and some vets like Savard, MAtheson, Anderson could fletch solid returns. And while Buffalo have solid foward prospects, our D prospects eclipse theirs totally, Habs have the most impressive top rated defensive pool in the league IMO.

With Dach, SUzuki, Caufield, Slafkovsky, you have there 4 solid top6 in the making under 24 and Newhook might end up joining that group, what would leave only 1 spot left on our top 6. A kid like Heineman has the tools to be a solid complementary scoring winger on a top 6, kids like RHP, Beck, Ylonen project well as solid third liners.

The global picture is highly positive, we are going to have solid depth on 3 lines and a fantastic blueline. Our rebuild will be much shorter than Buffalo.

 

[SOLR]

Buffalo is ahead of us in their rebuild and have been rebuilding for yrs. Habs are still headed throught 2-3 yrs of struggle, we potentially hold a high Calgary pick and some vets like Savard, MAtheson, Anderson could fletch solid returns. And while Buffalo have solid foward prospects, our D prospects eclipse theirs totally, Habs have the most impressive top rated defensive pool in the league IMO.

With Dach, SUzuki, Caufield, Slafkovsky, you have there 4 solid top6 in the making under 24 and Newhook might end up joining that group, what would leave only 1 spot left on our top 6. A kid like Heineman has the tools to be a solid complementary scoring winger on a top 6, kids like RHP, Beck, Ylonen project well as solid third liners.

The global picture is highly positive, we are going to have solid depth on 3 lines and a fantastic blueline. Our rebuild will be much shorter than Buffalo.

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.

 

[SOLR]

For the record, I'm not advocating for building the roster from the draft per say. I'm advocating to get more picks so that takes care of itself.

 

[NotProkofievian]

For the record, I'm not advocating for building the roster from the draft per say. I'm not advocating to get more picks so that takes care of itself.

This. Drafting is messy business, but the talent is distributed towards the top. Pick early, pick often.

 

[SOLR]

This. Drafting is messy business, but the talent is distributed towards the top. Pick early, pick often.

"Often, early" ain't our thing thus far as we rebuild. I understand the Dach/Newhook stuff, but not sure we should pull that off too many times.

 

[Goldenhands]

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 the 2 years if we can win with them.

Yep thats what Im saying, Buffalo is ahead of us in their rebuild, but we are not that far behind. They have been struggling for years, our process will be shorter.

 

[SOLR]

Yep thats what Im saying, Buffalo is ahead of us in their rebuild, but we are not that far behind. They have been struggling for years, our process will be shorter.

If, and only if, Suzuki and Caufield are who we think they are.

There is an Edmonton risk here.

Taylor Hall, Jordan Eberle etc. the first generation of that rebuild, were not quite sufficient.

 

[Goldenhands]

If, and only if, Suzuki and Caufield are who we think they are.

There is an Edmonton risk here.

Taylor Hall, Jordan Eberle etc. the first generation of that rebuild, were not quite sufficient.

I have 0 doubt we do have 4 solid top 6 players with 70-80 pts potential and solid 2-ways game. Now we need to keep adding on that. It could come through drafts, trades or free agency, we have the assets, cap space and 2-3 other top 10 picks ahead.

 

[SOLR]

I have 0 doubt we do have 4 solid top 6 players with 70-80 pts potential and solid 2-ways game. Now we need to keep adding on that. It could come through drafts, trades or free agency, we have the assets, cap space and 2-3 other top 10 picks ahead.

My doubts: do we have 4 or 2 80 pts potential players? I'm not sure yet.

Very variable outcome before the season starts. It depends a LOT on how the kids train this summer.

 

[Goldenhands]

My doubts: do we have 4 or 2 80 pts potential players? I'm not sure yet.

Its going to be between 70-80 pts for all 4, it could be more if we can add a game breaker. The transitional game and talent from the back end will help our top fowards to reach those numbers regardless.

My ideal scenario would be Draisaitl, Oilers have some heavy contracts, not sure how Holland will manage it, but I wouldnt like being in his shoes.

 

[WeThreeKings]

Its going to be between 70-80 pts for all 4, it could be more if we can add a game breaker. The transitional game and talent from the back end will help our top fowards to reach those numbers regardless.

My ideal scenario would be Draisaitl, Oilers have some heavy contracts, not sure how Holland will manage it, but I wouldnt like being in his shoes.

God, I'd love to get Draisatl.

Honestly, I know people will scoff. But I wouldn't mind getting Nylander from the Leafs. He's the only one who shows up when it matters for that team and he's still young, has the type of skill we could add and fit in our system.

I'm sure there will be other PLD like opportunities to come, too.

 

[SOLR]

Its going to be between 70-80 pts for all 4, it could be more if we can add a game breaker. The transitional game and talent from the back end will help our top fowards to reach those numbers regardless.

My ideal scenario would be Draisaitl, Oilers have some heavy contracts, not sure how Holland will manage it, but I wouldnt like being in his shoes.

Drai will decline rapidly as his speed declines. See Gallagher.

God, I'd love to get Draisatl.

Honestly, I know people will scoff. But I wouldn't mind getting Nylander from the Leafs. He's the only one who shows up when it matters for that team and he's still young, has the type of skill we could add and fit in our system.

I'm sure there will be other PLD like opportunities to come, too.

Nylander will have an excellent 27 to 32 years old like his dad, in fact he might have his biggest years there and Nylander is exactly what we need. Our Marian Hossa.