The state of the Habs Rebuild - The Next step

[Lafleurs Guy]

and that doesn't really matter as it will be great to add a bunch of NHLers in the coming years but they need to be really, really good if we are talking about being a cup contender.

That's why with prospects you can't count on them until they show what the can do in the NHL outside of the rare few that are NHL ready at 17/18.

But making the playoffs is shit, we are talking about contender status, something we haven't seen much of for the past 30 years and while that can certainly happen, I don't see how anyone can really know where we are in that regard until we have much clearer picture of Hutson, Reinbacher, Mailloux, Demidov, Hage, Fowerl, Volohkin, etc......

We can’t know.

But when you look at clubs that stockpile highly rated prospects, they tend to be successful. Some of these players are going to pan out.

I’m excited.

 

[montreal]

We can’t know.

But when you look at clubs that stockpile highly rated prospects, they tend to be successful. Some of these players are going to pan out.

I’m excited.

I'd like to see some data on that, and again we aren't talking about being "successful", how many of them turn into contenders?

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

I'd like to see some data on that, and again we aren't talking about being "successful", how many of them turn into contenders?

If we look at cup winners, most go through a period of rebuilding where they're collecting young talent. Almost all multi cup winners are rebuilds. Most recently we can look at Pittsburgh, Chicago, Tampa, LA... All rebuilds. All multi cup winners. All teams with top picks leading the way. Not all their picks worked out but some did.

And before that... Colorado, New Jersey won multiple cups doing it that way. Before that it was Pittsburgh, Montreal, Edmonton, Islanders... it's always been that way. Not all cup winners are rebuilding with high picks but most are.

And it follows why that would be. The draft is incredibly linear. Number one picks have a higher success rate than number twos. Number twos more than threes. Etc...

Now to your point - just because you rebuild doesn't mean you'll contend. You can still f*** it up. As for that data, I don't have it but it would be interesting to see.

There are no guarantees. Just because you rebuild doesn't mean it will work. But with the development that we have now and the GM we have now I feel pretty good that we'll do it right.

 

[Boss Man Hughes]

If we look at cup winners, most go through a period of rebuilding where they're collecting young talent. Almost all multi cup winners are rebuilds. Most recently we can look at Pittsburgh, Chicago, Tampa, LA... All rebuilds. All multi cup winners. All teams with top picks leading the way. Not all their picks worked out but some did.

And before that... Colorado, New Jersey won multiple cups doing it that way. Before that it was Pittsburgh, Montreal, Edmonton, Islanders... it's always been that way. Not all cup winners are rebuilding with high picks but most are.

And it follows why that would be. The draft is incredibly linear. Number one picks have a higher success rate than number twos. Number twos more than threes. Etc...

Now to your point - just because you rebuild doesn't mean you'll contend. You can still f*** it up. As for that data, I don't have it but it would be interesting to see.

There are no guarantees. Just because you rebuild doesn't mean it will work. But with the development that we have now and the GM we have now I feel pretty good that we'll do it right.

Exaclty. The rebuild is only as good as the management team. Hughes on the 1st intermission of the Gretzky-Hlinka game tonight (Canada) said that they don't want to make a trade that blocks their prospects from getting their chance.

 

[Miller Time]

I didn't suggest that YOU cared about the Leafs. I simply shared my lived experience that some people are down on everything the organization does and therefore they are unable to provide a balanced assessment and analysis. I asked if you were one of those fans. You had provided a one word response.

I thought the young blue line and prospects was a bright spot in this rebuild? You have a good young goalie too. I guess your opinion is that neither are strong enough.

If Slaf and Demidov become the two best forwards because they turn out to be very good then you benefit from everyone else slotting down a leg or two. Caulfield, Suzuki, Dach, Newhook, and Beck being #3 through #7 on the depth chart is better than #1 through #5. You are saying it may not be enough.

I read someone else in here pointing out that the timing may not line up also. Suzuki and co could be too old by the time the next group is contributing, always a concern.

We're a long suffering fan base coming off of over a decade of terrible mismanagement...

Some posters are still a bit scarred, leading to exaggerated pessimism imo.

The Habs current organization depth absolutely is set up to go on a run of contention with or without any more "elite" level additions... But we also have the draft capital, prospect pool & upcoming cap flexibility to be aggressive in targetting an established addition via trade or UFA over the next 2-3 years.

There is more than enough top 6 and top 4 talent in the org., but as it is all U25, they will have to prove their potential out. With one of the top U25 groups in the league and a management team with the competency to manage the cap & roster appropriately, there's reason for optimism not seen here in a long time.

It's a winning recipe. We'll see how it plays out.

 

[Chili]

Tell me how many self drafted players did Florida have on their roster?

Don't know if anyone already answered the question but it was 4 players who they drafted played in the playoffs: Barkov, Lundell, Ekblad plus Kulikov who returned to them last season after playing elsewhere for years. The year before Vegas had two: Hague & Whitecloud. Gives an idea the importance of pro scouts finding the players to fill roles in the lineup.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Exaclty. The rebuild is only as good as the management team. Hughes on the 1st intermission of the Gretzky-Hlinka game tonight (Canada) said that they don't want to make a trade that blocks their prospects from getting their chance.

Is that what he said? Awesome. I made the same point earlier in another thread. Glad to hear him say this too.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Don't know if anyone already answered the question but it was 4 players who they drafted played in the playoffs: Barkov, Lundell, Ekblad plus Kulikov who returned to them last season after playing elsewhere for years. The year before Vegas had two: Hague & Whitecloud. Gives an idea the importance of pro scouts finding the players to fill roles in the lineup.

I wouldn't call them a classic rebuild. But it is interesting to note that their top scorer in the playoffs was Barkov - drafted 2nd overall by them.

 

[Boss Man Hughes]

Is that what he said? Awesome. I made the same point earlier in another thread. Glad to hear him say this too.

Not an exact quote but that is what he said when asked about trades. Didn't go into detail but I expect he would make a trade for someone who would be part of the core long term but not for a short term fix.

 

[NewDef]

Things i consider are:

getting a coach that can inspire, motivate and develop our young players (no Therrien here),

not burdening the team with bad contracts while getting rid of bad contracts and unwanted player without spending picks

being patient and finding ways to make what he has work good enough (Armia got a reboot and played well after his stint in laval. If he plays that way he could bring a good pick at tdl. Gally played well this season thanks to St-Louis working with him, making it bearable to keep him another year and not dig a hole in the cap by buying his contract at an unfavorable time).

Getting Matheson for Petry. Getting firsts with Monahan. Taking a chance with Kovacevic and getting a 3rd for developping him.

Dach was a beast in developpement before getting injured, he still may be well worth the picks spent. Newhook also keeps progressing and could end up as one of the top 3rd liner in the league for many years, we got an actual nhl player for 2 maybe picks.

The drafts has been very good and he was crafty (getting Hage) while managing the contract needs (ncaa, euro).

The development structure being immensely improved, the contract structure being built coherently. Cutting ties fast on players not showing up

not caving in for PLD and other risky costly gambles.

Also not giving 3-4 years contracts to veteran 3rd/4th liners which allowed them to give ice time to prospects and figure out their actual value and if they'll be back. RHP, Ylonen, Roy, Heineman, Strubble, etc.

Now, given where we were at the start of their tenure, it's been excellent work. Could they have been more lucky? Win the lottery? Sure, but with what they had to work with, HuGo did reaaaly well. Contender level? When? Jee, nobody knows at the moment but it's a great start and it's done right.

Now let's hope we get lucky and some of the jewels pan out (Demidov, Hage, Hutson, Roy, Beck, Mesar, Rein, Mailloux, Florian, Fowler, Konyushkov, Kapanen, Engstrom, Erikson, Volhokhin)

 

[HuGort]

Bit hard to do that with Guhle isn't it?

Plays a pivotal position

 

[Nova_Scotia_Vees]

If I’m to take Gorton at his end of season words “this is an extremely important offseason for our plan to take the step to the next level” and if the roster makeup stands as it is today I give HuGo a C.

However, I expect a move or moves prior to season opening roster

a C? Are you a leaf fan?

 

[dcyhabs]

Point I was making was that they fought and battled hard all year long even tho they were in the basement. Thats very good long term for building a winning culture. Most other teams just give up.

It's not like we're expecting to go from bottom 5 to president trophy in one year. Even a small increase in points can have us fighting for WC. 5-10 extra points will do that. Should be attainable with the improved growth from our players + influx of new talent in Huston, Mailloux & co.

Most importantly tho we are not Ottawa or Buffalo. Those teams are dumpster fire organizations. I don't see any comparison with those teams and the Habs honestly.

The habs have been a dumpster fire for a bunch of years. The organization went from a cup in ‘93 to salary dumps that showed decisions were not made with any understanding of what it took to win games.

Bergevin was supposed to take us out of the disaster, he had a team with lots of potential and he botched it.

Hughes and Gorton have improved a lot of stuff, but they are going to have to prove they can win. They are going to have to sell players on coming to Montreal and putting in an effort, unlike say Dadanov and Hoffman.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

The habs have been a dumpster fire for a bunch of years. The organization went from a cup in ‘93 to salary dumps that showed decisions were not made with any understanding of what it took to win games.

Bergevin was supposed to take us out of the disaster, he had a team with lots of potential and he botched it.

Hughes and Gorton have improved a lot of stuff, but they are going to have to prove they can win. They are going to have to sell players on coming to Montreal and putting in an effort, unlike say Dadanov and Hoffman.

MB arrived at the exact wrong time. He had a team of young players that overperformed in 2013 and didn't really pick a direction. Should have gone for it while we had that window. Then we wasted the rest of our time flailing and wasted Carey Price.

That's why HUGO coming in is so important. He's picked a direction and has gone all in. Exactly what you want to see in a rebuild.

As I've written here many times before, rebuilding has been shown to work. It's not a guarantee, you need some luck along the way but almost every multi cup winning team in history (since the modern draft) has been a rebuild. It's a repeatable working strategy. At minimum you should wind up with some stars along the way. We haven't done that in forever (Carey Price was a one time lotto pick) and it's why we've never had superstars in the lineup. You aren't going to win that way.

I look at the prospect pool we have right now and I'm ecstatic. Some I haven't seen yet (Reinbacher, Demidov) but most I have. There's huge potential with a lot of these guys. It won't surprise me if Slaf gets close to 70 points this year. I still have hope that CC's shoulder will heal. If it does, he's got massive potential as a sniper. Hutson looks like a beauty. That doesn't even get into the other guys.

If you're a Montreal fan, you have a to be at least a little excited about where we're going.

 

[montreal]

There are no guarantees. Just because you rebuild doesn't mean it will work. But with the development that we have now and the GM we have now I feel pretty good that we'll do it right.

That was my whole point, just because you rebuild and get high picks doesn't mean a thing, it's just the start of what you need to do in order to rebuild a team. Until you know what you have in your top prospects, you don't know much.

As for the development team, that to me is still too early to tell one way or the other. I put way more stock in development and coaching then most around here, I can't say I like a lot of things they have done but I do like how they have handled Reinbacher after rushing kids to the NHL similar to what we saw under MB.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

That was my whole point, just because you rebuild and get high picks doesn't mean a thing, it's just the start of what you need to do in order to rebuild a team. Until you know what you have in your top prospects, you don't know much.

I disagree.

Getting high picks means a lot. Why? Because they have been proven to be on average much better players than lower picks. And it's not like we don't know ANYTHING about these guys.

Guarantees are one thing, repeatable path another. High picks generally turn into better players. Slaf (1st overall) and CC (not a high pick) produced at very young ages, we know they have potential. I'm excited about Hutson (not a high pick but one we traded for that has overdeliverd.) And we've got solid support players in Dach and Newhook up front. Guhle looks like a great young player too. We didn't draft high for about 30 years and it's not coincidence that we never had star players.

And that doesn't even get into the prospects we haven't see yet.

As for the development team, that to me is still too early to tell one way or the other. I put way more stock in development and coaching then most around here, I can't say I like a lot of things they have done but I do like how they have handled Reinbacher after rushing kids to the NHL similar to what we saw under MB.

We have seen St Louis have positive effects on Caufield, Slaf, Dach... there's enough there for me to believe in him. In some cases they've brought in players before I thought they've should and I was proven wrong. He's earned the benefit of the doubt from me. Esp since he's taken some mid picks and turned them into good players. Caufield's interesting because he was a mid pick who we got lucky on. But MSL deserves credit with him too.

You are correct when you say we can't know if we have a club that will become a contender. We can't know this now. But I disagree that we can't know anything or that there's not anything here to be excited about. There absolutely is.

It depends on how firm you want to look at things. If you want to say we can't know we'll be a contender... well, sure. I agree with that. But that's true of any club. How skeptical do we want to be here? Look at Connor Bedard. We don't know if he's going to be a superstar. But I'd say the odds are pretty good that he will be.

 

[Miller Time]

That was my whole point, just because you rebuild and get high picks doesn't mean a thing, it's just the start of what you need to do in order to rebuild a team. Until you know what you have in your top prospects, you don't know much.

As for the development team, that to me is still too early to tell one way or the other. I put way more stock in development and coaching then most around here, I can't say I like a lot of things they have done but I do like how they have handled Reinbacher after rushing kids to the NHL similar to what we saw under MB.

Not a fan of how they've handled Slaf?
Dach?
Guhle?
Newhook?
Xhekaj?
Strubble?
Harris?

Interesting... I'd say that all of those players have grown considerably and effectively in the past 3 seasons.


I can't say I see the "rushing" you describe. If anything, they showed the nuanced approach of patient and intentional commitment to player development with how individually they've handled player progression (keeping Slaf up, sending Barron, Xhekaj down... the way they've managed Mesar vs Rohrer vs Roy etc).

From the outside, this is one of the most competent development program approaches I've seen in the NHL. The overall morale of the U25 talent in the org, plus their performance development pathway in past 3 seasons, are strong evidence of that.

 

[montreal]

I disagree.

Getting high picks means a lot. Why? Because they have been proven to be on average much better players than lower picks. And it's not like we don't know ANYTHING about these guys.

Guarantees are one thing, repeatable path another. High picks generally turn into better players. Slaf and CC produced at very young ages, we know they have potential. I'm excited about Hutson (not a high pick but one we traded for that has overdeliverd.) And we've got solid support players in Dach and Newhook up front. Guhle looks like a great young player too.

And that doesn't even get into the prospects we haven't see yet.

We have seen St Louis have positive effects on Caufield, Slaf, Dach... there's enough there for me to believe in him. In some cases they've brought in players before I thought they've should and I was proven wrong. He's earned the benefit of the doubt from me.

You are correct when you say we can't know if we have a club that will become a contender. We can't know this now. But I disagree that we can't know anything or that there's not anything here to be excited about. There absolutely is.

It depends on how firm you want to look at things. If you want to say we can't know we'll be a contender... well, sure. I agree with that. But that's true of any club. It's true of Connor Bedard. We don't know if he's going to be a superstar. But I'd say the odds are pretty good that he will be.

No picks don't mean ANYTHING. Who cares who you pick if the pick ends up busting? Getting a bunch of picks is the easiest part of the rebuild, now we have to wait and see what those picks turn into.

Every year we hear about how great our prospect pool is until it isn't. We have not been able to draft and develop high end talent. Maybe that has changed but this all started with the question do the Habs have the high end pieces to be a contender, and no matter how great your prospect pool looks, we all know that in a few years reality ends up likely being much different.

I never once said anything about not being excited, don't mix this up as clearly you are missing the point, you keep making this about the job Hughes has done so far but my point is we just don't know one way or the other, if we have enough high end talent to contend. I don't think we do but I don't know how anyone can think for sure we have as I just don't see too much to be impressed with in this organization outside of Demidov/Hutson who likely are the 2 biggest prospects that we will need them to hit the high end of their projected upside if we are going to contend in the future.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

No picks don't mean ANYTHING. Who cares who you pick if the pick ends up busting? Getting a bunch of picks is the easiest part of the rebuild, now we have to wait and see what those picks turn into.

Okay. Does Slafkovksy (1st drafted) have a better or worse chance of becoming a good player than Ivan Zhignalov (last drafted)?

I think he does. And I'm almost certain you'd agree.

Top picks on the whole produce much better than lower ones. That's been proven again and again. We know this to be true. We also know that not every high pick pans out. Some bust and some get hurt. But most turn into good players. Can I sit here and say this guy or that guy will be a star? No I can't. But I can say that with the sheer volume of good prospects that we have that some are likely to pan out. And it's not like we don't know ANYTHING about Slaf for example.

The more high picks you have, the more likely you are to be successful. The more picks/prospects you trade for the more likely you are to get a good player. Pollock understood this right away. He traded away vets for as many picks and prospects as he could. He traded for picks/prospects that turned into Lafleur, Robinson and Dryden. Dick Duff was a star player but that didn't stop him from trading him and we got a pick that turned into Larry Robinson.

Will that happen with us? No. Teams are too smart to trade away first overalls so we're not going to get a Guy Lafleur I mean that's an insane haul not likely to be repeated. But he's smart to take the same direction that Pollock did. He traded away vets for picks and we've stockpiled young talent. Lane Hutson was traded for as an example. Some of these guys WILL pan out.

Every year we hear about how great our prospect pool is until it isn't. We have not been able to draft and develop high end talent. Maybe that has changed but this all started with the question do the Habs have the high end pieces to be a contender, and no matter how great your prospect pool looks, we all know that in a few years reality ends up likely being much different.

Every year we didn't have top picks. Twenty five years between top five picks and that was a one time lottery. God bless Saku Koivu but he was never a star. We drafted him in the back end of the first round.

And every year we had terrible development with guys like SL and Therrien. Some of those picks should've been better than they were. But not only did we not draft well, we couldn't develop. It's a completely different situation now.

I never once said anything about not being excited, don't mix this up as clearly you are missing the point, you keep making this about the job Hughes has done so far but my point is we just don't know one way or the other, if we have enough high end talent to contend. I don't think we do but I don't know how anyone can think for sure we have as I just don't see too much to be impressed with in this organization outside of Demidov/Hutson who likely are the 2 biggest prospects that we will need them to hit the high end of their projected upside if we are going to contend in the future.

We can't know for sure. On that we agree. If you're excited then maybe we mostly agree and are just not connecting on the points together.
We both agree we need to wait to see how this plays out. That's cool. I'm just saying that I'm optimistic about where we're going and I feel like some of these guys are likely to pan out.

We'll see.

 

[montreal]

Not a fan of how they've handled Slaf?
Dach?
Guhle?
Newhook?
Xhekaj?
Strubble?
Harris?

Interesting... I'd say that all of those players have grown considerably and effectively in the past 3 seasons.


I can't say I see the "rushing" you describe. If anything, they showed the nuanced approach of patient and intentional commitment to player development with how individually they've handled player progression (keeping Slaf up, sending Barron, Xhekaj down... the way they've managed Mesar vs Rohrer vs Roy etc).

From the outside, this is one of the most competent development program approaches I've seen in the NHL. The overall morale of the U25 talent in the org, plus their performance development pathway in past 3 seasons, are strong evidence of that.

no I haven't liked what they have done with some,

Slaf - rushed, terrible rookie year, talk about sending him to the AHL before MSL stepped in. I do believe in MSL and have said I think he and Hughes are among our best assets, so I do hope he can develop Slaf into a great player.

Dach I really haven't seen much of but I don't know what they could have done different with his development, as it's not like he was going to the AHL to work on things.

Guhle - rushed to the NHL, I would have put him in the AHL to work on his offense, I haven't been as impressed with him in the NHL as many on here seem to be. I don't watch the Habs much though, but he still has a lot of work to do.

Newhook I also don't know much about so I don't know what they could have done different with him either.

Xhekaj just terrible, really hate how they handled him. I felt he had no business going directly to the NHL, his D needed way too much work imo plus some work on his mobility. I do like they sent him down this year at least and it sounds like it helped him a lot, though I wouldn't have called him up so soon as he didn't seem to be getting the message.

Struble I don't mind as much, I would have kept him down longer to work on the offense but I never really believed in the offense to begin with and he was Laval's best D at the time. I have liked him but never was overly impressed with his game outside of the physical part. He looked much better in the AHL then I expected so it makes sense they moved him up quicker then I would have.

Harris is a tougher one cause I felt he was NHL ready but without NHL size/strength I had concerns. He's so smart and poised I figured he would be ok. A stint in the AHL to work on his offense might have been a good idea but I can see both sides on this one plus we had to rush some of these young D last year due to all the injuries.

I'll add Roy, I love that they didn't call him up right away and then he went into a bit of a slump and then battled through it so that was great to see but still would have liked to see him work on things in Laval.

 

[Miller Time]

No picks don't mean ANYTHING. Who cares who you pick if the pick ends up busting? Getting a bunch of picks is the easiest part of the rebuild, now we have to wait and see what those picks turn into.

MB's tenure should highlight how difficult it can be to get picks (at least 1st/2nd Rd picks).

I think you underestimate how challenging it is to actually implement a "build by the draft" strategy rather than just talk about it.

Every year we hear about how great our prospect pool is until it isn't. We have not been able to draft and develop high end talent. Maybe that has changed but this all started with the question do the Habs have the high end pieces to be a contender, and no matter how great your prospect pool looks, we all know that in a few years reality ends up likely being much different.

I'm surprised that you, of all posters, don't see the radical difference between our current prospect pool and the last time we had one rated in the top 10... This group of U25 & non-NHL talent is considerably greater than we've seen for as long as I've followed the team. Doesn't mean it will all work out, but it's silly to suggest that it is a similar pool to past iterations.

I never once said anything about not being excited, don't mix this up as clearly you are missing the point, you keep making this about the job Hughes has done so far but my point is we just don't know one way or the other, if we have enough high end talent to contend. I don't think we do but I don't know how anyone can think for sure we have as I just don't see too much to be impressed with in this organization outside of Demidov/Hutson who likely are the 2 biggest prospects that we will need them to hit the high end of their projected upside if we are going to contend in the future.

What is an example of a current NHL prospect pool (call it U25 or U23 or non-NHL...whichever context fits your lens best) that does have enough high end talent to contend?

Sincerely curious as to how you assess other prospect groups vs ours?

 

[montreal]

We can't know for sure. On that we agree. If you're excited then maybe we mostly agree and are just not connecting on the points together.
We both agree we need to wait to see how this plays out. That's cool. I'm just saying that I'm optimistic about where we're going and I feel like some of these guys are likely to pan out.

We'll see.

You are just repeating stuff now and not addressing what this whole point is about. Who cares if Slaf has a better chance of being better then someone else, the only thing that matters is that he ends up being the best possible player for us and my whole point all along has been it's just too early to say what we have in him when being asked if we have the high end talent to contend. I say it's too soon to say, that has nothing to do with being excited or not, or anything about the job Hughes has done as to me it's just too soon to say, so many things can so go in so many ways.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

You are just repeating stuff now and not addressing what this whole point is about. Who cares if Slaf has a better chance of being better then someone else, the only thing that matters is that he ends up being the best possible player for us and my whole point all along has been it's just too early to say what we have in him when being asked if we have the high end talent to contend. I say it's too soon to say, that has nothing to do with being excited or not, or anything about the job Hughes has done as to me it's just too soon to say, so many things can so go in so many ways.

Slaf had 20 goals and 50 points as a 19 year old. He improved dramatically over the course of last season. Point per game in his last 19 games. I don't think it's too soon to say he has elite potential. Just like I don't think it's too soon to say Bedard has elite potential.

If you disagree, that's cool.

 

[montreal]

MB's tenure should highlight how difficult it can be to get picks (at least 1st/2nd Rd picks).

I think you underestimate how challenging it is to actually implement a "build by the draft" strategy rather than just talk about it.




I'm surprised that you, of all posters, don't see the radical difference between our current prospect pool and the last time we had one rated in the top 10... This group of U25 & non-NHL talent is considerably greater than we've seen for as long as I've followed the team. Doesn't mean it will all work out, but it's silly to suggest that it is a similar pool to past iterations.




What is an example of a current NHL prospect pool (call it U25 or U23 or non-NHL...whichever context fits your lens best) that does have enough high end talent to contend?

Sincerely curious as to how you assess other prospect groups vs ours?

MB was terrible at his job so nothing he did says much of anything to me.

trading assets and cap space for picks is the easy part compared to what comes next but we are on a message board where posters actually believe that when a team is tanking the GM tells his players to lose on purpose. Or that coaching and development aren't important.

This is one of the best prospect pools we have ever had but that's not what this is about. The question was do we have the high end assets to be a contender. You can have the greatest prospect pool in history, it doesn't mean shit if they end up busting. No one knows what the future holds for most prospects, that's why when a GM is looking at his team if asked if he has enough high end talent to be a contender, I am willing to be they will not look at their farm system and count their eggs before they hatch.

 

[montreal]

Slaf had 20 goals and 50 points as a 19 year old. He improved dramatically over the course of last season. Point per game in his last 19 games. I don't think it's too soon to say he has elite potential. Just like I don't think it's too soon to say Bedard has elite potential.

If you disagree, that's cool.

He was a 1st OA pick, there's nothing wrong with saying he has elite potential as saying it means nothing. What happens is the only thing that matters. If you are GM and were asked if you had enough high end talent and you go well I got Slaf, Demidov, Hutson, Reinbacher, then you are just basing it off the hope they all pan out which of course could happen but that's not the poin, outside of the Bedard's of the world, most prospects are wild cards for a GM until they aren't.