The state of the Habs Rebuild - The Next step

[the]

I wish we had a surefire goalie prospect in the pipeline. I love Montembeault and I have learned not to bet against him but I don’t think he’s the solution long term.

Primeau doesn’t strike me as the future and he’s just here to fill up the #2 spot. I can see Dobes taking that role also in 2 years.

Fowler looks promising but that’s pretty much it. We also got that obscure Russian goalie that seems to be doing good.

Getting a high profile goalie prospect should be more a priority. Our goalie situation looks unsteady but I suspect that Gorton and Hughes will cross that bridge when they come to it by acquiring one via trade.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

I wish we had a surefire goalie prospect in the pipeline. I love Montembeault and I have learned not to bet against him but I don’t think he’s the solution long term.

Primeau doesn’t strike me as the future and he’s just here to fill up the #2 spot. I can see Dobes taking that role also in 2 years.

Fowler looks promising but that’s pretty much it. We also got that obscure Russian goalie that seems to be doing good.

Getting a high profile goalie prospect should be more a priority. Our goalie situation looks unsteady but I suspect that Gorton and Hughes will cross that bridge when they come to it by acquiring one via trade.

I feel okay about the goalies. Two young guys played really well for us last year. Fowler is one of the top goalie prospects on the league.

It’s a weird time for goalies. There is no Carey Price type prospect out there right now.

 

[DAChampion]

The teens apparently know everything and whatever I say is obvious or wrong, and only becomes valid when someone else says the same thing I did some time later.

What are your teens' screen names on this forum?

I wish we had a surefire goalie prospect in the pipeline. I love Montembeault and I have learned not to bet against him but I don’t think he’s the solution long term.

Primeau doesn’t strike me as the future and he’s just here to fill up the #2 spot. I can see Dobes taking that role also in 2 years.

Fowler looks promising but that’s pretty much it. We also got that obscure Russian goalie that seems to be doing good.

Getting a high profile goalie prospect should be more a priority. Our goalie situation looks unsteady but I suspect that Gorton and Hughes will cross that bridge when they come to it by acquiring one via trade.

Quentin Miller may have potential.

Tavares, Matthews, Marner and Nylander grabbed everything they could get, and the latter 3 signed for shorter deals so they could be UFAs faster.

I think that Tavares left money on the table, that he was actually offered more by some other teams, but he signed for less in Toronto.

 

[KevSkillz4]

A for sure.

We have really really good potential at forwards, defenseman and goalies.

Maybe somes trades or UFA to help that young team, but we have a lot of high talent right there. 3 stars//superstars potential with Demidov, Slaf and Hutson.

Suzuki, Caufield, Dach, Hage, Roy, Newhook, Beck, that's a lot of talent to build a really really good looking top 9.

The top 4 at D seems likely set to me with Guhle - Mailloux and Hutson - Reinbacher. We have great depth with Engstrom, Xhekaj, Strubble, Barron, Konyushkov and more.

Goalies like Fowler, Dobes, Volokhin, that's high potential right there!

 

[yianik]

What are your teens' screen names on this forum?



Quentin Miller may have potential.



I think that Tavares left money on the table, that he was actually offered more by some other teams, but he signed for less in Toronto.

Lol. Are you suggesting something ha ha ha. Only applies to 50 % ?.

Didn't know on Tavares. Bloody heck, that was a discount ? Well it sure set things up wrong for Toronto

 

[HuGort]

I voted C. Any idiot can rebuild. That's the easy part. Even half the posters on this board who don't have 1 day front office experience could do it. Not hard to see, drafting top 5 for 3 years in a row. It's easy peasy. How hard is it to pick a Demidov? Everybody on this board can see that. Same as Michkov or Slaf before him.

Especially with the core Bergevin left for him. Suzuki, Guhle, Caufield, Wifi. Then a bunch of highly sought after tradable asset. Lekhonen, Toffoli, Chiarot, Monahan, Savard.

Getting to Cup finals going to take another level. Find out what we have then!!

 

[Habs Halifax]

This is a A grade for me. We might not have a McDavid but there is loads of potential

1) We know what we have with Suzuki, Caufield, Guhle.

2) Guys like Demidov, Slaf, Dach have the potential to be as good or better than the guys above.

3) Reinbacher, Hutson, Mailloux, Roy could all be top 6F/Top 4D studs as well. Too early to know

4) Newhook is a bit of a wild card. Not fully matured yet but close to touching prime years. He's my center/winger insurance. Good piece to have.

5) Beck, Hage, Kapanen as center prospects. All 3 should be NHL players. How good? Nobody knows.

6) Xhekaj, Barron, Engstrom, as D depth and there is a chance some turn into top 4D quality.

7) Monty, Primeau, Fowler. Decent Goaltending depth and age gaps fit. Got to monitor their progress and keep drafting more goalies. Fowler has a high goalie prospect rating which is impressive.

The rebuild is very stable and will be very good if Demidov, Slaf, and Dach as as good as we think they will be. Many others who help fill voids.

Draft power is still high in the years to come.

 

[ReHabs]

1) We know what we have with Suzuki, Caufield, Guhle.

What do we have with Caufield and Guhle?

 

[Habs Halifax]

What do we have with Caufield and Guhle?

A 30+ goal threat and 70 pts winger. Maybe more

A physical D man who is effective at both ends. A legit top 4D today.

 

[LaP]

What do we have with Caufield and Guhle?

We don't know yet. Guhle was 21 and Caufield 22 at the beginning of last season. Outside of the Crosby/Ovy/McJesus like exceptions players usually reach their prime around 23-24 and it usually last for 5 to 7 seasons max. Caufield should be a close to finished product next season. Guhle will still be 1 year away from that. People act like Caufield did 28 points last season. He did 28 goals and 65 points. He's just a small step away from being a solid 30 goals and 70-80 points winger. Him making that step this year would not be a surprise at all.

 

[Naslundforever]

A 30+ goal threat and 70 pts winger. Maybe more

A physical D man who is effective at both ends. A legit top 4D today.

Calling Guhle physical is like saying Roy has mobility because you can tell he’s trying to skate fast.

I 100% agree both are super young and have more than time to grow into those attributes but those are projections.

I would say both have positioning and iq, Guhle has mobility and Roy great hands.

Both Caufield and Guhle are very promising for sure, but are both landing short of the hf hype for me. Very good for their age, obviously.

 

[BLONG7]

This is a A grade for me. We might not have a McDavid but there is loads of potential

1) We know what we have with Suzuki, Caufield, Guhle.

2) Guys like Demidov, Slaf, Dach have the potential to be as good or better than the guys above.

3) Reinbacher, Hutson, Mailloux, Roy could all be top 6F/Top 4D studs as well. Too early to know

4) Newhook is a bit of a wild card. Not fully matured yet but close to touching prime years. He's my center/winger insurance. Good piece to have.

5) Beck, Hage, Kapanen as center prospects. All 3 should be NHL players. How good? Nobody knows.

6) Xhekaj, Barron, Engstrom, as D depth and there is a chance some turn into top 4D quality.

7) Monty, Primeau, Fowler. Decent Goaltending depth and age gaps fit. Got to monitor their progress and keep drafting more goalies. Fowler has a high goalie prospect rating which is impressive.

The rebuild is very stable and will be very good if Demidov, Slaf, and Dach as as good as we think they will be. Many others who help fill voids.

Draft power is still high in the years to come.

We are quietly building something very nice.

 

[Habs Halifax]

We are quietly building something very nice.

100%. It's difficult not to like it. What we need is good development.

Calling Guhle physical is like saying Roy has mobility because you can tell he’s trying to skate fast.

I 100% agree both are super young and have more than time to grow into those attributes but those are projections.

I would say both have positioning and iq, Guhle has mobility and Roy great hands.

Both Caufield and Guhle are very promising for sure, but are both landing short of the hf hype for me. Very good for their age, obviously.

I'm not willing to spin the narrative. I stand by what I said originally.... We know what we have with Suzuki, Caufield, Guhle.

 

[Lshap]

I voted C. Any idiot can rebuild. That's the easy part. Even half the posters on this board who don't have 1 day front office experience could do it. Not hard to see, drafting top 5 for 3 years in a row. It's easy peasy. How hard is it to pick a Demidov? Everybody on this board can see that. Same as Michkov or Slaf before him.

Especially with the core Bergevin left for him. Suzuki, Guhle, Caufield, Wifi. Then a bunch of highly sought after tradable asset. Lekhonen, Toffoli, Chiarot, Monahan, Savard.

Getting to Cup finals going to take another level. Find out what we have then!!

There was nothing easy or obvious about trading for Dach or Newhook, or leveraging Monahan for 1st round picks. Or, for that matter, drafting the specific players we did, versus Shane Wright or Michkov. Those are high-level decisions, certainly not something a typical hockey fan is qualified to do.

To be clear, every one of Hughes' decisions comes with a risk – Dach's health, Reinbacher's upside, etc. – but risk is exactly what makes them high-level decisions. No-risk, obvious decisions like drafting Bedard are easy, but Habs never had that option. Sure, there are plenty of hard decisions to come, but the decisions Hughes has made so far haven't been easy or obvious.

The willingness to take risks – knowing they may not work out – is the only way to build a winner. Bergevin refused to do that. Hughes has, which is why he deserves a top grade even though the job isn't finished.

 

[LaP]

The next step will be summer 2025. Dvorak gone. Armia gone. Gallagher and Anderson will be only 1 year away from a favorable buyout. July 1st 2025 Price will be own only 2 millions in cash with a 10.5 millions cap hit. Any team doing a scorched earth rebuild this deadline might be interested in acquiring Price's contract july 1st 2025 after Price's last bonus is paid.

Slaf will have 3 years of pro exp. Mailloux and Roy 2 years of pro exp (AHL/NHL). Reinbacher 3 years of pro exp (AHL/NLA). Engstrom will have 3 years of pro exp (AHL/SHL). All of Mesar, Beck, Hutson, Demidov will have 1 years of pro exp.

Suzuki will turn 26 august 10th 2025 and will be a vet able to lead a team. He will be in the middle of his prime and wont have that many years left (4 seasons before turning 30). Summer of 2025 will be the time to push and engage the next step.

 

[Trabdy2]

We have a lot of pieces to work with now, and there will be growth and progression in some players more than others as we build our competitive playoff roster. A few key things I'll be looking for this year:

1. Can Dach display proficiency operating in a 2C role?
2. Can Newhook display strong productivity in a 2W role?
3. Can two of our young Dmen (not named Guhle) take roles in the Top 4 with proficiency?

I'm hopeful that we see #1 and #2 happen this season, and it would mean that we essentially have a reasonably solid second line, and it should be bolstered by adding Demidov into the Top 6 mix next year.

We might not see #3 happen this year, but I'm hopeful that we see at least one guy take on a role in the Top 4 with good dependability.

 

[Habs Halifax]

I wish we had a surefire goalie prospect in the pipeline. I love Montembeault and I have learned not to bet against him but I don’t think he’s the solution long term.

Primeau doesn’t strike me as the future and he’s just here to fill up the #2 spot. I can see Dobes taking that role also in 2 years.

Fowler looks promising but that’s pretty much it. We also got that obscure Russian goalie that seems to be doing good.

Getting a high profile goalie prospect should be more a priority. Our goalie situation looks unsteady but I suspect that Gorton and Hughes will cross that bridge when they come to it by acquiring one via trade.

Not worried about it because if we build a strong Forward and Defense group, we can win with a 10-20 quality starter type thing.

Monty will carry the load for now with Primeau. Before last year, I was very low on Primeau but he really had a great season for us with the games he played. Monty is also underrated because so many fans think he is the guy from 3 years ago. It's like he is not allowed to improve.

* Monty can be a Theodore for us. A few good years and can surprise. I really like what he showed on team Canada at the 23 WC's. Remember, he is on a Habs team with one of the worse team D in the entire NHL. When our D improves, I am curious to see how Monty looks then.

* Primeau is hard to project at this stage. Is he a starter or he is a good back-up. Your guess is as good as mine.

* Flower has very high prospect ranking. Who knows how good/bad he will be but he's on a great track. And many are taking notice too (not just within the Habs circles). Just got to wait for the process to play out.

I'm sure we draft more goalies in future drafts. Lets say we trip and fall flat on our face and need to trade or sign one. I don't see this as a big problem.

 

[Licou]

So far I have to give them an B+ / A-. I really like what I am seeing with this modern 21st century approach to management and development. Their draft selection appears to have been well thought out. All in all, it's definitely a breath of fresh air that appears, at least on the surface level, to be much more professionally driven than the improvisation we have been accustomed to in the past decades.

BUT, while this grade could go up with success in the coming years, there are good odds that it can come crashing down as well. There is an unfortunate amount of luck involved into building a team that can with the Cup. For example, drafting Bedard last year would have increased our odds to win the cup somewhat significantly (nothing against Reinbacher). We will most likely need to add some elite level talent as the odds of getting a top 3 elite talent are near impossible, through draft or trades. Our team will be built as a deep hard working speedy team, a model that can definitely work, see Dallas, Vegas for example. On the other hand, there are many example of such teams that unfortunately just fall short, like Nashville, Carolina (so far at least) or the Rangers.

So all in all, freak injuries aside, this management will need to prove that it can deliver the goods by being aggressive at the right time in order to shore up on elite talents when they deem that our competitive window is open. This will require finesse, wit and boldness and will ultimately show what they are made off. In the meantime, I trust them to keep a positive work and competitive culture so that our team can improve with a positive mindset. On the development/draft side of things, I trust that they are doing the right thing.

 

[Habs Halifax]

The next step will be summer 2025. Dvorak gone. Armia gone. Gallagher and Anderson will be only 1 year away from a favorable buyout. July 1st 2025 Price will be own only 2 millions in cash with a 10.5 millions cap hit. Any team doing a scorched earth rebuild this deadline might be interested in acquiring Price's contract july 1st 2025 after Price's last bonus is paid.

Slaf will have 3 years of pro exp. Mailloux and Roy 2 years of pro exp (AHL/NHL). Reinbacher 3 years of pro exp (AHL/NLA). Engstrom will have 3 years of pro exp (AHL/SHL). All of Mesar, Beck, Hutson, Demidov will have 1 years of pro exp.

Suzuki will turn 26 august 10th 2025 and will be a vet able to lead a team. He will be in the middle of his prime and wont have that many years left (4 seasons before turning 30). Summer of 2025 will be the time to push and engage the next step.

Yes, Someone like Demidov could complicate the bonus cap hit if we have Price on LTIR before the season starts (25/26). You're not wrong, teams who decide to rebuild and want to not spend too much money (business case), The Price contract could be attractive.

 

[schwang26]

I feel okay about the goalies. Two young guys played really well for us last year. Fowler is one of the top goalie prospects on the league.

It’s a weird time for goalies. There is no Carey Price type prospect out there right now.

Honestly, I don’t think I want them to get into another long term, 10 million dollar goalie again. It can hamper your team.
I think the goalies as a whole are stronger than they’ve ever been. When your number one just turned 27 (I believe), I think you’re in good shape. Primeau seems to be turning a corner, big Dobes is pushing, Fowler, Miller, Volokin and even the Slovak kid. It’s never been so deep!

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Honestly, I don’t think I want them to get into another long term, 10 million dollar goalie again. It can hamper your team.
I think the goalies as a whole are stronger than they’ve ever been. When your number one just turned 27 (I believe), I think you’re in good shape. Primeau seems to be turning a corner, big Dobes is pushing, Fowler, Miller, Volokin and even the Slovak kid. It’s never been so deep!

Very few goalies are worth ten mil. Price was one of them. I'm happy to do if for that kind of player but unfortunately it seems that kind of player no longer exists.

 

[schwang26]

The next step will be summer 2025. Dvorak gone. Armia gone. Gallagher and Anderson will be only 1 year away from a favorable buyout. July 1st 2025 Price will be own only 2 millions in cash with a 10.5 millions cap hit. Any team doing a scorched earth rebuild this deadline might be interested in acquiring Price's contract july 1st 2025 after Price's last bonus is paid.

Slaf will have 3 years of pro exp. Mailloux and Roy 2 years of pro exp (AHL/NHL). Reinbacher 3 years of pro exp (AHL/NLA). Engstrom will have 3 years of pro exp (AHL/SHL). All of Mesar, Beck, Hutson, Demidov will have 1 years of pro exp.

Suzuki will turn 26 august 10th 2025 and will be a vet able to lead a team. He will be in the middle of his prime and wont have that many years left (4 seasons before turning 30). Summer of 2025 will be the time to push and engage the next step.

If Armia performs like he did after his call up and no one graduates to take his spot, I’d be totally fine resigning him. Contrary to popular belief, his contract isn’t a hindrance like Anderson, Gally and Dvorak.

 

[schwang26]

Very few goalies are worth ten mil. Price was one of them. I'm happy to do if for that kind of player but unfortunately it seems that kind of player no longer exists.

True and I think that’s an indication of the evolving mindset on goalies now. Having a pair making 10 instead of one. I just remember the Habs not being able to do a heck of a lot partially because of that contract. Now yes, if not for Price’s injuries it might have paid off. Not to mention the previous dip shit management never focused on drafting goalies so it left them without a legit replacement.

 

[LyricalLyricist]

B+.

I mean, we sucked and picked top picks so far 3 years in a row. This will fast track any rebuild.

That said, what usually makes the distinction from a good foundation to a great team is how you add.

Montreal GMs have historically sucked when adding the 'missing piece' for a contender. That big time free agent who snubs montreal and all that.

So until that changes I cannot give an A because that is what would separate Hughes from others.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

True and I think that’s an indication of the evolving mindset on goalies now. Having a pair making 10 instead of one. I just remember the Habs not being able to do a heck of a lot partially because of that contract. Now yes, if not for Price’s injuries it might have paid off. Not to mention the previous dip shit management never focused on drafting goalies so it left them without a legit replacement.

Price's contract never prevented us from icing a good team. Incompetent management did that.

Superstar players are ALWAYS worth the cash, esp when they win in the playoffs. Price was an auto-win if we scored two or more. That's the kind of thing any team will pay through the nose for. There was no reason we couldn't have surrounded him better.

Now though? I can't think of a goalie who's worth ten mil that's coming up. Sheterskin maybe? It's rare to have that kind of talent. Lundqvist was certainly worth it. Vasilevski in Tampa...