The state of the Habs Rebuild - The Next step

[417]

Then use Barron who's currently sitting?
Use Trudeau who's a kid with potential? Get an actual vet that can teach the kids a few things?

Let's put it this way, I don't think Barron or Fabbro (in the event of the team acquiring him) would be a long term solution, but I think:

Guhle-Fabbro
Hutson-Savard
Matheson-Barron/Xhekaj/Struble

Is more stabilizing than what we currently have (I put Matheson on the 3rd pair just for you my man lol).

I'm by no mean suggesting Fabbro is a top pairing Dman either, so don't get all bent out of shape over that either.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

At the cost of moving stabilizing, more veteran players?

I don't know. That's a hard sell if you're a team looking to compete right now.

But hope you're right.

We’d need to look at non contenders.

 

[OnTheRun]

Good, imagine how good this team could be if we did.

Imagining it is all we can do, because it's absolutely NOT the norm. Only the Pens/Hawk of the early 2000s managed to pull that off.

 

[Trabdy2]

We're on course for a Top 5 pick this year. It's pretty messy hockey we're playing.

A player like Martone, Hagens, or Misa would be a big add. Then we'll have a mid 1st rounder with the Calgary/Florida pick, and then we should also have two pretty high 2nds with our own and Pittsburgh's. We might even be able to add another 2nd or so depending on what happens at the TDL.

We have more quality prospects on the way, but we really need some of our guys to hit.

 

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

Shouldn't we expect some progress?

We saw progress in the second half of last season. Asking for constant progress is irrealistic. Stagnation and drawbacks should be expected.

 

[Kobe Armstrong]

We saw progress in the second half of last season. Asking for constant progress is irrealistic. Stagnation and drawbacks should be expected.

Not to this extent

 

[salbutera]

When is teh suck suppose to stop?

Once Fowler, Hage & Demigod gain NHL experience …

 

[Habby4Life]

Not to this extent

Not all guys at once. Everyone looks like they have regressed.

 

[salbutera]

If Dach isn't looking like a 2C by the end of the season, then I hope targetting one via trade or free agency is the #1 priority this summer.

Hage looks good but we shouldn't be betting on a kid that's a few years away to fill a spot he may never be able to fill. In the last 20 years we have drafted 0 number one centers, and arguably 1 2nd line center in Kotkaniemi. We need to fill that hole with a trade or free agent signing.

Need I remind folks Zibanejad didn’t start looking like a top-6 C until his 3rd season w NYR at age 25.5….

 

[JeffreyLFC]

We are also missing Laine.

The real dissapointment has been Dach but at the same time I think we should not yet give up on him. Coming back in form from ACL injuries is very rare.

The rest are not that important assets, if Barron, Struble, Xhekaj or Newhook fail, it sucks but they are not that important in the grand scheme. The most important players are Slaf, Suzuki, Caufield, Guhle, Hutson and eventually Demidov. All the other players could be out of the team in a very near future.

If players like Dobson or Barzal become available we should be ready to pounce IMO and make strong offers. Maybe even consider trading for Elias Pettersson (who is struggling). IMO we should be ready to trade some assets eventually to land a big fish.

 

[Tyson]

We saw progress in the second half of last season. Asking for constant progress is irrealistic. Stagnation and drawbacks should be expected.

Regression of this magnitude concerns me though.

 

[Weltschmerz]

I just thought hard about it and i found the solution :

Sign Shesterkin as UFA this summer...

Can't wait to see this board if they pay him 12 per and he plays like last night.

 

[417]

We’d need to look at non contenders.

I'm interested by this...just looking quickly for the that type of Dman from non contenders, I came up with the following list.

Brandon Carlo - Bruins
David Jiricek (not a veteran but i'd take a flyer), Severson - Blue Jackets
Scott Mayfield - Isles
Colton Parayko - Blues
Dante Fabbro - Predators
Rasmus Andersson - Flames (obviously)

I want to reiterate, i'm not suggesting that all of these players would solve everything or are top pairing guys, but just help add a bit bit more stability

 

[Adam Michaels]

When management, coaches, and players said they want to be in the mix this year, did they qualify what they want to be in the mix of? We all assumed it was for the playoffs. Because for all we know, they were talking about being in the mix for 1st OA. In which case, it's all going according to plan.

 

[morhilane]

Thank you. i'm happy i'm not the only one thinking that.

I like Savard a lot as a veteran but he just can't take a big enough part of the cake anymore. He just can't. And Matheson ain't it. He will never be the guy to say : That's it. That's enough. I'm gonna show those kids what it takes to win games. Follow me guys. He's just not.

The only guys right now who's showing signs of leadership right now are Gallagher and Hutson. That's really concerning.

Actually, I thin Matheson is trying to do just that. He's trying to prove he's better than the rest of the Ds, trying to do too much which usually lead to bad positioning, thinking too much and aiming into shinpads.

 

[teamfirst]

Regression of this magnitude concerns me though.

Exactly, i think we have a very good group of prospects .......future will be bright when we get rid of this coaching staff, the sooner the better

 

[The Real Timo]

I think the next step is "flipping da switch". In da mix is on hold for now.

 

[beowulf]

While I figured making the playoffs would be a fight, so far that fight has not materialized on the ice. Kind of disappointed so far...pretty much with everyone on the team.

 

[teamfirst]

Actually, I thin Matheson is trying to do just that. He's trying to prove he's better than the rest of the Ds, trying to do too much which usually lead to bad positioning, thinking too much and aiming into shinpads.

Matheson always played like that, very bad defensemen with some highlight play from time to time

 

[OnTheRun]

When management, coaches, and players said they want to be in the mix this year, did they qualify what they want to be in the mix of? We all assumed it was for the playoffs. Because for all we know, they were talking about being in the mix for 1st OA. In which case, it's all going according to plan.

They were just echoing Geoff's words who wanted to rekindle the fans interest, if the Habs had a modest 5-5-2 start it would have worked... probably. Now it backfired and became a meme.

 

[LaP]

Not all guys at once. Everyone looks like they have regressed.

Dunno i think Guhle is playing better than last year. Suzuki and Caufield are doing as well as they did every beginning of a season. They have been notorious slow starter so far in their career. Slaf is playing worse but that's not really anything unusual as young players often are struggling at the beginning of the next season following a breakout. Newhook and Dach are definitely playing worse but that's two players who have been up and down their entire career so far and that's probably the reason they have been traded, As for Xhekaj / Struble let's be honest here they are not top quality prospects and the Cinderella period is over nothing too special there.

I'm a little bit confused by the focus on the way Slaf, Caufield and Suzuki are playing. They could play better but they have almost 0 support. The best scorer (forward) of Calgary have only 5 goals and 8 points in 14 games (worse than all of Slaf, Caufield and Suzuki) and yet Calgary scored 3 more goals than us. Of all our forwards not named Suzuki, Caufield and Slaf the only ones on pace for a 40 points season are Gallagher and Evans and they'll need a full 82 games season to achieve it any 5-6 games injury would result in a 30 points season at their current pace. You can't have only 3 players pacing for 40 points in 70ies games. It makes it super easy for the opposing defense to play against you.

Basically if you stop Suzuki, Caufield and Slaf you auto win the game and it's not that hard for a good team to stop 3 players. What makes it worse is our depth is not really physical or very hard to play against. If the whole season is played like this with no correction than yeah we'll need to take a look at KH's body of work. The season is over the team will be bottom 10 but i expect some corrections to be made to help ease the pain. Personally i think Primeau's evaluation should be over time to give up and go grab a good vet as vet goalies are often cheap. We should try to swap our vets by slightly better vets if the price is right. I think i would try to swap Matheson for a defensive RHD. The biggest problem with the team imo right now is the vets are terrible like it's bad.

 

[Tyson]

I don't give a damn about "the mix" BS, All I want is progress from the players and coaches

 

[ReHabs]

That natural growth is only to a handful of key players, one of which missed an extensive period of play and two others who were also out for some time.


You seem completely oblivious to the major component of a rebuild, which is to restock the asset base. The restocking doesn't happen overnight. We're two years removed from our first draft to recoup our losses to our asset base, and not only recoup it, but bring it much higher than it was before Price, Weber and Danault left. Of importance, we've only added Slaf, Hutson, Dach and Newhook. The first is a WIP who missed some time, the second is green, the 3rd missed a whole lot of games since he was drafted and the last one is also a WIP who missed some time. The restocking has barely happened yet and our talent base is still very low.

I'm not interested in hearing your denial of reality, so please no long winding narrative building as a reply. I'll just ignore it.

If amassing assets was the goal, you should be acknowledge they squandered them on Dach, Newhook, and didn’t sell high on Matheson.

If speeding though the rebuild was the goal (which is what I thought made sense after the Newhook trade especially), you should acknowledge they look particularly bad this year and have regressed.

This regression doesn’t derail the rebuild but it does mean there should be changes made asap and certain moves made to tighten up the roster and straighten the ship.

But what is the next step?

 

[Rapala]

We are not at the same stage as the Knights were when they started their string of super aggressive moves. You're smart enough to realize that, in fact you are probably over frustrated because you realize we are not there yet.

We still have far more holes than the Knights had year one never mind when they started making their aggressive moves.
I also don't think we have a great mix in the players we don't think of as holes we are even showing cracks we didn't think existed.

 

[LaP]

Let's put it this way, I don't think Barron or Fabbro (in the event of the team acquiring him) would be a long term solution, but I think:

Guhle-Fabbro
Hutson-Savard
Matheson-Barron/Xhekaj/Struble

Is more stabilizing than what we currently have (I put Matheson on the 3rd pair just for you my man lol).

I'm by no mean suggesting Fabbro is a top pairing Dman either, so don't get all bent out of shape over that either.

Personally i would try to swap Matheson for a defensive RHD

Guhle - Savard
Hutson - defensive RHD acquired for Matheson
Xhekaj - Barron
Struble

Matheson and Hutson are too similar and we have nobody on the right to play with them. I think Matheson is a good 1st test for KH. He's a local player so hard to trade him but at the same time it would only be logical to trade him with Hutson coming in.