The state of the Habs Rebuild - The Next step

[Habby4Life]

Do people not see that without acquring Laine, Dach plays with Newhook and Anderson or Roy? 2 totally unproven wingers? And people think we are in the mix? That's not our 4th line....it's our 2nd line! Oh and that's disregarding the fact that we still have no idea what Dach can give us....

A second line of Dach, Newhook, and Roy is hot garbage. Just brutal. Again NS will have to carry this team on his back.

Mix, haha, yeah for the lottery. And I’ll say it now, they will be lottery next year as well.

This team is far from being a contender. Too many holes, no real top 6, horrible bottom 6, and a very young unproven D core.

 

[Habby4Life]

After this season, buyout Gally and Anderson.
Get rid of Armia, Dvo, Savard, and Evans at the TDL. Trade Price’s contract after the bonus is paid.

Next summer solidify the 3rd line with more talent than could play up the line up if needed and totally rebuild the 4th line to have size, physicality and toughness. Spend some $$$ and fix the hot garbage bottom 6

Find a veteran top 4 RD!

 

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

Since his thread is closed, kind of concerning Reinbacher now has more knee injuries than Andrei Markov isn't it?

It's Reinbacher's 4th???

 

[Habs]

Hey we may have a shot at Porter Martone now, unless Reinbacher or Kotkaniemi have brothers in the 25 draft we would have to take first?

 

[Catanddogguitarrr]

We all knew Laine was acquired to give the fans something to cheer about this yr. They probably would have flipped him if he panned out in MTL.

Laine was a risky player at the beginning, it explains why we paid so little and we got a 2nd.
It was part of the percentage, we have to accept what happened, he will have a next chance next year, we'll see. He was looking kinda good player, his shooting skills are impressive. Turn the page, look at now and future.

 

[Sorinth]

Even without Laine we are still a better team then we were last year so we should still expect a increase in points and move up the standings. Laine was a luxury if he worked out but he was never required as part of the rebuilding process for us to be better. Even without Laine we have better secondary scoring then we did last year, the D is likely to be better, and our goalies look better too.

 

[Miller Time]

Yeah just like every single team that ever rebuilt lol. Like let's be honnest do people think the cup will be won with Suzuki Caufield Slaf as a first line... let's be realistic. Demidov looks good so I think we are still on a great path here

Suzuki centred a far weaker first line to the Cup finals, when he was far less established himself.

In their respective primes, that first line will easily be good enough... The depth behind them is the bigger question.

 

[Kobe Armstrong]

It's Reinbacher's 4th???

He was born with 2 bum knees so every injury counts double

 

[Draft]

Even without Laine we are still a better team then we were last year so we should still expect a increase in points and move up the standings. Laine was a luxury if he worked out but he was never required as part of the rebuilding process for us to be better. Even without Laine we have better secondary scoring then we did last year, the D is likely to be better, and our goalies look better too.

I think these are all reasonable points. The Laine acquisition had me feeling that we could make some noise, maybe be in the running for that WC spot and take the next step past DET/OTT/BUF. That's a big improvement. Without Laine, we're still an improved team but it's more incremental. There are a lot of potential surprises on this roster - even if Laine was getting most of the attention.

- Roy, Dach, and Newhook are all trending in the right direction and could solidify themselves as contributors in the top-6. If any of them are at 50+ pts to end the year, we're a different team. In my opinion, they're not that bad as a second line, they're just really unproven.
- Kapanen looks like a strong bet to fill a spot on the 3rd line, he could fill an important role on the PK.
- Anderson, Gallagher, and Dvorak may see a bit of a resurgence similar to Armia. If they play like solid middle-6 players, that's a big improvement over last year.
- If ANY of our young defenceman not named Guhle play reliably in the top-4, that's a huge improvement over last year.

We're not good, but there's still a lot to be excited about.

 

[Trabdy2]

Even without Laine we are still a better team then we were last year so we should still expect a increase in points and move up the standings. Laine was a luxury if he worked out but he was never required as part of the rebuilding process for us to be better. Even without Laine we have better secondary scoring then we did last year, the D is likely to be better, and our goalies look better too.

I agree about Laine being sort of a luxury in a sense. To me his presence was more to get our team scoring depth as we continue to grow and gel as a young team, waiting for players to get closer to their potential and also for underpeforming vet contracts to run their course and go away.

I'd like to think that we're going to be better this year, but I think a lot of it hinges on individual growth from last year for key young players like Guhle, Newhook, Caufield, and Slafkovsky. A healthy Dach sort of replaces what we had from Monahan last year, but maybe Dach can be better?. Without Laine, Hutson is the only key "addition", that might move the needle. I don't think it's a given that we will have better secondary scoring than we did last year.

 

[The Gr8 Dane]

Suzuki centred a far weaker first line to the Cup finals, when he was far less established himself.

In their respective primes, that first line will easily be good enough... The depth behind them is the bigger question.

Danault was taking on immense match ups during the run though , I think Suzuki ups his game when the going gets tough so we agree that he's not a problem. Not sure if Dach will cut it but who knows Demidov could maybe be a C as well

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

I don't get why folks are so freaked out. We're now not expecting to make the playoffs? I wasn't expecting it anyway. To me, Laine was gravy... anyone thinking he was going to be a 50 goal guy is out to lunch.

Relax.

It's going to be a long year. Injuries are going to happen and we're still an extremely young team. What matters is that we see improvement, not the postseason. The playoffs would be great but if we don't make it I won't really care. What I care about is winning a cup. These are the rebuild years. Enjoy watching young players like Hutson establishing themselves in the league. We're going to be a good team for a long time but it may take a bit to get things going.

Provided these insane injuries don't derail us (and there's STILL no reason to think they will going forward) then I think we'll be much improved. That's all that matters right now.

 

[Sorinth]

I agree about Laine being sort of a luxury in a sense. To me his presence was more to get our team scoring depth as we continue to grow and gel as a young team, waiting for players to get closer to their potential and also for underpeforming vet contracts to run their course and go away.

I'd like to think that we're going to be better this year, but I think a lot of it hinges on individual growth from last year for key young players like Guhle, Newhook, Caufield, and Slafkovsky. A healthy Dach sort of replaces what we had from Monahan last year, but maybe Dach can be better?. Without Laine, Hutson is the only key "addition", that might move the needle. I don't think it's a given that we will have better secondary scoring than we did last year.

Individual growth is of course always desired but progress doesn't hinge entirely on it. For example Slafkovsky doesn't have to have individual growth to help us win more games, he just has to not slump for the first 30ish games of the season. Caufield's goal scoring before Slaf joined the line and his goal scoring afterwards was night and day, so Caufield doesn't have to actually become a much better player for us to see better results.

And it's also not just up to individual players, for the past few years MSL has intentionally not spent a lot of practice time on special teams because he wanted to build up the 5 on 5 play first and foremost. That's expected to change, so even if the personnel remain unchanged just the fact that they will practice it regularly can see improvements. Even something like penalties taken, previously the coaching staff didn't really discipline anyone for bad penalties, that's something that as the team moves out of the basement and starts playing more meaningful games, both the players and the coaches will start pushing more, and less penalties is going to mean less goals against.

 

[expy]

I don't get why folks are so freaked out. We're now not expecting to make the playoffs? I wasn't expecting it anyway. To me, Laine was gravy... anyone thinking he was going to be a 50 goal guy is out to lunch.

Relax.

It's going to be a long year. Injuries are going to happen and we're still an extremely young team. What matters is that we see improvement, not the postseason. The playoffs would be great but if we don't make it I won't really care. What I care about is winning a cup. These are the rebuild years. Enjoy watching young players like Hutson establishing themselves in the league. We're going to be a good team for a long time but it may take a bit to get things going.

Provided these insane injuries don't derail us (and there's STILL no reason to think they will going forward) then I think we'll be much improved. That's all that matters right now.

I don't know about freaking out, but I don't see us making any significant strides this year as on-paper, we're on-par or slightly worse than last season with the current injuries.