The state of the Habs Rebuild - The Next step

[Miller Time]

Is it me, or does it feel like there was almost no prrogression from any of our prospects?

The rookie camp was meh except for Hutson amd the main camp was uber meh.

I don't know... maybe tje hype was too high and it was doomed not to meet expectations... who knows.

?
We started the season with 5 of 7 D being 23 or younger & 6 of 12 fwds.

2 players from the 2022 draft class were opening night roster, playing key roles (top line W & top 4 dman)... For context, only 2 players from that draft class have played 82+ NHL games (we have 1 of them).

Arguably our top "prospect" blew out his knee and is out for 5-7 months.

Of the 2021 draft picks, 1 player (Kapanen) made the NHL roster, and 2 (Roy, Mailloux) are locks to be top used players in the AHL & see NHL time as call ups... We drafted 30th that year.

By any relative measure, Habs have more prospect-aged assets playing meaningful roles in the organization than the vast majority of NHL teams. That we've graduated far more than teams with better veteran lineups, so aren't considered "prospects", shouldn't be confused with a lack of progress...

Not sure what you expected or how you consider "progression",

Maybe your expectations are too high?

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Is it me, or does it feel like there was almost no prrogression from any of our prospects?

The rookie camp was meh except for Hutson amd the main camp was uber meh.

I don't know... maybe tje hype was too high and it was doomed not to meet expectations... who knows.

No doubt that the preseason was a gongshow. But we've seen good development overall. Ghule and CC have become solid vets. Slaf took a giant step forward. Hutson looks great. Newhook and Dach have looked good when healthy.

Beck, Roy, Demidov, RB, Hage and Mailloux on the way. There will be challenges along the way (some have already unfortunately reared their head for some of these players) and some won't make it. But overall, I'm pleased with how things have gone so far.

 

[Gravity]

I want a high end 1D with a side of nastiness please

We have D talent and although I'm far from the highest on Reinbacher, there's still something there. Down the middle we have Hage and Beck only. I suspect Hage will be a 2C and Beck a 3C. Need a legit 1C prospect to challenge Suzuki.

 

[Theodore450]

The best thing for this team is to suck 1 more year. Get a bottom 3 finish. Draft a Center.
After that you fire your coach and hire someone that knows what they’re doing.

Go into next season with real expectations and a real roster. The “Bergevin left us in Cap hell” excuse doesn’t work anymore.

Price and Weber contract haven’t even affected this team. Look at your roster and make improvements.

 

[That Habs Fan]

This may sound odd to some but at this point I'd say a vet backup is one of our biggest needs.

You need to have a hope of winning games Montembault doesn't start, and Primeau just doesn't provide that at all. Dobes should be given more time in Laval and Fowler is still at least a year or two away.

 

[The Last Red]

Our top two prospects are basically not playing hockey this year. That can’t be good, can it?

 

[LaP]

This may sound odd to some but at this point I'd say a vet backup is one of our biggest needs.

You need to have a hope of winning games Montembault doesn't start, and Primeau just doesn't provide that at all. Dobes should be given more time in Laval and Fowler is still at least a year or two away.

Primeau was 8-9-4 last year with a 910 saves%.

Can we chill out a bit and wait for more games before analysing performance?

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

The best thing for this team is to suck 1 more year. Get a bottom 3 finish. Draft a Center.
After that you fire your coach and hire someone that knows what they’re doing.

Go into next season with real expectations and a real roster. The “Bergevin left us in Cap hell” excuse doesn’t work anymore.

Price and Weber contract haven’t even affected this team. Look at your roster and make improvements.

I don't think mgmt needs an excuse for anything. They've improved things by leaps and bounds. Development takes time.

This is what almost all of us wanted: full rebuild. Well, now you've got it. This is what it looks like. You have to go through some rough years and you have to be patient and let your prospects develop.

The best thing for us this year? I actually think it's us taking a step forward. Even if we don't make the playoffs. Even if we don't make progress in the standings, I'd love to see us start scoring more goals. I'd love to see players move forward in their play. To me, that's the most important thing.

If things go wrong and we draft high again - okay, cool. Silver lining and getting another prospect would be awesome. But if given a choice I'd rather Hutson have a Calder caliber year, Dach have a strong healthy season, Slaf continue his improvements, CC regain his touch, Roy comes back and plays some top six, Ghule have a healthy year etc...

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Primeau was 8-9-4 last year with a 910 saves%.

Can we chill out a bit and wait for more games before analysing performance?

Last night's GDT was brutal.

 

[WeThreeKings]

Last night's GDT was brutal.

In the moment reactions are brutal.

But let's not act like this isn't a reality for Primeau.

I've never been that high on him and the improvement levels haven't been there. He will be a journeyman back-up but Dobes is going to take his spot from him in short order.

You can't be Grubauer and get exposed on your glove hand every game.

 

[Theodore450]

I don't think mgmt needs an excuse for anything. They've improved things by leaps and bounds. Development takes time.

This is what almost all of us wanted: full rebuild. Well, now you've got it. This is what it looks like. You have to go through some rough years and you have to be patient and let your prospects develop.

The best thing for us this year? I actually think it's us taking a step forward. Even if we don't make the playoffs. Even if we don't make progress in the standings, I'd love to see us start scoring more goals. I'd love to see players move forward in their play. To me, that's the most important thing.

If things go wrong and we draft high again - okay, cool. Silver lining and getting another prospect would be awesome. But if given a choice I'd rather Hutson have a Calder caliber year, Dach have a strong healthy season, Slaf continue his improvements, CC regain his touch, Roy comes back and plays some top six, Ghule have a healthy year etc...

“They've improved things by leaps and bounds” is crazy levels of delusional

I wanted the rebuild. But let’s be real this roster is dogshit and need real direction behind it.

Go look at what a real coach in Vancouver and Florida did.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

In the moment reactions are brutal.

But let's not act like this isn't a reality for Primeau.

I've never been that high on him and the improvement levels haven't been there. He will be a journeyman back-up but Dobes is going to take his spot from him in short order.

You can't be Grubauer and get exposed on your glove hand every game.

I'm not saying he didn't let in some bad goals or that he's a great goalie but he's a backup. He played well for us last year and people beat the crap out of him last night. Meanwhile we were pretty badly outplayed for most of the evening... but it was the backup goalie who got screamed at.

I'm also not married to the idea of him being here forever. If there are better options... great.

 

[Habs]

Our top two prospects are basically not playing hockey this year. That can’t be good, can it?

It's not good at all , and Reinbacher will not have had much development at all since his draft. Apparently this is just fine as he is the second coming of Serge Savard, never question The Bach

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

“They've improved things by leaps and bounds” is crazy levels of delusional

Is it? Do you remember the roster we had when HUGO took over?

And look at the prospects we had back then.

Caufield went from 0 goals in half a season to 48 in his next 82 under MSL. Last season was a disapointment due to injury but his play has been great.
Guhle has done nothing but improve and he's done it on his offside.
Joshua Roy crushed the Q and put up good numbers in the A
Mailloux is a good prospect who may join Montreal this season.

We've added: Slaf, Hutson, Demidov, RB, Hage, Beck, Dach, Matheson, Laine, Newhook... we have two firsts (again) in next year's draft. It's a young team and a deep prospect pool. The only core player we have who's 25 or older is Nick Suzuki. We have tons of cap space and favourable contract schemes.

We are eons ahead of where we were. And this has happened in less than three years.

I wanted the rebuild. But let’s be real this roster is dogshit and need real direction behind it.

Go look at what a real coach in Vancouver and Florida did.

Go look at what MSL has done with Slaf, Dach, Newhook, CC, Guhle... you think they'd want a different coach?

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

It's not good at all , and Reinbacher will not have had much development at all since his draft. Apparently this is just fine as he is the second coming of Serge Savard, never question The Bach

Yeah, that's what I read on here every day...

"Reinbacher is the next Serge Savard." Can't tell you how many times I've heard it here.

 

[Paddyjack]

Go look at what MSL has done with Slaf, Dach, Newhook, CC, Guhle... you think they'd want a different coach?

I like what Marty did regarding player development, but I think he needs help to develop a structure especially on D. Two of my colleagues are also high level coaches in soccer elite development and they all say the same thing: you can't develop a playbook out of thin air. It takes years of development and study and practice especially in hockey because it is a fast paced game and you have to know what to do quickly. See what happened last two games, both Boston and Leafs were forechecking as crazy, often with two guys, because they knew Habs could not defend against that and it created so many bottlenecks in our zone. Forechecking like that can kill you if the players are ready for it, but I'm thinking the other teams know they won't. We will see if MSL finds a way to counter that, but I think he needs support.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

I like what Marty did regarding player development, but I think he needs help to develop a structure especially on D. Two of my colleagues are also high level coaches in soccer elite development and they all say the same thing: you can't develop a playbook out of thin air. It takes years of development and study and practice especially in hockey because it is a fast paced game and you have to know what to do quickly. See what happened last two games, both Boston and Leafs were forechecking as crazy, often with two guys, because they knew Habs could not defend against that and it created so many bottlenecks in our zone. Forechecking like that can kill you if the players are ready for it, but I'm thinking the other teams know they won't. We will see if MSL finds a way to counter that, but I think he needs support.

Fair enough. However, the best playbook in the world is worthless if you don't have players who can't execute. And it takes years for players to develop to the point where they can become reliable solid players defensively.

Players like Guhle and Hutson will be better down the road then they are now. And we've got guys like Barron and Mailloux coming in who are absolutely green as well. It's going to be a while before we're a defensively responsible team. Our only vets are Savard and Matheson (who's not the best decision maker defensively) It's not going to matter who our coach is.

I expect the offense to improve steadily in the next few seasons but defensively, I think it's going to take awhile - barring us trading for some vets which might happen.