The state of the Habs Rebuild - The Next step

[Adriatic]

You just gotta wait out some of the stuff...not much you can do about those awful contracts. However in the meantime, while we wait for the dead wood to get shipped out and for some of our prospects to get in the lineup, we can definitely make some tweeks. I knew from last season that physicality was gonna be a problem and we are just too soft up front. Also I love our defensive prospects but I just hate throwing them out there to the wolves. Please we need to add a stable veteran defensive presence that can play. Love Savy but he's for the third pair.

 

[LaP]

Anderson and Gally are ok but 9 mil in bottom six forwards isn't ideal.

That's 12 millions buddy not 9. I think not ideal is an understatement. In a cap era you simply can't spend that kind of money on 3rd line players even good ones. Was not too bad until now cause we had bunch of ELC and we were not trying to win but the kids will start to get paid next season and we'll likely try to win so it's going to be a massive issue moving forward like a pretty big one.

 

[Andrei79]

Hagens or Martone should be a nice jolt in the arm to the prospect pool at least...

Sucks though that they're already looking to be eliminated by November.

 

[Tuggy]

Sucks though that they're already looking to be eliminated by November.

Yeah not what I had in mind when the season started.

 

[Gaud]

"Being in the mix" is what management is telling fans - it means "probably wont make the playoffs but more points than last year".

Half our D core has less than a 100 games in the nhl, I dont really expect them to be veteran level until they've gained the experience they need. Experience is gained one mistake at a time. I also question the mentality of getting rid of all the veteran players to make room for the youngsters and expecting instant, better hockey.

I think Mtl is nearing a point where they have a maximum of assets and they will try to consolidate them into meaningful pieces to address gaps. I think we see this before the TDL to some extent.

That being said, I dont get the "man to man" defense unless the point is to make players learn to read the game better. If that is the case, it shoudl be done a the AHL level.

 

[Apoplectic Habs Fan]

The rebuild isnt going go perfectly. Most teams dont rebuild in 3 yrs unless everything aligns with generational talents

Hage and Demidov so far have had positive post draft yrs

Slaf has steadily progressed. Little concerned this yr but dont know if its injuries either. Looked dinged up starting the yr

Hutson showing he can handle minutes but also showing he needs to learn when you can take risks at the NHL.

Concerns are abundant

Injuries. Cant rely on Guhle. Dach we have no idea after a positive yr one. Reinbacher losing a yr.

Not progressing players like Barron, Jackeye and Roy. Struble we will see but has struggled since returning. More concerning is he looks less physical which seems more coaching philosophy.

And coaching. They dont seem to be learning either. Still no structure, no identity. Never prepared, awful faceoffs. No timeouts, no adjustments. Little accountability as vets like Armia and Dvorak coast

This year the may write off which is ok but still want a semblance of a team that plays like one. Right now, in yr 3, its concerning the staff dont at least have them playing as a unit

 

[Kobe Armstrong]

I'm very curious to see what HuGo does. They said things in the offseason about being "in the mix", but let's be honest, that doesn't seem like it's going to happen. I know it hasn't even been 10 games yet, but nothing we've seen so far suggests things are going to get better. If anything, they will probably get worse.

You'll get the people saying rebuilds are hard, which I agree with, but at some point I want to see improvement. I really thought this was the season we were going to start seeing it, and based on HuGo's comments it's clear they were too.

Things seem to be spiraling right now and I'm not sure what the solution is.

It's going to be a long season again, maybe we are just going to have to ride it out. Can't imagine the players are going to enjoy that again.

Bingo.

For me, another wasted season means we will just ride the Gallagher and Anderson contracts out to the end instead of buying them out in the offseason, which delays the rebuild another full year.

 

[Kosseca]

The rebuild isnt going go perfectly. Most teams dont rebuild in 3 yrs unless everything aligns with generational talents

Hage and Demidov so far have had positive post draft yrs

Slaf has steadily progressed. Little concerned this yr but dont know if its injuries either. Looked dinged up starting the yr

Hutson showing he can handle minutes but also showing he needs to learn when you can take risks at the NHL.

Concerns are abundant

Injuries. Cant rely on Guhle. Dach we have no idea after a positive yr one. Reinbacher losing a yr.

Not progressing players like Barron, Jackeye and Roy. Struble we will see but has struggled since returning. More concerning is he looks less physical which seems more coaching philosophy.

And coaching. They dont seem to be learning either. Still no structure, no identity. Never prepared, awful faceoffs. No timeouts, no adjustments. Little accountability as vets like Armia and Dvorak coast

This year the may write off which is ok but still want a semblance of a team that plays like one. Right now, in yr 3, its concerning the staff dont at least have them playing as a unit

I came here to say something similar: injuries have really slow down the rebuilt plan. KH's plan to add young NHL ready player has backfired (somewhat) as we are no where closer to know if Dach and Barron can play a meaningful role in the NHL. So while the season is far from over, I think it is may be again a year of "learning" and "development" for the player, less one of competing.

 

[Tyson]

The rebuild isnt going go perfectly. Most teams dont rebuild in 3 yrs unless everything aligns with generational talents

Hage and Demidov so far have had positive post draft yrs

Slaf has steadily progressed. Little concerned this yr but dont know if its injuries either. Looked dinged up starting the yr

Hutson showing he can handle minutes but also showing he needs to learn when you can take risks at the NHL.

Concerns are abundant

Injuries. Cant rely on Guhle. Dach we have no idea after a positive yr one. Reinbacher losing a yr.

Not progressing players like Barron, Jackeye and Roy. Struble we will see but has struggled since returning. More concerning is he looks less physical which seems more coaching philosophy.

And coaching. They dont seem to be learning either. Still no structure, no identity. Never prepared, awful faceoffs. No timeouts, no adjustments. Little accountability as vets like Armia and Dvorak coast

This year the may write off which is ok but still want a semblance of a team that plays like one. Right now, in yr 3, its concerning the staff dont at least have them playing as a unit

The Habs can lose 55 games and that won't bug me too much if I see some structure, some on ice leadership, some grit. That's the progress I want to see, a young team playing within a system and evolving. This bad news bear shit isn't acceptable.

 

[Hope Of Glory]

I think the next big step would be to get some help on D. Our youngsters are getting exposed a bit too much for their own good (read: might hamper their development). Of course a top pairing D would be the dream but just a solid #4 would probably help a ton.

 

[morhilane]

The Habs can lose 55 games and that won't bug me too much if I see some structure, some on ice leadership, some grit. That's the progress I want to see, a young team playing within a system and evolving. This bad news bear shit isn't acceptable.

Last year was relatively fun, they were mostly playing well (some dip here and there over the season) and always found a way to stay in the game, if some were playing like crap it wasn't the entire line-up and in the last two months, they were playing very good hockey even if they couldn't string more than 3 wins.

This year, it's like they forgot everything they learned last year.

 

[Kosseca]

The Habs can lose 55 games and that won't bug me too much if I see some structure, some on ice leadership, some grit. That's the progress I want to see, a young team playing within a system and evolving. This bad news bear shit isn't acceptable.

And in my mind, right now, this is the only area where there is the potential to make a change: coaching. MSL wont be fired, but he should bring a veteran coach that excel in Xs and Os.

There is a reason why the PK is so good right now: they run the same exact scheme 5on5 with the extra player playing man-to-man on the puck carrier. the rest of the players are set in PK formation. So all in all, player "practice" the PK every time the other team enter our zone.

 

[Apoplectic Habs Fan]

I think the next big step would be to get some help on D. Our youngsters are getting exposed a bit too much for their own good (read: might hamper their development). Of course a top pairing D would be the dream but just a solid #4 would probably help a ton.

Agree 100%. There is just no stabilizing force

Matheson is a vet but not exactly a guy that can settle things down

Savard has quickly regressed to 6th defenseman territory

Guhle is sadly always injured

Those are the only 3 options and the rest are young, or not progressing

 

[morhilane]

And in my mind, right now, this is the only area where there is the potential to make a change: coaching. MSL wont be fired, but he should bring a veteran coach that excel in Xs and Os.

There is a reason why the PK is so good right now: they run the same exact scheme 5on5 with the extra player playing man-to-man on the puck carrier. the rest of the players are set in PK formation. So all in all, player "practice" the PK every time the other team enter our zone.

You mean, try to run the exact scheme+, since most of the time nobody is man-to-man on the puck carrier.

 

[Kosseca]

You mean, try to run the exact scheme+, since most of the time nobody is man-to-man on the puck carrier.

well the guy that should go man-to-man switch so fast that unless the opposing player keeps the puck for a while like Panarin last night vs Mailloux, they all get confuse with who's needs to go where and when. When all fail, they all pull back into a PK scheme and hope someone figure how to get the puck back.

Regardless... MSL should stick to "motivational speaking". HIRE A ASSISTANT COACH that can teach the game

 

[morhilane]

well the guy that should go man-to-man switch so fast that unless the opposing player keeps the puck for a while like Panarin last night vs Mailloux, they all get confuse with who's needs to go where and when. When all fail, they all pull back into a PK scheme and hope someone figure how to get the puck back.

There are a lots of the time where there is nobody shadowing the puck carrier when they could/should. Start in the neutral zone usually.

 

[ReHabs]

More typical word-manipulation and arguments of definition… to save us the trouble:

Can someone please define what it means for the rebuild “to end”?

Has anyone really expected the rebuild to have ended by the start of this season?

Expecting them to play more sustainable and professional hockey for this season is perfectly normal in my opinion. Some of you are actually saying that it’s wrong to have expected this. What??

It will take a lot more than one rebuild draft's graduates to fill our holes.

I just want to see more grown up hockey. A team that’s hard to play against. I’m not expecting too much.

 

[Habby4Life]

Sucks though that they're already looking to be eliminated by November.

Not surprised at all. Holes everywhere and poor coaching.

 

[Sorinth]

I told you guys the in the mix comments would come back to bite them this fanbase has zero patience , calling for everybodies head when we are mid rebuild lol , 2 of our 3 tank picks aren't even on the team and the other is 20 , we are about to add another tank pick to the rebuild and guess what he's gonna be 18 .

Half the board has lost it's mind

But do you honestly think if they didn't say "in the mix" that people on this board wouldn't be freaking out and losing their mind. What they say is mostly irrelevant because yes the fanbase is impatient and the GM saying we need to patient isn't going to change that.

 

[Habby4Life]

But do you honestly think if they didn't say "in the mix" that people on this board wouldn't be freaking out and losing their mind. What they say is mostly irrelevant because yes the fanbase is impatient and the GM saying we need to patient isn't going to change that.

Rebuild is fine, the way they are getting trounced in yr 3/4 isn’t.

 

[Tyson]

I think the next big step would be to get some help on D. Our youngsters are getting exposed a bit too much for their own good (read: might hamper their development). Of course a top pairing D would be the dream but just a solid #4 would probably help a ton.

I wonder if Kovasevic is available

 

[morhilane]

I wonder if Kovasevic is available

He's the Devils 2nd more played at even strength.
5 pts in 9 games too.

I don't think he's available.

 

[Trabdy2]

I'm ok with rebuilding and I'm ok with not making the playoffs in this 3rd/4th year of the rebuild. Playing like a marginally NHL caliber team at this point is not ok to me. There's enough skill and athleticism in this lineup to not look this disorganized and confused with this frequency. We will finish last in the league if play like this continues for long stretches during the season.

 

[Habs]

Hutson is going to be a fine player but he has no business in the NHL right now, he is being rushed for no reason and poor asset management. Just a matter of time till he gets destroyed on the blueline, he needs to bake in the AHL. What's the rush?

 

[Tyson]

He's the Devils 2nd more played at even strength.
5 pts in 9 games too.

I don't think he's available.

He's the Devils 2nd more played at even strength.
5 pts in 9 games too.

I don't think he's available.

My ill fated attempt at humor. Hughes is kicking himself for getting rid of a guy that makes less than 800K who was decent enough.