The state of the Habs Rebuild - The Next step

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

I got it wrong (thought Sergy was 2017 and Caufield 14th OA, but you were cunning in your delinations!) but I don't think you even need to argue that the rebuild started with HuGo's hiring -- that much is plainly obvious. It shouldn't even be up for debate.

A more interesting debate is if Caufield, Suzuki, and Guhle (+) counts as a good, normal, or bad initial position of a rebuild's asset bank.

It's highly insufficient and the people banking on them to uplift the team in the intervening years of the rebuild are living in lala land. 1/3 of a top6F and 1/4 of a top4D won't get you far. Even though we have some vets to fill those positions in the meantime, they are vets with a lot of shortcomings.

 

[Benstheman]

Reinbacher, Laine and Demidov coming in next season.

Fowler, Beck, Hage, 2025 1st pick and McKenna coming in the season after.

Then time to contend.

 

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

Dumping is not rebuilding since you're stripping away. You rebuild by adding, not stripping.

Potato potatoe

Tanking is an obligatory first step to rebuilding. One can't be dissociated from the other. When you dump, you tank, you start the rebuild.

The more related term is roster turnover. Roster turnover ---> tanking ---> rebuilding.

 

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

Yup. Preaching to the choir. Only one voice insists otherwise and I don’t think it should be allowed to distract an otherwise interesting discussion.

I like January 2022 because it is before the TDL and the draft. So far Hughes has helmed three trade deadlines and three off-seasons.

The rebuild is definitely not over but I don’t see any evidence they planned to tank this year. Do you think planned tanking is over?

If banking on the youngest D in the league isn't a sign for you... Don't drink the kool-aid.

 

[ReHabs]

If banking on the youngest D in the league isn't a sign for you... Don't drink the kool-aid.

Acquiring Laine is an anti-tank move even if it was a gamble.

I don't think they planned a tank, I think they thought Barron & Friends would step-up.

 

[rik schau]

What's the definition of a rebuild, if that's what people are calling this, in this case? trying to tank and collect draft picks?

 

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

Acquiring Laine is an anti-tank move even if it was a gamble.

I don't think they planned a tank, I think they thought Barron & Friends would step-up.

Really, no. It was an in-between move and that move can't be qualified yet because its outcome is still uncertain.

For one Laine is of the same age group as Suzuki and Caufield, two, he missed extensive time not playing and would need time to get back to form, three we got him for a song and a dance. Even better, we got paid a second rounder to take him. That was a move where our cap space was weaponized. Using cap space to acquire picks, just like with Monahan. The latter paid off two first round picks. The former might do close to the same 15 months from now. The problem here imo, is that you make it a foregone conclusion that Laine will still be with us after trade deadline 2026. I'm not so sure.

Lastly, our biggest hole is on D and Hughes did nothing to fix that. Laine was an opportunity to add to our asset base, one way or another, by having Laine joining the team long-term or selling him off next year.

In retrospect, doing nothing to make our biggest hole better, our D, even furthermore, banking on mostly players 23 or under, is not a move you make to be dans ze mix.

 

[417]

Potato potatoe

Tanking is an obligatory first step to rebuilding. One can't be dissociated from the other. When you dump, you tank, you start the rebuild.

The more related term is roster turnover. Roster turnover ---> tanking ---> rebuilding.

Of course not...but it's important to make a distinction, IMO.

Tanking does not imply the part where you're trying to get rid of assets that your predecessor left you handcuffed with.

The Habs didn't need to move anyone to tank, they were already the worst team in the league when they took over lol

Either way, I don't want to get bogged down in semantics, I think we're both on the same page. I just think it's important to couch this discussion about the Habs rebuild that it's very much in its infancy.

 

[417]

Acquiring Laine is an anti-tank move even if it was a gamble.

Yet Laine played on a team that finished with even less points than the Habs.

Laine was an opportunity, a move designed to help the current team be more competitive. But no one thought this was a ceiling raising move, more of a floor raising move.

I don't think they planned a tank, I think they thought Barron & Friends would step-up.

No one really plans a tank, that's just fan fabricated nonsense.

There are people's careers at stake here. Very few times throughout the history of the league has a team entered an offseason with the goal of being as bad as possible ahead of the next season.