The state of the Habs Rebuild - The Next step

[Tabarouette]

To put a stupid positive hat on, the regression of nearly everyone across the board is a good wakeup call to remember that *most* players won't pan out, that's just how things go in this league. It's not enough to just assume our strong prospect pool will make us good, you need to be selective and pounce on opportunities to fill the holes in other ways

 

[rahad]

Or it might take them a lot longer. You can’t really predict it.

I think the Sharks will be better sooner. Bedard is really all by himself. They tore it down to the studs. He’s like Yzerman was on those terrible teams. All by himself.

It could take longer with Chicago. I agreed 100% with you on that. But, I believe the Sharks won't stay in the bottom for long. 2026 could be the Sharks last top 5 pick for a long time. They have by far the best rebuild. They already found a #1 and #2 center. #1-2 Defensemen and a #1 goalie prospect. They have great vets and a good GM.

 

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

Because they convinced themselves that then team should be good , while hugo did all but say we tanking one more year .
The in the mix quote was a way to calm the media , but actions mean more then words.

You think any smart management would roll with Primeau as a back up and play him and expect to win ?
Many other examples like letting go of kovacevic .
Trading for laine was the anomaly but they still got a second for harris

Laine was nothing more than a cap dump.

He's a gamble that could pay off, but it's certailny not a build move when you take in a massive cap dump.

 

[WeThreeKings]

Getting Bedard and Celebrini haven't magically lifted the Sharks or Hawks from the depth of the standings. Both started their rebuild a year after the Habs and have older line-ups then the Habs.

And I'm going to tell you a secret, Bedard and Celebrini aren't starting from the dzone as much as Slaf is and both those teams have better vets then the Habs have. Slaf is currently 2nd to Evans among forwards in term of "quality of opposition" faced (only Guhle/Matheson face harder).

Sharks started their rebuild earlier.. they had Eklund in the top 10 of the year we picked Mailloux.

 

[salbutera]

I have given a C at the time and I think I would decrease to a D.

+ Team has a direction : management decided their core was focused around 2019 - 2020 draft with Suzuki being a bit older, hence they added Dach Newhook Heinemann to CC, Barron to Guhle
+ Habs tried to acquire talent via Laine trade

Too early to tell regarding 2022-2024 drafts, with Slaf, Hutson, Beck, Mesar are all in their D+3. Bit worrisome however that Slaf is looking very slow this year, that Reinbacher is injured + Gorton / Bobrov draft history not really encouraging

- Looks like trading targets (Dach, Newhook, Barron) are not succeeding right now
- They are making excuses for losing due to being a young team with a rebuild in its 3rd year whereas as mentioned above the core upon which they built is older than these 3 years of drafts
- Hugues is focused too much on maximizing his assets value, which explains why he did not trade Anderson and signed Allen to get rid of him 6 months after the beginning of the new contract. For me good GMs accept losing some trades to gain others (VGK lost Pacioretty trade but won Eichel / Stone ones which led to a cup, FLA lost Chiarot / Giroux trades but won Reinhart, Bennett, Tkachuk ones which led to a cup)
- Coaching is bad : no system, lame excuses, no intensity, no logic in lines (come one Hutson- Matheson...)

Who is making excuses? I haven’t heard Gorton, Hughes or MSL make any excuses - as Guhle said the objective per MSL remains simple, to win more than we lose this year.

I agree we have lots of talent coming but they are youth and none of them are Crosby. It's going to be growing pains. Our D core is what we need to mature first and that will be a process.

Very curious to see what Hughes does this off season in terms of adding depth in the right areas. The way this is tracking, we are in for some more rollercoaster ride until most of our talent is age 23+. By that time, Suzuki will be 28 ish. Enjoy the ride because it's not going to be a rocket up the standings all of a sudden type thing. There will be gains made in some areas and struggles in another.

Very much doubt most of our fan base and media will have the patience they think they have.

Bedard was deemed “generational” and hasn’t lifted Hawks above & beyond. Crosby had a still extremely effective Mario when he entered as a rookie, w Malkin also joining. Edm sucked for years despite having McDavid & Draisaitl.

 

[morhilane]

Sharks started their rebuild earlier.. they had Eklund in the top 10 of the year we picked Mailloux.

That's like saying the Habs started their rebuild with KK. Sharks rebuild started when they hired Grier as GM in July 2022 after a few seasons of sucking.

 

[Tabarouette]

Getting Bedard and Celebrini haven't magically lifted the Sharks or Hawks from the depth of the standings. Both started their rebuild a year after the Habs and have older line-ups then the Habs.

And I'm going to tell you a secret, Bedard and Celebrini aren't starting from the dzone as much as Slaf is and both those teams have better vets then the Habs have. Slaf is currently 2nd to Evans among forwards in term of "quality of opposition" faced (only Guhle/Matheson face harder).

That's such a weird take to me, it's huffing copium pretty hard

It doesn't even need to be a knock against Slaf!
It's really easy to see how much more confident we could be building around Bedard or Celebrini, the odds of those 2 gambles are really really really good, how you build around them really depends on the team afterward

 

[salbutera]

It could take longer with Chicago. I agreed 100% with you on that. But, I believe the Sharks won't stay in the bottom for long. 2026 could be the Sharks last top 5 pick for a long time. They have by far the best rebuild. They already found a #1 and #2 center. #1-2 Defensemen and a #1 goalie prospect. They have great vets and a good GM.

Well Bedard certainly looked that way his rookie year as well. Let’s see how Celebrini & Smith reacts starting sophomore season shall we?

 

[Habs Halifax]

Bedard was deemed “generational” and hasn’t lifted Hawks above & beyond. Crosby had a still extremely effective Mario when he entered as a rookie, w Malkin also joining. Edm sucked for years despite having McDavid & Draisaitl.

What's the point? It's hard to rebuild and exit it fast into a playoff or cup contender?

 

[Tabarouette]

I said copium but idk if it's copium, sometimes I think we should rename stockholm syndrome to habs syndrome

Celebrini looks better than anyone we've had on this team for the past 30 years already and some are bending over backwards to make sure we don't look too bad

it's ok just accept it, we stink, we'll get lucky one day and get an instant star (demidov???)

 

[WeThreeKings]

That's like saying the Habs started their rebuild with KK. Sharks rebuild started when they hired Grier as GM in July 2022 after a few seasons of sucking.

If you pick in the top 10 consecutively, you have started to rebuild.

 

[salbutera]

What's the point? It's hard to rebuild and exit it fast into a playoff or cup contender?

NHL hockey is the ultimate TEAM game, it’s not the NBA a superstar can’t carry you above & beyond if not surrounded properly.

People may mock Oilers but until they put in depth components they didn’t go anywhere- yes the G now stands out as the only real weak link needing addressing

 

[teamfirst]

Everybody is so negative and grumpy , we just had the best tank weekend of the year and all the negative Nancy's are mad. I must be the only one excited on the site

Had to tell you you made me laft with this post, simply my kind of humour.....please dont stop

Lache pas le gros

 

[rahad]

Well Bedard certainly looked that way his rookie year as well. Let’s see how Celebrini & Smith reacts starting sophomore season shall we?

I has talking about the future. Unless Celebrini regress for the next 5 year. He will be a #1 center in the league for a long time. They manage to find key player in every important position.

Bedard also has 19pts playing with the worst team in the league.

 

[salbutera]

I said copium but idk if it's copium, sometimes I think we should rename stockholm syndrome to habs syndrome

Celebrini looks better than anyone we've had on this team for the past 30 years already and some are bending over backwards to make sure we don't look too bad

it's ok just accept it, we stink, we'll get lucky one day and get an instant star (demidov???)

As Marc-Edouard Vlasic would tell you there is 1-reporter who covers SJS and team policy is 3-weeks advance notice for 1-on-1 interview which can’t last longer than 30min.

In other words - no one gives a rats ass about hockey players in San Jose

So if Celebrini or Smith or any of the young players f*ck up it’s like a bear shi*ting in the woods… no one cares

 

[jellybeans]

We need to keep our peewee coach till the end of the this way we should get another top 5 pick and next year hire a real coach and start moving upwards

 

[The Gr8 Dane]

Had to tell you you made me laft with this post, simply my kind of humour.....please dont stop

Lache pas le gros

Dude I'm not even joking Glad I can get you to laugh but i'm also tanking next year , I guess its not a popular opinion around here

 

[Tabarouette]

As Marc-Edouard Vlasic would tell you there is 1-reporter who covers SJS and team policy is 3-weeks advance notice for 1-on-1 interview which can’t last longer than 30min.

In other words - no one gives a rats ass about hockey players in San Jose

well they'll win a cup before us so they'll be in the news sooner or later

 

[morhilane]

If you pick in the top 10 consecutively, you have started to rebuild.

And that's not the Sharks, their draft selections:
2024: 1
2023: 4
- changed GM
2022: 27
2021: 7
2020: 31
2019: pick traded
2018: 21
2017: 19
2016: pick traded

They haven't made the playoffs since 2019, but so some of these draft position were traded picks. But it was 100% a team trying to be competitive without the means until Grier.

 

[WeThreeKings]

And that's not the Sharks, their draft selections:
2024: 1
2023: 4
- changed GM
2022: 27
2021: 7
2020: 31
2019: pick traded
2018: 21
2017: 19
2016: pick traded

They haven't made the playoffs since 2019, but so some of these draft position were traded picks. But it was 100% a team trying to be competitive without the means until Grier.

Sorry they picked 11th in the draft after taking Eklund in the top 10, and they traded down with Arizona to accumulate more picks.

They were rebuilding since the Covid draft, they started earlier than us.

 

[LaP]

It's funny that the same people who think we suck too much this year are the same who act surprised that teams who sucked more than us the last 2 years might be ahead of us in their rebuild. It's like they want the butter, the money and the whole f***ing farm along with it.

 

[teamfirst]

Dude I'm not even joking Glad I can get you to laugh but i'm also tanking next year , I guess its not a popular opinion around here

Well i'm not a big fan of tanking myself but if someone could pull me on that train .....it's you

Respek

 

[LaP]

And that's not the Sharks, their draft selections:
2024: 1
2023: 4
- changed GM
2022: 27
2021: 7
2020: 31
2019: pick traded
2018: 21
2017: 19
2016: pick traded

They haven't made the playoffs since 2019, but so some of these draft position were traded picks. But it was 100% a team trying to be competitive without the means until Grier.

They drafted 11th in 2022 but they traded the pick for the 27th and two 2nd round picks. 2022 was a bad draft they probably evaluated there was not much difference between a 11th and a 27th and decided to grab two 2nd round pick. It was 100% a rebuild move to get more picks. Also they drafted 11th mostly because they were 2nd in the league for OTL. They were just 4 points away from drafting top 7 and the difference in point between SJ and Ottawa drafting 7th was OTL. Ottawa who drafted 7th in 2022 actually had more wins than SJ. SJ was the 7th team having the less RW that year.

 

[teamfirst]

Cc pacing for 55! That’s good stuff.

And Newhook pacing for ZERO assists is something else too.

 

[salbutera]

well they'll win a cup before us so they'll be in the news sooner or later

How many more times did SJS make Cup finals vs Habs despite having Jumbo Joe, Burns, Matteau, Pavelski, Hertl etc…