Speculation: What if ? (2022 draft) Better strategy

[SOLR]

Then you won't like Michkov.

Michkov's attitude is nothing like Wright's.

He's cocky because he's confident.
Wright is cocky because he pretends to be confident.

 

[Sam de Mtl]

Michkov's attitude is nothing like Wright's.

He's cocky because he's confident.
Wright is cocky because he pretends to be confident.

Michkov, like Ovechkin before, gets treated like a king. A player different than other players around him. He gets to pout and be angry when his teammates fail to score. He gets to tell the coach how he wants to be used and with who. He is developed in a very elitist way. The team who will draft him, like Ovy before, will need to be very careful in handling him.

Remember when Ovy had a bad attitude and was a huge problem for his team and they put blame everywhere but on him? It worked out in this case, but it must have been hard for accountability.

 

[BigDaddyLurch]

Michkov's attitude is nothing like Wright's.

He's cocky because he's confident.
Wright is cocky because he pretends to be confident.

 

[ReimanSum1908]

There were 10 to 15 players who should have been drafted before Wright.

There were exactly zero players who should have been drafted before Wright; it's possible that someone - certainly not Slafkovsky - will achieve more in his career, but the right choice was the player who not only is the best today but also projects as the one with the lowest floor and highest ceiling.

Although Geekie was hardly a player that I would have drafted at that point, myself, those results are far more palatable than the reality that we face as of today, having thrown away assets at Dach and Slafkovsky.

 

[Spearmint Rhino]

For shits and giggles
1. Nemec
11. Mateychuk
13. Letterkenny

 

[Engelwood]

The issue I have is that we don’t even have the cap space to sign Dach…
Acquiring him put us in a weaker position to trade Petry and who ever else will be traded. Also CHI going full tank trading a player to their competition for future that help their tank and hurt MTL tank at the same time…
Also considering they traded Debrincat a 24yo established 40g scorer for #7 + #39 + 3rd(24).
Getting #13 + #66(3rd) for a 21yo that has just under 20g in over just 150game seem like a very good return.
We should have acquired a young Dman.
Will get a C in next years draft.

No one is giving up a young Puck Moving Defenseman for what we traded..... NOBODY.

 

[River Meadow]

Dach > Geekie

Dach is a much better skater as well. Geekie will really need to work on his skating to even make it.

Nazar looks great but he's also 5ft10.

Size doesn't matter, unless you already have a bunch of small forwards.. so it's not ideal.

 

[ChesterNimitz]

No one is giving up a young Puck Moving Defenseman for what we traded..... NOBODY.

I should introduce you to Bergevin.

 

[Tripledeke333]

I don’t buy it. They truly believe Slafkovsky is the best player in the draft

If they thought it was close, you have to pick the center. The fact they drafted Slaf means they were taking him no matter what.

 

[calder candidate]

No one is giving up a young Puck Moving Defenseman for what we traded..... NOBODY.

Didn’t we move a young Dman in that trade…
We got a shot at Wright (C) this year will get a shot at a high end C again next year. Everyone is crying to acquire PLD, if he want he will be able to sign as a UFA in 2 years. And with Evans and Dvorak Filling the gap I still think D is clearly going to be a issue in 2-3 years when we try to compete (it is already our biggest issue) Guhle, Barron, Harris, Mailloux or Hutson they are prospect half of them might not make it and if they do it isn’t a slam dunk that all of them are top 4 or that one of them will be elite… Trading a establish young D for a potential C seem like a big risk to me…

 

[Tetragrammaton]

There were exactly zero players who should have been drafted before Wright; it's possible that someone - certainly not Slafkovsky - will achieve more in his career, but the right choice was the player who not only is the best today but also projects as the one with the lowest floor and highest ceiling.

Although Geekie was hardly a player that I would have drafted at that point, myself, those results are far more palatable than the reality that we face as of today, having thrown away assets at Dach and Slafkovsky.

How do you dig yourself out of the hole you just jumped into? Now basically you’re just going to root against Slaf and Dach and never allow yourself to like them? For spite? Because you don’t agree with the decisions of the GM? Just relax and walk it back in your mind, allow yourself the possibility to enjoy our 2 new players. They are ours now and we might as well get behind them and be happy and excited for them. It’s easy to walk it back, just allow yourself to be open to it.

 

[Tripledeke333]

Didn’t we move a young Dman in that trade…
We got a shot at Wright (C) this year will get a shot at a high end C again next year. Everyone is crying to acquire PLD, if he want he will be able to sign as a UFA in 2 years. And with Evans and Dvorak Filling the gap I still think D is clearly going to be a issue in 2-3 years when we try to compete (it is already our biggest issue) Guhle, Barron, Harris, Mailloux or Hutson they are prospect half of them might not make it and if they do it isn’t a slam dunk that all of them are top 4 or that one of them will be elite… Trading a establish young D for a potential C seem like a big risk to me…

Yeah, I agree. Dmen are rare and tough to acquire. We have forward depth, but I have no idea how we will get defensemen in order to compete. Dmen can take a long time to develop and it is not guarantee our prospects become top 4 Ds (Tinordi, Fisher, Beleau ect were all 1st round busts).

 

[calder candidate]

Yeah, I agree. Dmen are rare and tough to acquire. We have forward depth, but I have no idea how we will get defensemen in order to compete. Dmen can take a long time to develop and it is not guarantee our prospects become top 4 Ds (Tinordi, Fisher, Beleau ect were all 1st round busts).

Also even if we have high pick Dman are a lot harder to project, take longer to develop and likely won’t be BPA in the top 5 in 2023… Our FW group is looking a lot better than our D right so move D and pick to add a FW to me didn’t seem like the best strategy, especially when you are in a rebuilding and it will be easier to add FW even UFA you will have a lot more cheap FW to fill your bottom 6.

 

[ReimanSum1908]

How do you dig yourself out of the hole you just jumped into? Now basically you’re just going to root against Slaf and Dach and never allow yourself to like them? For spite? Because you don’t agree with the decisions of the GM? Just relax and walk it back in your mind, allow yourself the possibility to enjoy our 2 new players. They are ours now and we might as well get behind them and be happy and excited for them. It’s easy to walk it back, just allow yourself to be open to it.

You mistake my confidence that both players are going to prove to be inferior to those whom we could have acquired otherwise for a desire for that to be so.

Never once did I state that I want Dach to bust or Slaf to develop into a 3rd line winger who is given too many chances as a result of his draft-status and has some of his statistics temporarily inflated due to his presence on a power play unit while Wright becomes a solid center on the level (impact-wise) of Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. That's just what I believe will be the case.

If I'm wrong and the Canadiens have acquired two quality assets, so much the better. I've been wrong about then-prospects like Landeskog when he was drafted, and right about ones such as McCarron as a bust and Sean Couturier as a steal.

I'm not going to force myself to be happy about decisions I believe to be foolish wastes of assets, even if I root for the players' success to prove me wrong, any more than I should have had to hype myself up, at the time, for, say, the signing of Savard or, ages past, the Gomez trade.

 

[calder candidate]

We had shot at drafting a C in 2022, we will have a shot at one in 2023 since a C is likely to be the BPA pretty much anywhere in the top 8 (Bedard, Fantilli, Dvorsky, Benson, Yager, Carlson) and there is PLD or other UFA in 2024 so in our situation 2022 to 2024 center was most likely the easiest position to acquire… trading a D for a C just didn’t seem like the optimal strategy especially since Dach is a sure thing either.

 

[Nicko999]

What if the Habs went on a real rebuild.

Forget Dach and we keep the picks.
We tank for 2 years to get in the Top 5.

Romanov and #198 for pick #13
#26 +#33 +#62 (similair to what ARI gave up) for #11

So we would of got 3 first pick in top 13

#1: Slaf
#11 : Geekie , center in the NHL in 2 years.
#13 : Nazar : Center in the NHL in 2 years as well.

Doesn't get more rebuild right now. We sold off a couple of assets at the TDL, we stockpiled on picks. And this year we got worst losing Romanov and Petry.

You could also do it like Chicago but that's just plain stupid. You still need NHL players that can play.

 

[Engelwood]

Didn’t we move a young Dman in that trade…
We got a shot at Wright (C) this year will get a shot at a high end C again next year. Everyone is crying to acquire PLD, if he want he will be able to sign as a UFA in 2 years. And with Evans and Dvorak Filling the gap I still think D is clearly going to be a issue in 2-3 years when we try to compete (it is already our biggest issue) Guhle, Barron, Harris, Mailloux or Hutson they are prospect half of them might not make it and if they do it isn’t a slam dunk that all of them are top 4 or that one of them will be elite… Trading a establish young D for a potential C seem like a big risk to me…

Issue with Romanov on a good team he is a number 4 or 5 D-man. He is never going to be a number 3 or higher as he is good at one thing hitting people, and mediocre at the rest. There is a reason he was hid in the Stanley cup run by pairing him with one of the Big 4 that run when he got ice time. He is a better skating version of Emelin, only a defensive player missing the puck moving and offensive skills. We traded when he had high value for a player whose value is low. Honestly I feel that the d-men we have in prospect would have passed him in the next 2 years. And then he has a reduced value. There is a reason he has not signed his RFA deal yet, he is wanting more than he is worth.

 

[calder candidate]

Issue with Romanov on a good team he is a number 4 or 5 D-man. He is never going to be a number 3 or higher as he is good at one thing hitting people, and mediocre at the rest. There is a reason he was hid in the Stanley cup run by pairing him with one of the Big 4 that run when he got ice time. He is a better skating version of Emelin, only a defensive player missing the puck moving and offensive skills. We traded when he had high value for a player whose value is low. Honestly I feel that the d-men we have in prospect would have passed him in the next 2 years. And then he has a reduced value. There is a reason he has not signed his RFA deal yet, he is wanting more than he is worth.

Maybe he wanted more than what he is worth but he should be a regular top 4 just based on is skating and physical play he doesn’t have high end offensive upside but he is able to move the puck. he was likely going to be pass by Guhle and Barron but we still need 6dman not of the other prospect can really all be better than Romanov even Guhle and Barron might top off has #2 or #3 acquiring a young top 4 Dman is pretty expensive… even if we have 2 better Dman that doesn’t affect is value of a player that much it might make him more or less expendable. I had no trouble cashing in on Romanov Value but than flipping it for Dach although very intriguing isn’t without risk.

 

[26Mats]

What if the Habs went on a real rebuild.

Forget Dach and we keep the picks.
We tank for 2 years to get in the Top 5.

Romanov and #198 for pick #13
#26 +#33 +#62 (similair to what ARI gave up) for #11

So we would of got 3 first pick in top 13

#1: Slaf
#11 : Geekie , center in the NHL in 2 years.
#13 : Nazar : Center in the NHL in 2 years as well.

So;
Nazar instead of Dach, an
Geekie instead of Mezar, Beck, and Hutson.

Time will tell!

Aside: when I thought of an alternative to the deal San Jose got, at the time of the deal, I thought of (26, 33, and one of our LD prospects Fairbrother, Struble, etc..). It turns out after the draft, that would allow us to keep Hutson!

 

[Engelwood]

Maybe he wanted more than what he is worth but he should be a regular top 4 just based on is skating and physical play he doesn’t have high end offensive upside but he is able to move the puck. he was likely going to be pass by Guhle and Barron but we still need 6dman not of the other prospect can really all be better than Romanov even Guhle and Barron might top off has #2 or #3 acquiring a young top 4 Dman is pretty expensive… even if we have 2 better Dman that doesn’t affect is value of a player that much it might make him more or less expendable. I had no trouble cashing in on Romanov Value but than flipping it for Dach although very intriguing isn’t without risk.

We did what we wish all of our GM do, sell high and buy low.

 

[Xirik]

I truly believe that if the deal for Dach fell through, (Hughes did say that the trade was 90% done by the time that the draft started.), they would have chosen Wright at #1.

So you are saying that I should focus my hate on Chicago then?

(Nemec is good though)

 

[Lockin17]

So;
Nazar instead of Dach, an
Geekie instead of Mezar, Beck, and Hutson.

Time will tell!

Aside: when I thought of an alternative to the deal San Jose got, at the time of the deal, I thought of (26, 33, and one of our LD prospects Fairbrother, Struble, etc..). It turns out after the draft, that would allow us to keep Hutson!

Well that were the picks that got picked on #11 and #13.
I would of take other players on my list though
#11 - Nazar/Lekk
#13 - Kemmel/ Mcgroarty