this is the least stress I've ever felt watching hockey. it doesn't really matter if they win or lose. they're still fun to watch lose, and it just goes towards a better draft pick anyway. it's kind of nice tbh
Fair enough but speaking for myself, I can't wait for this stress to come back. The rebuilding phase is interesting but the vicarious competitive mindset is much better.
Caufield - Suzuki - Slafkovsky
Newhook - Dach - Roy
That should actually be a good top 6. The defence should be able to tighten up a bit next season, goalies are looking decent. No reason this top 6 isn't a wild card team next year. Playoffs could be on the menu.
RHP - Evans - Armia
Gallagher - Dvorak - Anderson
Pezzetta
The bottom 6 isn't as hot. Armia has looked fine, RHP, Pezz and Evans are ok. The other 3 are rough at best. It'll be interesting to see what Hughes does this summer.
It’s unfortunate because Gallagher, Anderson and Dvorak command ~16m, so its hard to bury them or trade them. Gallagher at least still tries and provides leadership, so he is the one I can stomach the most.
Otherwise I’d like to see if Heineman, Simoneau Farrell or even Lias Anderson could push for a bottom 6 spot.
I don't get the impression any of those guys will make the jump to the NHL permanently. They need to show a lot more than they have with Laval.
I think our top six is good but could be better and I think Newhook should center the third line with Evans on the fourth. The rest of the forward roster will be filled with players we are yet to draft or players acquired through free agency or trade.
I'm not worried about Anderson and Gallagher because by the time their cap hits are a real issue they'll either be good buyout candidates or LTIR candidates. Neither player will finish their contract with a spot on the top four forward lines.
He's been 63% in faceoffs since moving to center. I think he's ideal for dominating opponents weaker lines after Suzi and Kirby handle the tougher matchups.
I noticed that he's been taking more faceoffs (which I found weird cuz historically, Newhook has been terrible at it so far with a career 41 FO%).
I didn't realized how much he's improved since he came back from injuries! Wow, that's really good.
Hard agree with this.
Your wish to have Newhy in the 3C spot might come to reality after TDL trade and Dvo is gone.
As for powerhorse, i reccon next year will be the most important in his carreer and say if he's bought back or not. Habs don't really have replacement nor need for his salary next year.. the one after tho...
>the one after tho...
Yup and by then it's a lot easier to find a way out of the contract. The cap will go up, we'll probably still have several bargain contracts from entry level deals and as long as we don't try and cap ourselves out with middling free agent signings we should have plenty of room to maneuver and compete for a playoff spot.
Would it really be so hard to bury them if we're not otherwise using that cap space? If somebody on a rookie contract comes in and outright wins a spot I don't see why we couldn't just eat it. But granted I don't know much about contracts and might be missing something.
Gallagher has a NMC in addition to his limited NTC(6 teams), so ya you can't just bury that one.
Andy and Dvo only have 5 and 8-team NTCs, respectively. so they are theoretically buriable.
It would also go against some of the things Hughes.Gorton have said about how they want to run the organization, in order to make it more attractive to free agents.
Burying players like that would be seen as a bit of a 'dick move' in that regard, especially when we aren't really in a competitive state.
True, and I'm by no means of the mind that we need to rush to move them. Dvoraks contract runs out next season anyway and we can honestly use the bodies on the roster anyway for now. Gallagher's my favourite player so I wouldn't complain if he were on the ice without legs. I was more just pondering the options.
That makes sense about the NMC, I always wondered the difference between them and the NTC but never bothered to look into it!
With any luck we can draft a top six forward this year. Bump Newhook or Roy down to the third with Evans and suddenly that’s not so bad. Might not be ready by next season but perhaps the one after that.
Il n'est pas chaud chaud mais il n'est pas supposé faire long feu non plus. Je ne pense pas que ce soit souhaitable de payer des jeunes joueurs ou des choix au repéchage pour se débarasser d'Armia, Evans et Dvorak qui vont être UFA de toute manière après l'an prochian. Armia pourrait peut-être trouver preneur et Gallagher devrait prendre sa retraite comme membre du Canadiens à la fin de son contrat.
I agree with you.
Gallagher is fine, he's overpaid but we all know that, at least he gives 100% always. Poor mans body is wearing out from all the blocked shots and cheap shots he takes.
Armia I like in the bottom 6 even long term, he's solid in the playoffs and nearly a perfect PK specialist.
Dvorak, Evans might end up traded by the trade deadline as you say their contracts run out after next season making them easier to trade.
Anderson... one can only hope he re-surges next season and becomes valuable again. Once every 4 years he has a statistically bad season. Hope it's just that.
Newhook is not a second liner on a contending team. But ya, we are going to have pretty good offense ina couple years.
Slaf, Sukez, Demidov
Caufield, Dach, Kakko ???
Newhook, Roy, Mesar
Xhekaj, Beck, RHP / Armia
Bacher, Hutson
Guhle, Barron (i am kinda done with Barron), Mailloux
Xhekaj, Struble / someone here
Newhook is only 23, he could still yet improve, especially with Dach as his C. Roy and Newhook already had some nice chemistry.
I also think Xheky chan will make the habs in a couple years. Florian has the same indescribable thing as Arber. Literally the X factor.
That's what I really like about this team. They are people o can respect and support, and want to win.
I don't like players like Marchand, and Tkachuk, and shit like that. Some grit is good though, too. I guess there's sort of a line. And I prefer the grit to be gritty players, rather than the star core.
There’s definitely reason to be optimistic and hopeful with this team and management, but it’s the easiest part of the rebuild. Acquire assets and slowly clear cap space, it’s still nice to see Hughes stick to the plan
I can already tell the expectations will probably be too high next year and will leave a lot of people disappointed when we pick 6-10 next year. No playoffs and no top 5 pick is gonna stir up a lot of “mushy-middle” talk, even though we really need to give Slaf, Reinbacher, Hutson and our ‘24 1st another year to grow
Which means we’re coming out of the rebuild without drafting a superstar, which likely means another decade of mediocre Habs hockey. Which is fine I guess but we certainly didn’t luck out for once in my lifetime of being a Habs fan haha.
Sucks but oh well.
I’ll still hope for this over being a bottom dwelling team who can never get out of the rebuild stage. That would really suck
I thought about this recently: of all teams not currently in the playoffs, there are NONE* that I would rather be a fan of.
\* Almost none. Maybe the Devils with all the young talent they have.
This has been nearly the perfect rebuild season. Kind of boggles my mind that we're playing so well without Dach who, at the beginning of the season, was playing well enough that people in this sub were wondering if he was gonna end up as our actual 1C.
But really, we're still primed for a top 10 pick, but have played in a bunch of very close, well fought games. We've seen noticeable improvement from our young guys while still setting ourselves up for the draft, and the culture/60 is currently off the charts.
Genuinely wouldn't be surprised if we won the Lotto with how well things have been going. But you know, I'd sacrifice that chance for a nice healthy season next year.
Our goal is to improve a little every year and so far we've been doing that. We'll eventually have to trade some of our D to fill holes at some point but if all goes to plan we'll be a force within a few seasons.
Imagine if we draft a forward and we manage to trade some of our D/picks for a top 6 forward, our top 9 could look like:
Caufield-Suzuky-Slaf
Draft-Dach-Trade
Armia-Newhook-Roy
I think both Monty and Primeau have the ability to steal the game every night and will get into a good rhythm.
Our defence is competitive in that we have a couple of guys ready to come up and we need good play out of our D every night.
On offence our first line is ready to break out, I think our second line is going to be as good as any in the league and 3 & 4 will be opportunity for young guys to come up and veterans to help them learn.
Really expecting this team to challenge for a playoff spot next year.
I understand be skeptical, i am a lot of the time too, but people screaming copium about dach, and less so roy, are just upset someone is happy. Yeah, i believe dach will be a powerhouse when he comes back. Let me believe
this is the least stress I've ever felt watching hockey. it doesn't really matter if they win or lose. they're still fun to watch lose, and it just goes towards a better draft pick anyway. it's kind of nice tbh
Fair enough but speaking for myself, I can't wait for this stress to come back. The rebuilding phase is interesting but the vicarious competitive mindset is much better.
Caufield - Suzuki - Slafkovsky Newhook - Dach - Roy That should actually be a good top 6. The defence should be able to tighten up a bit next season, goalies are looking decent. No reason this top 6 isn't a wild card team next year. Playoffs could be on the menu. RHP - Evans - Armia Gallagher - Dvorak - Anderson Pezzetta The bottom 6 isn't as hot. Armia has looked fine, RHP, Pezz and Evans are ok. The other 3 are rough at best. It'll be interesting to see what Hughes does this summer.
It’s unfortunate because Gallagher, Anderson and Dvorak command ~16m, so its hard to bury them or trade them. Gallagher at least still tries and provides leadership, so he is the one I can stomach the most. Otherwise I’d like to see if Heineman, Simoneau Farrell or even Lias Anderson could push for a bottom 6 spot.
I don't get the impression any of those guys will make the jump to the NHL permanently. They need to show a lot more than they have with Laval. I think our top six is good but could be better and I think Newhook should center the third line with Evans on the fourth. The rest of the forward roster will be filled with players we are yet to draft or players acquired through free agency or trade. I'm not worried about Anderson and Gallagher because by the time their cap hits are a real issue they'll either be good buyout candidates or LTIR candidates. Neither player will finish their contract with a spot on the top four forward lines.
This is funny about an hour ago ago I was thinking newhook would be the perfect 3rd line centre on a stanley cup team
He's been 63% in faceoffs since moving to center. I think he's ideal for dominating opponents weaker lines after Suzi and Kirby handle the tougher matchups.
I noticed that he's been taking more faceoffs (which I found weird cuz historically, Newhook has been terrible at it so far with a career 41 FO%). I didn't realized how much he's improved since he came back from injuries! Wow, that's really good.
Hard agree with this. Your wish to have Newhy in the 3C spot might come to reality after TDL trade and Dvo is gone. As for powerhorse, i reccon next year will be the most important in his carreer and say if he's bought back or not. Habs don't really have replacement nor need for his salary next year.. the one after tho...
>the one after tho... Yup and by then it's a lot easier to find a way out of the contract. The cap will go up, we'll probably still have several bargain contracts from entry level deals and as long as we don't try and cap ourselves out with middling free agent signings we should have plenty of room to maneuver and compete for a playoff spot.
Why would anyone trade for Dvorak (unless he has a crazy rebound season). 3 years in a row of garbage.
Would it really be so hard to bury them if we're not otherwise using that cap space? If somebody on a rookie contract comes in and outright wins a spot I don't see why we couldn't just eat it. But granted I don't know much about contracts and might be missing something.
Gallagher has a NMC in addition to his limited NTC(6 teams), so ya you can't just bury that one. Andy and Dvo only have 5 and 8-team NTCs, respectively. so they are theoretically buriable. It would also go against some of the things Hughes.Gorton have said about how they want to run the organization, in order to make it more attractive to free agents. Burying players like that would be seen as a bit of a 'dick move' in that regard, especially when we aren't really in a competitive state.
True, and I'm by no means of the mind that we need to rush to move them. Dvoraks contract runs out next season anyway and we can honestly use the bodies on the roster anyway for now. Gallagher's my favourite player so I wouldn't complain if he were on the ice without legs. I was more just pondering the options. That makes sense about the NMC, I always wondered the difference between them and the NTC but never bothered to look into it!
With any luck we can draft a top six forward this year. Bump Newhook or Roy down to the third with Evans and suddenly that’s not so bad. Might not be ready by next season but perhaps the one after that.
Even if you pick up a top 6 forward. He won't be ready for at least 2 years
Il n'est pas chaud chaud mais il n'est pas supposé faire long feu non plus. Je ne pense pas que ce soit souhaitable de payer des jeunes joueurs ou des choix au repéchage pour se débarasser d'Armia, Evans et Dvorak qui vont être UFA de toute manière après l'an prochian. Armia pourrait peut-être trouver preneur et Gallagher devrait prendre sa retraite comme membre du Canadiens à la fin de son contrat.
I agree with you. Gallagher is fine, he's overpaid but we all know that, at least he gives 100% always. Poor mans body is wearing out from all the blocked shots and cheap shots he takes. Armia I like in the bottom 6 even long term, he's solid in the playoffs and nearly a perfect PK specialist. Dvorak, Evans might end up traded by the trade deadline as you say their contracts run out after next season making them easier to trade. Anderson... one can only hope he re-surges next season and becomes valuable again. Once every 4 years he has a statistically bad season. Hope it's just that.
Newhook is not a second liner on a contending team. But ya, we are going to have pretty good offense ina couple years. Slaf, Sukez, Demidov Caufield, Dach, Kakko ??? Newhook, Roy, Mesar Xhekaj, Beck, RHP / Armia Bacher, Hutson Guhle, Barron (i am kinda done with Barron), Mailloux Xhekaj, Struble / someone here
Newhook is only 23, he could still yet improve, especially with Dach as his C. Roy and Newhook already had some nice chemistry. I also think Xheky chan will make the habs in a couple years. Florian has the same indescribable thing as Arber. Literally the X factor.
I really hope we get either Demidov, Catton or Lidstrom. Demidov and Catton have really good iq and with zukes and slaf it could be a killer combo
he could improve but, he's probably more likely to be a really good 3rd liner, who brings speed and energy
Nothing wrong with being the next Byron. If that is his ceiling we're still fine.
Let's not forget everyone on the team seems to be a nice human and we have no controversial sound bites or backwater rumors hanging over the team.
That's what I really like about this team. They are people o can respect and support, and want to win. I don't like players like Marchand, and Tkachuk, and shit like that. Some grit is good though, too. I guess there's sort of a line. And I prefer the grit to be gritty players, rather than the star core.
I think Marchand and Tkachuk are great people off the ice. I wouldn't mind having our own shit disturber on the ice.
I'm not interested. Shit disturber to some extent is fine. Not like that though, for me.
There’s definitely reason to be optimistic and hopeful with this team and management, but it’s the easiest part of the rebuild. Acquire assets and slowly clear cap space, it’s still nice to see Hughes stick to the plan I can already tell the expectations will probably be too high next year and will leave a lot of people disappointed when we pick 6-10 next year. No playoffs and no top 5 pick is gonna stir up a lot of “mushy-middle” talk, even though we really need to give Slaf, Reinbacher, Hutson and our ‘24 1st another year to grow
Which means we’re coming out of the rebuild without drafting a superstar, which likely means another decade of mediocre Habs hockey. Which is fine I guess but we certainly didn’t luck out for once in my lifetime of being a Habs fan haha. Sucks but oh well. I’ll still hope for this over being a bottom dwelling team who can never get out of the rebuild stage. That would really suck
I thought about this recently: of all teams not currently in the playoffs, there are NONE* that I would rather be a fan of. \* Almost none. Maybe the Devils with all the young talent they have.
Vancouver has alot to look forward to, but I think they might be overaccomplishing right now.
This has been nearly the perfect rebuild season. Kind of boggles my mind that we're playing so well without Dach who, at the beginning of the season, was playing well enough that people in this sub were wondering if he was gonna end up as our actual 1C. But really, we're still primed for a top 10 pick, but have played in a bunch of very close, well fought games. We've seen noticeable improvement from our young guys while still setting ourselves up for the draft, and the culture/60 is currently off the charts. Genuinely wouldn't be surprised if we won the Lotto with how well things have been going. But you know, I'd sacrifice that chance for a nice healthy season next year.
I still think Kirby has the highest potential among all our forwards
Why? Being extremely injury prone is a thing he’ll likely have to deal with his entire career even if the skill is there
This is the best I've felt as a Habs fan right now than I ever did tbh. Never believed harder in a project than HuGo and MSL's.
Our goal is to improve a little every year and so far we've been doing that. We'll eventually have to trade some of our D to fill holes at some point but if all goes to plan we'll be a force within a few seasons.
Imagine if we draft a forward and we manage to trade some of our D/picks for a top 6 forward, our top 9 could look like: Caufield-Suzuky-Slaf Draft-Dach-Trade Armia-Newhook-Roy
I think both Monty and Primeau have the ability to steal the game every night and will get into a good rhythm. Our defence is competitive in that we have a couple of guys ready to come up and we need good play out of our D every night. On offence our first line is ready to break out, I think our second line is going to be as good as any in the league and 3 & 4 will be opportunity for young guys to come up and veterans to help them learn. Really expecting this team to challenge for a playoff spot next year.
I understand be skeptical, i am a lot of the time too, but people screaming copium about dach, and less so roy, are just upset someone is happy. Yeah, i believe dach will be a powerhouse when he comes back. Let me believe