The Montreal Canadiens are in a much better spot now, with enticing prospects, good young players, and a strong foundation put in place by head coach Martin St. Louis, but as TSN’s Director of Scouting Craig Button explains, they are still most definitely in a rebuild. He joins Mike Johnson to discuss how the Habs can take their next steps.
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Do they bring back Carey Price?
Montreal is at the very beginning of a rebuild. They have had one draft post bergevin. They still have almost $28.5 million in 6 veteran contracts added to attempt to compete, that need to be traded away, hopefully in some cases for assets. Anderson, Gallagher, Dvorak, Hoffman, Savard and Edmundsen all need to go. They still have three more years of $10.5 million Carey price on the books.
The habs cap situation right now is such that they can't actually add an expensive free agent if they wanted to. In the off-season this 28th place team counts $81.6 million versus the cap. A rebuilding team should have plenty of cap space to help them add assets. Montreal has yet to get to that preliminary rebuild stage.
Come the regular season Montreal will have 10.5$ million of Carey Price LTIR space to work with , but much better if they have $39 million to play with. Montreal also is still looking to draft in the top ten, so finish at the bottom of the league, for the next three or four years so you definitely don't want to think about offer sheeting RFA's , until you are a playoff team. Then the picks you give up won't have the same chance to become very important.
Thank You Mike yes.
Craig has the worst takes. Habs r in a good spot to have one more bad year (assuming we don’t get a ton of injuries) and finish around 10th in the league. Year after we can start to push for playoffs if everything goes right
Stage 0. Still no elite talent outside of Caufield
while the VGN were blocking 20 shots a game, if a Hab sneezed he was on IL. WTF was that all aboot?
The beginning lol
I joke with my best friend who is from mtl that the habs are the new leafs they'll be good in 7 to 10 years lol
Early stages still. They have the coaching in place but they need talent. They are missing players on lines 2-3-4 and goaltending.
if they dont want michkov and will smith isnt available.. they NEED to go for benson. im telling you right now hes gonna be one of the best two way players in the league and one of the best playmakers! he would be PERFECT for suzuki and caufield and the powerplay.. people may laugh but youl see im right in a couple years! dont worry about his size! you barely notice it with this kid
Rebuild??? They were never "built"
Most man games missed for 2 seasons in a row. Year 3 of the rebuild is hopefully a healthy one.
Let’s not discount the amount of injuries in last few years. If Montreal had average year in injuries this team is much closer then people think. I agree with Johnson that there are a few vets that need to go
Once again, Craig Button with the non-sensical take. How was he ever an NHL gm? The habs don't need a bunch of veterans to help the "kids" grow. Suzuki and Caufield have been to a stanley cup final already. They aren't rookies. Gallagher's contract is untradeable and he'll be one of those mentors. Savard and Matheson are already there and will be great mentors for Xhekaj, Guhle and company. They need to free up cap space by offloading Hoffman and Dvorak and this is difficult to do. They are still in the very early stages of a rebuild.
Sign Monahan to another year and I would pay to move Hoffman.
"I dont even think they can win a game" jesus christ Craig Button is the most clueless moron in hockey and frankly it's amazing that he's had a job for so long
VGK….they worked it ! They worked it in !
Closer than most people think.
Get rid off Hoffman and Druion
They want a quick fix, which is why they want to trade up in the draft to get a top talent who is close to NHL ready. That’s why they want a Fantilli and they don’t want someone possibly years away like Michkov.
I don’t agree with Craig on a lot, but he’s kind of right, there not in contention, if you think they are ur lost, i say this from a habs fan perspective I am a huge fan watch every game watch all the rumour videos I love this team I would like nothing more then for them to be a playoff team, but there not there yet, I think there going to surprise some teams next season, I think we’re going to be better with if caufield can get a full season I think it’s likely we win more games, but I don’t see us outside the bottom 10, and that’s okay, as long as there is Improvement with the young guys that is a positive we should all be happy with, I will get mad when they lose it’s natural as much as deep down I understand why there losing it still sucks, but as long as cole scores, nick plays well see improvement from slaf dach guhle Montembault like I would be happy with the season, I think after this season will be a good tell of where we are at and we can decide if it’s time to go after some free agents, and we can see where we need the help,
It may help to get some veterans in to help develop the young players too. It is feasible to think making the playoffs in 2-3 years, but some of the teams just above them might also be improving.