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So, EOTP finished their "top 25 under 25" rankings, and in the meantime, Corey Pronman assessed the Habs' prospect pipeline as #6 in the league. Spent a bit of time compiling the two together: There are some significant differences (more on those later), but the top seven players (including Suzuki) are pretty consistently assessed--and even consistent within the EOTP editors' rankings. Suzuki, Caufield, Dach and Slafkovsky up front, and Guhle, Reinbacher and Hutson on D. That may not be enough yet to contend, but it's a solid young core to build around. In the next tier, we have Newhook, Roy, Beck and Barron (Pronman actually had Barron at #7, ahead of Hutson), who are more likely to be middle-six/middle-pair players. I'm personally encouraged by seeing Beck this high in both rankings (top 10 in both). Further down, Pronman ranked Mailloux as "has a chance to play", based on the NHL not having made a decision yet when he wrote up the rankings, but he had Xhekaj surprisingly high at #12, and Mysak at #13, both ahead of Kidney, heineman and Mesar. I do think that in the lower part of the ratings the EOTP editors may be closer to the mark than Pronman: the latter ranked all 32 teams' prospects, and cannot possibly have had time to watch the lesser prospects for any length of time. All of this is based on personal evaluations and assessments, of course, and reality is still another month away. However, at least those rankings made good reading in the dog days of August and then some.

Yes He likely does rookie camp, training camp, and preseason and then goes back. A few weeks in Montreal and a taste of NHL speed (even in preseason) is a good thing.

This is one of those trades where the trade tree could go on and on for a long time...

Not certain I like the simple Top 6 / Bottom 6 split that is so often used ... the third line plays a very important role on good teams and are usually a distinct tier above the fourth liners ... I don't expect Beck to end up having the offence to be "Top 6" when the Habs are ready to be Cup contenders, but I wouldn't lump him together with 4th liners ... this season in the OHL will be an important step in his development ... I think he has a chance to be a step above Jake Evans.

The team got stronger as the game went on imo. Mailloux looked better and better. He didn’t get an assist on the Mysak goal, but it’s his clearing the zone that set it up. Roy got better too. As did Kidney and Davidson etc. Mesar ALWAYS looked like a boy among men. Sad thing - is these aren’t even men! I’ll add this - Miller was impressively solid. He seemed positionally sound and cool under pressure. I never saw panic even when there was chaos around him. PS - saw Lecavalier, Gorton, Hughes and got a pic with St Louis. I’m in hockey geek heaven!

Their identity is that of a team in transition, a team that isn't good enough to win yet and is focusing on player development to try to get them back into playoff contention over time. Values...not sure what you mean here - this can mean a few different things. Are you talking on-ice, off-ice, community-based, etc? The goal is to maximize player development, particularly skill development. Even if the parts don't completely 'fit' now, just keep developing the skill-set, not focus on pigeonholing to fit specific roles or focus too much on weaknesses. Not saying weaknesses will/should be ignored altogether but it won't be the sole focus of areas to improve. There will come a time (ideally in the near future) when the fit will start to matter and shoring up the weak spots will become more important. That will come when the team is closer to playoff contention (when players are further developed and other divisional rivals are on the downswing) and short-term success becomes a bigger priority. They're not there yet and they know it.

I have to admit, I'm a bit surprised that DeSmith hasn't been moved yet. Looking around the league, Tampa Bay seems like they might be the best fit for them but they're $73,333 over their LTIR ceiling which makes a move hard to make. I think I've found a workaround: To Tampa Bay: G Casey DeSmith (one year, $1.8M) To Montreal: D Philippe Myers (one year, $1.4M) Small something (2025 fifth-round pick comes to mind; DeSmith's value just isn't that high right now) Myers is projected to be on Tampa's books at $250,000 with him presumed to be in the minors. But if Tampa does this move, waives their projected backup (Jonas Johansson), and waives the corpse of Zach Bogosian, they'd free up exactly $75,000 in space. That would get them in cap compliance and get a much better second-string goalie, all at the cost of a small something since the other two guys aren't all that good anyway. For Montreal, the move frees up $1.55M in cap space now, assuming Myers is waived and buried in Laval. That makes it easier to get to Day One cap compliance with Price on the roster, allowing them to use in-season LTIR. He'd be a decent blueliner for the Rocket while giving them some RD insurance amidst the Wideman injury speculation. It also would allow them to get at least a small positive value return for a piece they probably didn't want to take on in the first place. Not a great return but it checks some boxes for both sides.

Dach had 38 points in 58 games playing well both early in the season as a winger with Suzuki/caufield and later in the year when anchored his own line. Almost every night his line was the best possession line on the team, both when he was with suz/cauf and when he was centring his own line. Hes not eller. I am gonna say something bold here but I think there is more chance that given his age he passes suzuki and becomes the 1a in our 1a/1b centre situation than he falls into a third line role I think we stole him out of chicago and this might be Hughes best move when all is said and done. Ive tried to be cautious on him but as i rewatched a lot of last season, Im seeing a dominant force in the neutral zone thats about to break out.

I think Primeau is about to find out what his worth is when he gets waived then sent to Laval because nobody took him.

There aren’t useable alternatives yet. Mastodon is difficult to use and isn’t close. The Meta one, Threads has unprecedented access to your information and I would never use it. BlueSky is in beta but this one should work as it is made by the original Twitter guy. Until then there is no other option to easily access all Habs reporting in one place. Musk has and is currently destroying that 44 billion dollar investment. The world used to believe the man was a genius. Now everyone knows that Musk is genuinely brain damaged and an asshole to boot

I just hate Bing and Microsoft Edge. I use google and chrome.

Yes and Killorn could blow out his knee or hurt his hip (monahan) or have some other injury in the next two years, or just see his performance go downhill due to age and wear and tear, to the point where he wont get the same contract two years from now. Its a lot to expect of any player to take those risks instead of guaranteed money.

I blame Elon

You're right. In that case this is an excellent deal IMHO

Some random thoughts on how some of Montreal's prospects fared in the bits and pieces I got to see: https://www.habsworld.net/2023/09/observations-from-the-2023-rookie-tournament/

My quick thoughts on the first game. Strong games Roy, Beck, Tournigay, Reinbacher Weak games Heineman, Mailloux, Dobes

And YouTube:

Yes, on Facebook, twitch and Twitter/X

The full lists can be found here, for anyone wondering:

no, I go to billings bridge every now and then though. I work for high tech

Yup. You can get frustrated, ticked off with management, ticked off with the players, etc etc but you always maintain some level of hope and faith that your team will turn it around and come back to the glory days we dream about. Again, FAN is short for fanatic so there is nothing logical about your commitment to your team (ie Habs), it's just there and it doesn't go away.

I live in Toronto, and I don't care how many of my family, friends, etc cheer for the Leafs. A real fan never abandons their team and never cheers for a rival.

Nice of Paul and good choice by Mailloux

If all of this bad stuff happens then surely we are a lottery pick. Perhaps this is the year that things go well for us. Perhaps we push for a playoff spot. Perhaps Dach finds chemistry with Newhook and they become league leaders. Perhaps Gallagher scores 30 and doesn’t miss much time. Perhaps 🤔

I think my response to this post would depend on whether or not you were among those calling for a Tank Job for all those years. I honestly don’t remember. If you’ve been calling for/demanding a tank and rebuild, then this attitude is exactly what bugs me about some tankologists. They want a rebuild, then complain when a team goes through three or four years of being terrible. On the other hand, if you were never an energetic proponent of tanking, then your attitude is at least consistent. That said, the Sens are festering scumbags that no Habs fan should cheer for, so there’s that.

I’m headed to Buffalo to see the Habs prospects on Saturday! Anyone else going? Looking forward to being able to see the prospects with my own eyes on a full sheet of ice instead of whatever a cameraman points to.

Well, I don’t know of any player whose development was compromised by spending time in the AHL. I suppose this could be the case if you have a really terrible coaching staff at that level; but if that’s so, then why keep that staff in place? By contrast, bringing players up too soon is a higher-risk development strategy that can indeed go awry. Even the great Carey Price, who at least had one extended playoff in the A, barely survived that treatment. That being said, I’m not saying Slaf won’t overcome it and thrive. But last season he was clearly not NHL ready and that’s one reason he got hurt. 🤷‍♂️ Clearly it was not the right approach in terms of last season, anyway. Something was mishandled regarding injuries last season, that’s for sure. They’ve made changes to the training staff. Whether those guys were scapegoats for what was really a management/coaching attitude will never be known.

"I dont care where young player is now, more concerned where he will be in 5 years."; was Hughes babble. But, i dont see it, seems more the opposite, wouldnt you say? Be it Slafkovski, Guhle, Caufield, i know contract bonus's might be important for players; but playing injured young players to meet them (if was part of reason?), seem short-sighted. Playing the crap out of Matheson in Nov. fresh off injury rehab also seemed dumb at the time (St Louis misplay?); but did seem to learn in jan return at least.

You know there is no magic formula for prospect development. If Slaf was in a situation where he'd be benched after the first turnover, having his confidence shattered by a vengeful coach, I'd want him out of Montreal as well. Marty seems determined to help him without shattering his confidence, so I believe we should keep an open mind here, it seems management all want the best for the kid.

I don't see any of the RHD that can supplant Kovacevic Savard and Barron are ahead ok. Kovacevic is the third best guy on that side. Lindstrom is not as good as Kovacevic Wideman already lost to him once and will again, and is hurt. Mailloux and Reinbacher are not NHL ready IMO. That's pretty much it at RD, so he'd be in my top 6.

Clearly he failed with the Rangers Last year he was with the Kings and tearing up the AHL, but of course the Kings are deep at centre, both on their team with Kopitar, Danault, and Gabe Vilardi filling the top three lines, but also they want their own top prospect in Quentin Byfield to make an impact and had him on the roster most of last year, and they have another top C prospect in Rasmus Kupari too. I'm not sure how much opportunity he was ever gonna get with LA, even with him rebuilding his career on their AHL club. I'm not guaranteeing anything with this guy, but he's one I want to watch and see if there is something there.

Miller 3 games 1-2 2.79/0.906 Volohkin 3 games 1-0-1 2.39/0.915 Rohrer 8gms 2g2a pre-season swiss Eriksson 4games 2g2a Xhekaj 3games 2g (just 2 PIMs)

It's not the worst idea but Hughes came out and said that DeSmith wasn't acquired to go play in Laval so I'll take him at his word on that for now. I think they'd carry 3 goalies over embarrassing him by burying him in the minors. What happens with Primeau could also play a role. If he clears, there wouldn't be room for DeSmith in Laval either. The Poulin retirement took an option off the table but there are others like him sitting without a deal right now. J-F Berube and Aaron Dell are on PTOs while Jon Gillies and Michael Hutchinson are unsigned. Any one of those could take a deal to be the veteran backup to Dobes should Primeau and DeSmith both exit without a goalie coming back. I'd love to aim higher in my proposal from a pick perspective - maybe they can push for the 2025 4th - but I have to think that if there was a decent pick on the table for DeSmith, he'd have been moved already.

If he could reach Danault level production (40-50 points with the Habs) that would be fantastic, I think. Much will depend on the linemates he ends up playing with, though.

At least in terms of expectations ... let the lad find his level ... if it happens to be Plek-ish that will be tremendous.

He may not put up the offensive numbers Pleks did (although that would be awesome if he did), I see him more as a tremendously effective, shut down 3rd line center getting maybe 35-40 points a year although his offensive ceiling could be higher.

I'd rather have Pezzetta as the 13th or 14th forward than someone like Heineman. Pezzetta sitting in the pressbox is fine, but a player who has less than 20 games in North America needs to continue to play and develop on this sized ice.

Johnny Gaudreau was 150 lbs in college and is 165 now. Seems to have worked out for him. If you have the skill, you have the skill, and Hutson literally had the best season by an 18 year old freshman NCAA defenceman since the 1980s, and much like all hockey, its a little harder to put up points in 2023 than it was in the 1980s. Does that guarantee anything? Of course not. Does it show that his potential ceiling is an all-star? Yes, 100%

Yes, agreed. I think the hope (for me anyway) is that Florian develops into a 6'4" 220lb beast of a winger who is skilled enough to be effective on the 3rd or 4th lines. I think that may be the maximum upside.

Mixed feelings, hard to watch Wideman defend, but he does fill a role in the pressbox that you dont want Mailloux in. suppose. Can Lindstrom do that instead?

Yevgeni Dmitrievich Volokhin - Habs Prospects Dates Games GP GA Min Shots W-L-OT GAA Svs% September 4, 2023 vs. Avto Ekaterinburg 1 1 59:27 18 W 1,01 0,944

I am no scout either but I agree with your comments. If Florian doesn't make it, it won't be because of a lack of grit, determination or compete level. It will be because his skills didn't progress enough. The NHL is not an easy league to make. It will be fun (hopefully) to follow his progress.

Not a scout but I will say this about Florian just like I said for Arber. Don’t underestimate the grit, determination and compete level of the lower class immigrant child.

I’m horned up by Slafkovsky being projected as an all star/ top line player. Please be true!

He'll probably be garbage, but he's the guy we picked, so let's hope he develops into a hard-nosed, hard-hitting, reliable bottom-6 behemoth.

I don't think anyone is saying he will but work ethic can run in a family (ie the Sutters) and it's not like they used up a high pick on him although he was likely drafted higher than the consensus. Lets hope.

Amen, let's develop this stud prospect properly.

Maybe Arber is the Valeri and Florian is Pavel... 😁

No doubt, 6.9M for a guy who has scored 80+ points the last 2 years and has been a point/game in the playoffs is very good value. He will be getting a nice raise from somebody.