tomh009

Yes, the prospect pool rankings evaluate the strength of the pool, not contracts or expected arrival in the NHL. But the point is that the Habs continue to have a strong set of prospects. If you want to try to project things more precisely, you can certainly do spreadsheets. However ... it really is difficult to project such things, because we cannot tell what the team management's plans are for any given prospect or position. I don't think any of use could foresee the trade of picks+Heineman for Dobson, or Mailloux for Balduc, for example.

I don't know that this kind of chart is really a good way to evaluate a team's prospect pipeline. I think you'd be much better off looking at the annual rankings of one of the writers that studies prospects and publishes evaluations. For example, Scott Wheeler at the Athletic has the following rankings for the Habs' prospect pool: 2020: 2nd 2021: 6th 2022: 8th 2023: 6th 2024: 10th 2025: 3rd That's pretty consistently strong since the last few years of Bergevin (credit to him for not emptying the cupboard for the 2021 playoff run!), staying in the top 10 even as the prospects have graduated to NHL regulars. I don't really have a concern here at the moment, even if Mailloux has been traded. Just for fun, here are the Habs' top 10 prospects from the 2020 evaluation: 1. Caufield (elite) 2. Harris (bottom-pairing D) 3. Romanov (solid, middle-pairing D) 4. Struble (bottom-pairing D) 5. Poehling (bottom-six C) 6. Primeau (marginal AHL/NHL player) 7. Norlinder (SHL) 8. Ylonen (SHL) 9. Brook (KHL) 10. Hillis (Liiga) And that's for the second-ranked prospect pool.

Duh! Evans! Sorry about that ...

Yes ... at this point our primary forward PK options from last season are Suzuki (!) and Anderson. Maybe Bolduc can play a role--or Kapanen/Beck. We'll surely start with a weaker PK than last season, but let's see whether St-Louis can rebuild it through the season.

Hughes said in an interview yesterday that it's not possible to do everything in one summer. Dobson and Bolduc are both long-term additions to the Habs' core, and Dobson, in particular, elevates the Habs' D to near-elite level (and maybe elite depending on Reinbacher's and other young defenders' development). The loss of Armia and Dvorak ($5.4M AAV!) hurts the PK but this is a short-term issue that will be addressed through either internal development or through the addition of another forward.

No, I'm the one that is mistaken! Kulak was indeed drafted by the Flames. I don't know how I forgot about that ...

Of the players drafted by the Habs after the second round, there is also Kulak, who has played 600+ games. And Mete and Pezzetta 😊 have played 200+.

I'm not surprised that he didn't want to match Dvorak's $5.4M but he must have been much closer to the $2.5M that Armia got. Blais must then have been Plan B since he couldn't get Armia at the price he wanted.

Primeau 😊

Want to stay they may, but right now it looks like they are moving backwards.

If you only do drafting, it's very difficult to reach the critical mass of talent to be a contender. You need to move players and picks so that you can align the age of the roster and create a contention window. This is the team-building step, where we are now. Once you have done that, the challenge will be in drafting and trading so as to maintain that team strength for a longer term and hopefully contend (fairly) consistently for a long time. It's not easy, but some teams have been quite successful at this.

Trading Dobson for (essentially) picks doesn't really fit that plan, though.

Drouin to NYI for 2x $4M. I don't quite understand what the Islanders' plan is.

I think Hughes managed this quite well: Dobson > Mailloux Bolduc > Heineman Yes, we gave up two mid-first picks but the team is substantially stronger now than it was a week ago.

I expect pretty close, maybe only one zero less!

New season, new thread!

New season, new thread!

Replying to my own message: Armia signed for 2x $2.5M. Bergevin now has Danault, Edmundson, Armia and Perry from that 2021 run to the SCF.

I'm pretty sure this is for 13F. He looks like a credible 3W/4W in a pinch, when injuries hit--better than Pezzetta.

Coincidence? I think not! 😂

Agreed. In some message closer to the front of this thread I said that Mailloux is still working toward becoming an NHL player, and thus carries more risk than bolduc, who has already established himself.

140 NHL games with no AHL stints in between, but then last year he was mired in the AHL, and was traded twice. He played pretty well against the Rocket in the AHL playoffs.

Mailloux still needs to work on his defence, but he was named one of the top prospects in the AHL this year, so he is not a throwaway, either. Not Sergachev, but a high-quality RHD prospect with strong offence and weaker defence. That said, I think the trade makes sense, and it should make the Habs a better team.

Pezzetta is marginal, but I have to give him kudos for his hard work, which got him another contract. By the end of that one, he'll have earned about US$4.5M--not a lot by NHL standards, but it should hopefully put him in a good position for his post-hockey life.