Looking toward next season. The Montreal Canadiens Organizational Depth Chart heading into the off-season.
April 21, 2024
Looking toward next season. The Montreal Canadiens Organizational Depth Chart heading into the off-season.
12 comments
So thin at RW and so much LD surplus. Big summer for a KH trade, gimme Necas.
My philosophy is that you build contenders from the top down. We have a top line, and now I think we have to build a second line. Dach is a good start, but it’ll be interesting to see how he comes back from injury. I’m a little worried. Newhook looked good this year. Not sure if he’s a 2nd liner or a 3rd liner in the future, but he’s definitely a solid asset. How we round out our top-6 will be interesting. Do we fill it with Roy? Is he ready? Do we fill it with Armia or Gallagher? Reliable, but not much upside. More of a stop-gap piece. Do we fill it through the draft? Winning the draft lottery and getting Celebrini would be sick! Or do we fill it through trade? I think if our 1st pick was between 10-12 we would have traded it in a package for a young player. I still think KH will look to add a young player, but what that package looks like and who he targets is up in the air.
If just one of the following players can establish himself in the NHL next year or the year after, it would be huge. Fingers crossed.
– Kapanen – Beck – Heineman – Mešár
IMO, every other forward prospect is looking like a long shot.
With Tuch, Beck, Mesar, Hutson, and Reinbacher (and Guindon?) likely graduating to Laval for next year, the Minor League and International prospect-pool isn’t as deep any more.
Fowler looks like a really strong prospect. Engstrom is playing well against men in the SHL, as is Kapanen in the Liiga. Konyushkov is an interesting prospect. Those are the only four I would say have a decent shot at playing NHL games. Most of the others will probably cap out at the AHL level if they even make it there. Maybe F. Xhekaj breaks through due to his size.
crazy to think that there’s 0 exciting forward prospects after 2 drafts
I don’t really trust each as a center long term, a great Rw who can slide into a top 6 C role if needed but ideally a winger
Catton would be huge for the top 6
With the cap supposedly going up to $87.5m next season, and with Alzner and Emundson officially off the books, it looks like the Habs are finally starting to get out cap hell. Should have close to $20m in cap space with just Ylonen, Xhekaj, and Barron to re-sign.
Rumour is we will try to extend Slafkovsky and Guhle this summer, which will help bring clarity to our cap situation in the future too.
Demidov the Demigod would look really nice in that chart
I’d put Dvorak with Armia and Gallagher. Put Joshua Roy on the 2nd line.
CC – Nick – Slaf
Roy – Dach – Andy
Gally – Newhook – Armia
xxx – Dvo – Evans
Pezz
Matheson – Ghule
X – Barron
Hutson – Savard
I’d gladly push Gally and/or Andy down the lineup after a trade that sends one or two Ds (Harris, Kovy, Struble) and a 1st for a top 6 winger. I think a big trade is happening this summer and a UFA signing the summer after that. We’re phasing out contract while adding to the top 6-9.
Then we wait and see which prospect are developping well and act accordingly for the next 2-3 years. Reinbacher, Mailloux, Engstrom, Kapanen, Beck could all pan out perfectly well and then we add to that this offseason’s draftees.
We have 11 wingers and one could argue we have 11 NHL dmen….
It’s quite depressing when looking at that chart. Our RW depth is horrible: Gallagher, Anderson and Armia. Even our 1st RW (Slaf) is far from being 1 PPG.
12 comments
So thin at RW and so much LD surplus. Big summer for a KH trade, gimme Necas.
My philosophy is that you build contenders from the top down. We have a top line, and now I think we have to build a second line. Dach is a good start, but it’ll be interesting to see how he comes back from injury. I’m a little worried. Newhook looked good this year. Not sure if he’s a 2nd liner or a 3rd liner in the future, but he’s definitely a solid asset. How we round out our top-6 will be interesting. Do we fill it with Roy? Is he ready? Do we fill it with Armia or Gallagher? Reliable, but not much upside. More of a stop-gap piece. Do we fill it through the draft? Winning the draft lottery and getting Celebrini would be sick! Or do we fill it through trade? I think if our 1st pick was between 10-12 we would have traded it in a package for a young player. I still think KH will look to add a young player, but what that package looks like and who he targets is up in the air.
If just one of the following players can establish himself in the NHL next year or the year after, it would be huge. Fingers crossed.
– Kapanen
– Beck
– Heineman
– Mešár
IMO, every other forward prospect is looking like a long shot.
With Tuch, Beck, Mesar, Hutson, and Reinbacher (and Guindon?) likely graduating to Laval for next year, the Minor League and International prospect-pool isn’t as deep any more.
Fowler looks like a really strong prospect. Engstrom is playing well against men in the SHL, as is Kapanen in the Liiga. Konyushkov is an interesting prospect. Those are the only four I would say have a decent shot at playing NHL games. Most of the others will probably cap out at the AHL level if they even make it there. Maybe F. Xhekaj breaks through due to his size.
crazy to think that there’s 0 exciting forward prospects after 2 drafts
I don’t really trust each as a center long term, a great Rw who can slide into a top 6 C role if needed but ideally a winger
Catton would be huge for the top 6
With the cap supposedly going up to $87.5m next season, and with Alzner and Emundson officially off the books, it looks like the Habs are finally starting to get out cap hell. Should have close to $20m in cap space with just Ylonen, Xhekaj, and Barron to re-sign.
Rumour is we will try to extend Slafkovsky and Guhle this summer, which will help bring clarity to our cap situation in the future too.
Demidov the Demigod would look really nice in that chart
I’d put Dvorak with Armia and Gallagher. Put Joshua Roy on the 2nd line.
CC – Nick – Slaf
Roy – Dach – Andy
Gally – Newhook – Armia
xxx – Dvo – Evans
Pezz
Matheson – Ghule
X – Barron
Hutson – Savard
I’d gladly push Gally and/or Andy down the lineup after a trade that sends one or two Ds (Harris, Kovy, Struble) and a 1st for a top 6 winger. I think a big trade is happening this summer and a UFA signing the summer after that. We’re phasing out contract while adding to the top 6-9.
Then we wait and see which prospect are developping well and act accordingly for the next 2-3 years. Reinbacher, Mailloux, Engstrom, Kapanen, Beck could all pan out perfectly well and then we add to that this offseason’s draftees.
We have 11 wingers and one could argue we have 11 NHL dmen….
It’s quite depressing when looking at that chart. Our RW depth is horrible: Gallagher, Anderson and Armia. Even our 1st RW (Slaf) is far from being 1 PPG.
The RD is terrible too.
The LW is nothing sexy after Caufield.