Montreal Canadiens sign top European goalie | Who is Josh Nadeau? | Do the Habs need to make splash?
hello everyone and inside the latest locked on Canadians there’s a bunch of new dudes who are they you’re locked on Canadians your daily podcast on the Montreal Canadians part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day hello everyone and welcome to episode 1084 of locked on Canadians your daily Montreal Canadians podcast part of the lock on podcast Network where you get your team every single day of the week and today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel remember to make every moment more right now because new customers get $150 in bonus Bets with any winning $5 bet that’s 150 bucks with any winning $5 bet just visit fanduel.com lockon to get started and you may be wondering who’s this guy talking to me if you’re new here I am one of your hosts I am Scott Mata and as always I am joined by my fantastic co-host the active stick Laura sabba and Laura we got actual news today it in mostly news today one real news one hypothetical news and other stuff here uh how are you doing today uh I was literally I think Kent Hughes read our mind I was going to text you saying what are we gon to talk about tonight um so I think I think we got a little lucky and I’m excited to dive into it yes uh just to breakdown the show for folks in bance if for whatever reason uh you want to just fast forward to a certain part to think about things or talk about things whatever uh we’re going to talk about two of the new um additions to the Canadians roster one coming to development camp and one who has signed an actual uh NHL deal and one who um and just in the last segment we just want to kind of vamp a little bit on some of the thoughts we’ve seen around the fan base uh but let’s just jump right into the new thing and meet one of the new guys and this is one I’m actually I’m was surprised that came out of uh out of free agency here because this is the name that bounced R last year during draft season and going into this off season uh and that is Josh nadoo who is uh coming out of the University of Maine from s franois De marasa New Brunswick Canada which I just wanted to prove that I could say that cannot pronounce Laval correctly can pronounce that uh he comes from the University of Maine he is the brother of Hurricane’s first round pick Bradley Nido he’s 20 years old coming off a 45 point in 37 Game season for the main Bears uh 5 foot eight 160 pounds 20 years old uh as a Winger left Winger right winger he’s first tyent either one here and I gotta say for someone getting invited to development Camp we’re early on this I know we’re about a month out from when development Camp starts but like this feels really early to be hearing about other Camp invites that weren’t already on the roster right now and I got to say if they’re going to go for it this is the kind of guy I would take a swing at because just before this and uh this NCA season he had at Maine he put up 110 points in 54 games in the bchl playing for Penticton uh I believe alongside his brother there I know he’s a little bit older uh but I gotta say if you’re gonna go for a guy to bring him to Camp I’d rather see skill and scoring than hey maybe he’s a bottom six forward on an AHL team kind of stuff right it’s like this feels like a lowrisk high reward situation um and it really it really has to do with whether or not he’s able to achieve the promise that he comes with or the what the Canadians saw in him and often I find that even with trade targets not just signings or invitations or I’ll find that like Kent Hughes and Jeff Gorton have an eye on a guy they like the guy they want the guy I’m not sure about the guy but for whatever reason they see something in that person right and you know we can go from Emil heinan to new hook to whatever it is so for for me from my perspective I’m I’m intrigued and curious I’m not positive or negative but I I am interested yeah and here’s the thing is that uh like Bradley Theo is going to get all of is the biggest thing in all of this is going to be hey what what about your brother hey what about your brother hey what about your brother and uh as I’ve learned from Ryan Suzuki uh players hate that in one way shape or form he did not like being asked about his brother so often at the combine I’m really excited to see and here’s the thing I’m not under the impression that he’s going to come in and immediately be a superstar on this team I am not under that impression but when I look at a guy who puts up points at every level he’s played at obviously some of those years were hampered a little bit uh by covid playing in maybe leagues that he normally wouldn’t be in going out to the bchl because maybe the NCA wasn’t operating at that time at least not at full capacity and this was the opportunity for him all he’s done is just put up points at every single level there 30 points in 27 games 40 points in 32 56 and 35 uh 6 and seven in a league promotion 31 and 15 7 2 and 54 110 in 54 45 in 37 and then also a pretty solid looking playoff performer we talk a lot about how Jared Davidson maybe despite being an overage guy might be maybe being a little bit smaller has the effort and uh drive to make things happen just this quote here uh on his Elite prospects page nad’s creativity and elusiveness are truly remarkable Josh is one of the best players I’ve ever seen play the game at his age age obviously that’s from four years ago uh so he would have been you know 16 years old at the time clearly they see something in him and I assume they saw a lot of him at Maine when watching uh Hudson and watching Fowler and watching tuck and watching these guys in the NCAA that clearly Maine did something right here that and there’s something that Kent Hughes liked in this team Bradley noo led the team in scoring Josh noo was right behind him there there were two draft picks on this entire team one of them is Bradley and the other one was a goenda a hockey East team loaded to the brim with talent but if you’re making stuff happen without having to rely on other people I’d say you’re doing a pretty good job and now the question is can he play away from his brother because he also Penticton team there where his brother put up 113 points he put up 110 and then Adar sunv who was attracted by the flames I believe last year put up 90 points can he play away from him this is just an it’s a really interesting bet and I the first thing people going like just what they need another small guy I hate that argument I hate that reaction all the time and I’m not saying this because I’m a short person I am a short person at 100% but for me like like this is the NHL is constantly evolving and the more it evolves the more it favors pure skill and speed right and I’m not saying size is not important I’m saying that you can’t have a team of only small players for sure I’m saying that small should not be a knock on the guy because it’s all about the team composition it’s all about how they complement each other it’s all about how they play it’s all about how hard it is to move them off the puug how hard it is to separate them from the play how hard it is to to play against them right how hard it is to defend against them that’s the biggest thing and so for me like when people say another small guy I just think like can you please at least give this a chance also another small guy like the most exciting defensive prospect we’ve had in a decade isn’t barely 5 foot n and a half like the one of the best pure goal scorers this team’s ever had isn’t 5 foot7 you know it’s I don’t know how we keep getting stuck in this cycle of they’re too small but also then they immediately want to trade Arbor Jacky and Josh Anderson away you you can’t have your cake and eat it you got to find the balance here right and no one is saying this is going to be a player who’s gonna hit the NHL right away or ever we don’t know and that’s the thing is this is just it’s a camp invite and it’s got y’all so hot and bothered and not in a good way that you know I don’t know what to tell you this is the kind of risk though that you go hey did they perform well in development Camp you bring them into you know rookie camp and training camp when they start getting ready for uh the rookie showcase which I believe is not happening this year in Buffalo for the Habs I believe they’re hosting just a few games at the Bell Center because I don’t know I’m kind of upset by that but you this is the kind of guy that you keep an eye on and you bring in for that and if the fit is right you give him an AHL deal at the end of it or maybe it’s an NHL deal who knows it could be a one-year entry level deal all works out uh however Josh Doo is not the only uh roster news of the day Canadians surprised all of us Lauren myself included with a move from Switzerland and we’re going to into that coming up next first as I said off the top of the show today’s episode is brought to you by fanuel and honestly it is the perfect time to get into to uh with the NBA and the NHL in uh their finals cuz right now new customers get $150 in bonus Bets with any winning $5 bet that’s 150 bucks to bet on spreads money lines player props and more can Conor McDavid finally do it can Florida avenge their finals defeat next year you can bet on anything uh in that series and take home a little bit extra cash and bonus bets afterwards just visit fanduel.com loock make every playoff shot count with FanDuel America’s number one sports book we are back here at lockdown Canadians and the Canadians surprised I think everyone today because I don’t think any of us anticipated anything yeah yeah we we knew something would come of those of the free agent ones like we talked about with Jared Davidson in yesterday’s episode but to today was I think I I I feel bad saying out of left field but definitely out of left field here is we were all waiting for things and then this was none of those things yes the Canadians today signed go tender Connor Hughes from the uh pardon me from the Swiss League he was playing for Luzan uh in the National League there I learned I actually called it the Swiss league on Twitter the Swiss league is actually the second tier underneath that and I am currently just trying to determine whether this is an NHL or an AHL contract two-way I believe it’s two-way yes Conor Hugh Sal would be 775,000 this for the 20 he’s a two blah blah blah onee contract worth that you’ll be a UFA at the end of yeah so as it stands this is then NHL it wasn’t very clear because Elite prospects listed him immediately on the rocket roster so I wanted to make sure that oneyear two-way can mean oneye AHL two-way contract where he can go uh where he makes different money at the AHL or ECHL level and I got to say this was not the answer for AHL go that I was expecting in the slightest I thought for sure maybe Kazmir kaskisuo was coming back but we’ll touch on that uh to kind of give people a look at just the Baseline counting stats here playing in the National League this year n games 1.73 goals against 940 save percentage two shutouts 106 and one record in the playoffs 18 games played 1.91 goals against 933 save percentage two shutouts 116 and one record this is a guy who kind of dragged his team to a uh to a game seven this year from based on my replies and in the previous years he’s done a really good job uh when given the Reigns at the national league level last year 36 games 1611 and2 one shut out 97 sa percentage 2.32 goals against uh before that two games in the uh National League 2-0 92 save percentage he had a kind of a rough start a little bit before that but as it’s gone on he seemingly has established himself as uh a solid National National League goal tender there uh I also haven’t done the fun part that people want to know about he’s 6’4 weighs 225 pounds not small guy he’s not a small dude uh Laura before I jump into a thread from a Swiss hockey expert here uh your thoughts on what is a surprising addition to this Canadians team well for me this makes me question like what is the plan for Laval um because clearly the the the player they signed it’s a two-way contract and like for me I feel like the next step is let’s say they’re shipping out either Kaden Primo or saman M so Kaden Primo or let’s say you know um who’s next in the planet is it this guy on the two-way contract or is it time for them to see if yakob doish has what it takes right is this that opportunity or are they just going to do the same thing that they did last year which is just carry around three goendale move the fact that like it doesn’t like it came out of no like there are other people in the system right maybe they want to let them cook longer is that is that is that what it is so like that’s why I kind of wanted to ask your opinion on on this because for me I looked at that and I was like okay it’s clearly a Laval move but is it a Laval move because Kaden Primo SL doish or is it just a Laval move because they feel that gending this like he was not supported and gending was one of the reasons the beginning of the season did not go well for lval I think it’s two things that at one they now have four NHL contracted goendale two in Montreal uh in Montreal which is important now they have a balance there last year they just had doish on his NHL deal in the miners that if they needed a call up they could not call up anybody else and left the rocket kind of between a rock and a hard place here uh it’s not that I don’t think they thought Casmir kasis was the guy either I don’t think that he they thought he was the guy worthy of an NHL contract I thought kesis was a very good fit on that team I just look at this and think they gave him an NHL deal paid him you know league minimum on this that if we need somebody to come up and sit on the bench at the NHL level you can do that he’s got Pro experience is the thing like he played in the Swiss League it’s not like it’s nothing it’s not you know Sweden it’s not quite Finland it’s not uh the NHL as a whole but you could do a lot worse and the thing is is that like you said this is now someone who can support yakob doish there as well he’s 27 years old this is not I would not call this player a prospect uh this is a guy who’s you know he played a lot of Junior a and stuff bouncing around in Canada and then went right to Switzerland he didn’t play in regular junior he didn’t play in the CHL didn’t play in the NCAA he bounced around around the ojhl the cchl uh and then went to Switzerland and has been there for seven years uh and this is a thread from uh tibo chatel who does a lot of uh Swiss tracking for uh players playing in Switzerland he’s like the source for things on David reinbacher questions right now for sure and definitely vincen RoR who’s playing that uh Hughes became a starter early in 2223 and freeberg and did so he was signed by Luzon in December of 2023 for The Following Season despite a small sample of games and then he jumped into being their full-time starter leading them the game seven of the NL finals this past year he was coached by former Montreal Canadians goenda Bal hu and he was the best in the National League for goal saved in 23-24 the best at five on five and the seventh best goalie on the penalty Gil there’s a whole thread I quoted it on the lock on Canadians I highly recommend you follow this very good against the rush rebounds coming across the Royal Road crease to crease kind of things there and efficient in front of his crease that he’s not moving too much he do he pushes the puck away well solid on the blocker side can improve his glove work and along the ice level he’s a big guy he might get caught kind of standing up a little bit sometimes it looks like he’s getting beat low to mid glove a little bit which is something that can can be worked on this is someone that I think the Canadians got a viewing of watching Ryan Bacher in Switzerland the past couple years and I think that this is probably one of the smarter ads they could have made right now it’s about as low risk as you can get you don’t have to worry about him usurping uh yakob doish and letting him continuous development but if your Young net Miner needs a break you have a guy who seemingly can handle it pretty well right now yeah and that’s the thing I think both moves today are like extremely low risk I I guess in the case of nedo it’s like pretty much zero risk right um and then potential High reward here uh and again like I feel like for for my money you know at the end of this season I don’t think that Kaden Primo’s still going to be on the Montreal Canadians and that’s just my feeling I could be completely wrong as as someone said to me I think I was talking to Jared book about this that I’m like what if they trade Primo we really don’t have an backup it’s potentially easier to just find an NHL backup than it is to you know try to run the the three goalie system and I’m actually going to take a look at free agent players going into this off season because I haven’t done that and I realized that I should have before I started this and I’m very interested to see who is available in here this is currently the list this includes some rfas as well uh Matt Murray coming off at for hip surgery Carter Hart suspended Ilia samsonov bad Chris treer uh coming off a system there uh Jeremy San RFA Capo cochan Kevin Lankin and Casey Des Smith again Eric Comer Lauren brat Alex NAD delovic James Rymer antie Ron Phoenix Copley Anthony stolar Scott Wedgewood cam talbet mad soard who’s in RFA M GDA and now we’re just into people that I’m not sure are actually real well there’s a lot of people there that I’m surprised are even still around yeah there’s like I look at this and it’s like there’s some backup guys that you could get if you decided to move on from Kaden Primo in this could you bring in Lauren pwat and have him be a a fine backup to Kate or uh Samuel monmo sure could you do that with Capo cochan maybe but also he played on some bad teams is he worth it uh a Chris Dreer maybe but he also had surgery last year I believe that kept him out most of the year or you’re going to pay for someone like ilas samsonov potentially right uh this to me just is it’s a shrewd move it doesn’t have to be Earth shatteringly good or anything like that I to me this is just you know it’s a nice little bit of an ad there yeah it’s a did yes and it’s not exactly a what I would call a splash by any means here however we are going to talk about that because it’s going around do the Canadians really need to go and spend a bunch this offseason we’re going to discuss that coming up next we are back here at lockdown Canadians and I saw an article out there today saying the Canadians have to make a splash this off season because Nick Suzuki is doing everything and your I left kovsky isn’t there yet and Cole Coffield is inconsistent and then they talked about literally nothing else on this team uh ignoring the fact that you know Mike Mat put up 60 points last year or that what that guy got to do to get some respect uh play on a team that wins apparently so I dropped my phone next to my laptop there so that’s always good podcasting I thought that was anger no no I thought you were throwing something like as in like flipping the table oh God no too expensive to do that and then I got to clean it up but my question is lores does Kent Hughes actually need to make a splash this off season I look at the way the Canadians were set up in that they played this entire year without their second line Center basically and people like well Nick Suzuki can’t do it all yeah he had to last year because he had no second line Center for most of the year is adding Kirby Doc in and getting a full season of Alex new hook potentially enough to to to to make this a a a a splash so to speak we know Kent Hughes likes his offseason trades but does he need to give up the farm to make that happen at this point when he’s gonna get his Center back uh for training camp I absolutely don’t think so so for me I think it look it depends on context right like I would love to see Kent Hughes make a splash at the NHL draft in a good way to get a player that is you know somebody we can all get excited about not feel safe with but get excited about that is where I want to see the splash but in terms of like trying to get help like in terms of free agency etc etc this is not the year to do it this is not a situation where right now there’s a guy who’s like young enough that really wants to leave his team that’s testing free agency etc etc like and the Canadians are a couple years away from being good enough for us to be feel comfortable calling them contenders right it’s it’s okay there’s no rush like for me from my perspective I want to see the Canadians succeed I want them to put a solid building blocks in place right now you’re not really gaining anything by making a splash because more often than not that Making a Splash part it comes with a huge cap hit so unless you would consider being able to get rid of Josh uh Anderson’s contract easily that’s the kind of Splash that I would be on board with or you know a draft splash I really don’t think that this season it’s not that he never needs to make one it’s that this season is early for this like it’s not a need it’s not a requirement it would be fun it’s just not now’s not the best time for it let’s say like let’s let’s be very clear here if the Montreal Canadians decide yeah we want Trevor zis excuse my dog sneezing in her crate behind me yes we want to add Martin NIS we want to trade for unknown player that’s going to come out of nowhere that nobody saw coming I am not opposed to them making a deal I want to be very clear on that if they want to go and make a splash hell yeah I will support you in that if the pricing is right on that do I think they absolutely have to right now I’m not 100% sold on that idea yes adding these players is great but are you in a position where adding this player will get you over the hump that you need you still have a young and developing defensive group here you have a solid but not spectacular goal tending du who knows what Kaden Primo will look like this year you do need some offensive depth there and getting guys like docb are you willing to Shell out to get the nature zis whomever to fill that or can you continue to budget your cap well try and move these pieces off and then when you were ready to get over that hump go out just guns blazing when you’ve got the armia contract off the books when You’ have gotten uh Jeff Petrie’s retained salary off the book edmonson’s retained salary off the book when you have gotten uh the Savard contract off the book If you have potentially traded Josh Anderson when you have opened up all that space that you can really turn this team into your sandbox and you have these other younger pieces developing Joshua W will he take that next step Philip masar Owen Beck sha frell any of these guys potentially coming in have you made that enough progress that if you surround them with just a few like with another big money piece with Suzuki and Doc and new hook and slavkovsky and whatever then yeah you go for it but if you’re going to spend and it’s not going to get you over the hump it’s like me buying a Ferrari right now look at how cool this thing is as I hit a pothole on Main Street Buffalo and go nowhere right now I’m not saying that who knows maybe Nate just gets them over the hump next year unless you know for sure that that is the case and they’re they’re going into the season with we want to make the playoffs we want to contend then I don’t see the need to rush and jump into this and I know everyone’s G to be screaming why wouldn’t you want to add good players which I say I don’t want to not add good players I want to add them with where the timing is right in everything here um and especially I want to see what they do with the NHL draft because that’s going to tell me a lot about what does this team need right do they need Wingers do they need Centers do they need defensive depth what does this team need right and that’s the thing like you said if a good player is available and can be had that’s one and they have to be young too like that’s the thing like they have to be young if if they can be had they’re available go for it absolutely but do you need to make a splash it’s not an absolute requirement nobody’s going to die if the Canadians do not make a splash in this off season and it’s and all it keeps popping up that the Canadians the Canadians and NES Kent Hughes doesn’t usually let Rumblings leak out this much uh no one saw Kirby doc coming no one saw Alex new hook coming uh the amount of people that keep trying to connect NIS to the Montreal Canadians it feels like this is a complete misdirection he’s going to end up somewhere else completely which wouldn’t surprise me it wouldn’t be the first time that oh Montreal’s in on this leverage to another team I can see like Kent Hughes making a deal I don’t think it’s going to be for anyone that anybody expected here I don’t think it’ll be zigris and I don’t think it’ll be Martin hes I’m happy to be wrong on those you know assuming they do happen but there’s been too much smoke for it to be Kent hughes’s emo in that I would not be surprised if there was something else up his sleeve for a young player on another team that maybe is just looking for a fresh start uh We’ve and or it’s someone that you know is a veteran that just wants to move elsewhere from a team that isn’t getting where it needs to uh but with where I’m at on this is I don’t think they have to make the big splash this off season if they do super cool and I’m all about it uh Laura do you have any parting thoughts for our listeners today no that was it for me uh we will be back tomorrow we may have player reviews maybe we’ll have more signings to talk about we should probably like preview our rooting interests in like the Stanley Cup Final at some point but who knows we will let you know what’s coming up tomorrow uh in our newest episode until then follow us on Twitter _ Canadians lockon Canadians gmail.com if you have mailbag questions we are free and available wherever you get your daily podcast Google Apple Spotify or here on youtube.com follow at the Active stick follow myself scottm matlet and we will see you all next time [Music] p
Inside the latest Locked on Canadiens
The Habs have been busy on the transaction market once again, adding a pair of players this afternoon.
First up is Josh Nadeau, brother of Hurricanes draft pick Bradley Nadeau. Josh joins the Montreal Canadiens for their upcoming development camp after the NHL Draft and looks like a potential steal of an add for the Laval Rocket next year. After putting up over 2 points per game in the BCHL and point per game in the NCAA, can Nadeau surprise in camp?
Up next is an actual full contract signing, and one that appeared out of nowhere with Connor Hughes joining on a one-year, two-way contract. Hughes comes over from the Swiss National League where he reigned as one of the best netminders in the league. So the question is, where does he fit in the goalie spectrum in Montreal?
Finally, the hosts debate over whether or not Kent Hughes HAS to make a big off-season splash move, or if simply letting the team get healthy will fit the bill as well.
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