What happens from here until October?

What happens from here until October?

wake up It’s game day Time to go support the guys at the rink I think this is going to be an exciting off season but at the same time man seeing no games in the schedule like what am I going to do this weekend That’s a that’s a big chunk of my life You know what we’re going to start to do We’re going to start drilling down and making Montreal Canadians content because I’m searching for it online and I’m not finding the stuff that I want And maybe with me creating the stuff that I would want somebody creating I’m satisfying you know something that the community wants So in this video let’s talk about the path forward to 2526 for the Montreal Canadians what they’re going to do over the summer and a perspective look into what the lineup might look like when the puck drops in September Let’s talk about it [Music] the worst picture of all time You can already tell that the hockey sports community is getting restless knowing that there’s no games in the near future and seeing that there there’s not really a whole lot of developments for contracts trades and and just general news Devils and Nashville uh made a trade though Hala has is heading to Nashville That’s interesting I guess the other discourse is uh Trent Frederick I don’t think he’s inked the deal yet but they’re saying that he’s going to sign for like eight years at around4 million I could probably do a video on that I don’t know But let me know what your thoughts are on that one because I I don’t know That uh that doesn’t that doesn’t pass the smell test Meanwhile Chicago signs Ryan Donado to a 4-year contract at $4 million That’s a lot more digestible And literally as I’m making this video Baby Fabian Zetterland resigns with Ottawa 3 years at 4.725 Yeah 4.725 So maybe the news is trickling in Maybe we will see a pretty steady flow of contract signings extensions trades That’s good because I’m already seeing some content that uh I find is pretty thin The big broadcasters talking about where McDavid could be signed this coming season What’s the deal that Edmonton would say yes to if Bill Zto called and said “We want McDavid You tell me what it’s going to take off our team.” Um okay We are cooked Yep we are absolutely cooked chat GG That could be another video topic talking about McDavid and his legacy That’s a hot one going around that I hate Listen I think McDavid no matter what is going to find his Stanley Cup but even if he wasn’t is he he not Hall of Fame worthy at that point Any Anyway it’s uh that one bugs me Let’s get to talking about the Canadians and the uh purpose of this video Before we do that real quick can I ask you uh if you’re Canadians fan and if you’re anything like me and want to see some content over the summer hit that subscribe button I’d love to have you as part of the community We’re really trying to build something here And we’re so so close to 15,000 subscribers That’s huge I I mean once we hit 20,000 subscribers I have to do something big right If you’re already subscribed don’t worry about it Just hit that like button It helps me out with like findability or I don’t I don’t know So where do we start Well I guess you know draft is right around the corner Is there any business that needs to get done before draft There is And Montreal has quietly been knocking items off the list They signed uh Vinses Roarer 3 years at uh 950,000 Of course Jacob Fowler signed a three-year deal with Montreal back in April Bod back in March signed a 2-year deal But what’s more you know imminent Aria D’vorak Pazetta Hinaman Strubal So Hineiman and Strubal that’s who we’re looking at Arvorak Pazetta It’s painful Uh but I think that they’re going to free agency The only one that could be like an 11th hour signing I think is Christian D’vorak Aria at 32 years old and being the role player that he is Still incredibly important to the team in the in that role that he fits and he serves going to be really hard to replace him Not going to replace him with everything he does Penalty kill time um a real hard worker on shutting down the bigger offensive lines of their opponents Yeah I don’t know how they’re going to replace Arma They’re going to have to figure it out Same could be said about D’vorak who has incredible faceoff percentages and does some of those same things that Ara does So I kind of like the idea of Aria and Pizetta starting a new chapter and Christian D’vorak staying on and potentially rotating in and out for a new a new prospect So being that 13th forward but in terms of Heinaman he he has equity They’ve built on him He’s a development piece 23 years old still a lot of road ahead of him in terms of development and he’s demonstrated that he is an NHL bottom six guy His contract’s not going to be hard to sign He’s not going to kill us with compensation It it’s a it’s a no-brainer And then with Jaden Strub 23 as well you know the the runway for development of a defensive player is higher than a forward Lots of time for Stril as well The thing is left shot D They really need to open up the runway for right shot defenseman And it’s not all about uh you know finding an individual who can play on the right side Your handedness is important for puck retrieval battles along the boards With how fast the game is now it just it only benefits you to avoid any sort of pain point there and find yourself a right-handed defenseman for that side So is there a trade Are they going to be rotating even with David Seard out I just I can’t see a path forward now in the defensive pairings where a prospect doesn’t come up And there’s a lot of naysayers out there saying that Mayu isn’t ready Ryan Bcker isn’t ready Angstrom uh you know he he’s ready but he’s left shot right still Maybe he gets an opportunity here and there So I kind of see Strubal and Jack Eey still rotating that last spot for defense and some prospects being thrown into the mix given their opportunities Really really trying to find somebody right shot D whether it be Rybacher whether it be Mayu And I’m hoping that Ogden Oneskov 22-year-old defenseman who made a name for himself this uh this past season I’m hoping he can bring himself into the fold I don’t know if uh what that looks like but Right Shot D 22 years old if he can be developed if he can be worked on and it is confirmed that he’s going to be at rookie camp uh that is that’s interesting to me So those expiring contracts with Arma D’vorak Pazetta Heinaman Strubel they have to do that before July 1st And talking about those prospects I’m kind of putting the cart before the horse because next I want to talk about draft What’s notable about the Montreal Canadians with their draft is that they almost try to find someone who suits the team in the current iteration instead of picking the best player available to them At least that’s what it looks like with 2020 hindsight often famously pointed to You talk about Matt Ve Mishkov being passed over for David Reinbacher That story it’s not concluded but initial impressions of how Matt Ve Mishkov has implemented into the Philadelphia Flyers team He he looks like he’s a solid top six guy So it’s hard to argue with the mom That’s under current management They’ve uh they’ve kind of had a history with this but I don’t hate it And what what is the Montreal Canadians missing currently Some say it’s size and size is there if they want it There’s Roger McQueen 6’5 forward There’s Radi Murka 6’6 right defense Lyndon Lacovic 6’4 He’s a forward And then there’s Carter Bear and Justin Carbono who have been kind of eyed by fans as targets for Montreal in the draft That’s more like a a draft order thing Carter Bear is 6 foot exactly Justin Carbano 6’1 Bear plays center and left wing while Carbono plays right wing I don’t think these are bad targets necessarily and it might they might be the best that Montreal can get But personally I think that 19-year-old Logan Hensler who currently plays in the NCAA for Wisconsin the Badgers I think he feels like someone the Canadians would go after He’s 6’2 so he’s not like a giant but he’s a right D and he shoots right He’s shown a lot of positive promise And uh yeah like what what else do I have to say He fills a hole in Montreal’s lineup currently Now you might already be saying “Yeah by the time that this 19year-old I don’t even think he’s 19 I think he’s probably 18 and he’s turning 19.” You’re probably saying “Whisy he’s too young We need to find a right shot D before then.” That is true Good point But what often happens with these things is you try to fill the role with somebody you think could be the right fit You know some names might come to mind They don’t work out and you have to replace them with someone else Well Hensler could be the insurance deal that Montreal needs Then there’s Blake Fedler who recently played for the Oil Kings but has also played for Team USA in the under 18 World Junior Championship He’s got some pedigree Again he’s only uh 18 years old but he’s 6’4 right shot defenseman I don’t want to put all my eggs into one basket and say Montreal is going to go for these two players Blake Fiddler is actually listed as down the list in the mock draft but I’m trying to make some guesses I’m trying to see where things lie And it might just be that Montreal does select Carter Bear and Justin Carbono create some positive equity in them and then implement them into the lineup or trade them for an asset that they do need down the road Or maybe they just don’t work out at all That’s that’s how it goes If you’re looking at the team now the draft often is a crapshoot Jake Evans what was he drafted at Like 217th overall or something like that Jaden Strugal I’m sure that he was drafted far down the line and then look at the the draft picks that they did select high y polling but then conversely yeah they they could find a good middle player use their scouts and find a steel perhaps wind up with somebody like Lane Hudson so I trust Montreal’s team I trust their scouts and I feel like uh we we could be surprised or or or they could make a big move they could trade their two draft spots for a guaranteed asset There’s plenty of teams in the league right now that are in a building phase and it could be really desirable for them to have that 16th and 17th spot Sadly I don’t think that this is the the draft that people are clamoring to get in on at an earlier spot but you never know Okay we’ve talked about expiring contracts individuals they need to resign draft although I you know I’ll admit I don’t have a whole lot of insights on that I do like what I said about Logan Hensler and Blake Fidler but now I wanted to talk about prospect camp and then preseason So it’s not a secret Montreal has a really good pool of young prospects young talent And this season Montreal took a big step forward by making it into the Stanley Cup playoffs They demonstrated that they’re better than 16 other teams in the league Well like eight other other teams from their division anyway And I dare say they’re probably better than a lot more than eight They might even be better than 16 Hockeyy’s uh hockeyy’s funny like that So just looking at the kids that are currently in the system who do we think is going to acclimate into the Montreal lineup this season This is where it gets really fun We know that Michael Hayes is going to take another year in the University of Michigan’s lineup but he might be the prospect that I am most excited for to see how he implements into the Montreal lineup But let’s stick to the center role because H of course is a center When you think of centers and you think of who is currently on the Montreal Canadians where where do they need the most help Arguably they need help further down the lineup But if you’re a panicker like I am honestly I I think that they need help on the second line and I am in good company At the same time I’m thinking we need to somehow be patient And when I get to thinking about that I think that this could be a season of regression Montreal could definitely not make the playoffs this season No doubt about it and I’ve been saying this a lot If you haven’t heard it you haven’t been listening The start of the season is going to be painful again No Seard no D’vorak likely no Ara And the individuals who are going to be implemented into those roles that they’re supposed to fill it’s going to take some time And some individuals might try and fail and then they will bring a prospect up from Laval to try to fill that spot that the individual failed in and then that individual will fail And that might happen two or three times until they go back to the initial individual saying “Yeah this guy was the best one.” Yeah that’s just that’s just how it could be So personally and again I’m getting a little bit ahead of myself but personally I think that they should focus on the back end first develop some of the prospects in the big league and see which ones latch So if H isn’t an option who can fill in in those bottom six roles for a center We have the top point getters on Laval Those are Jared Davidson Shawn Frell and Owen Beck Jared Davidson managed 45 points 24 of those being goals Shawn Frell 44 points Owen Beck 44 as well Let’s talk about what I like with each one of these individuals and what I don’t like Jared Davidson is 22 years old He’s 6 feet tall Not terrible He shoots left That’s okay I think you’d prefer a right-handed shot And this is his second season playing on Laval He played 38 games the year previous in which he showed some flare for scoring goals himself 11 goals that season five assists So I like those things Not a lot worries me about Davidson I would like to see him have a really good camp this season and get a shot Sean Frell it’s a little bit of a harder sell He’s 23 years old He’s a little bit older That shouldn’t scare you immediately It’s his second year in Laval He really had a good end to his season Finished with 44 points 20 goals 24 assists So he’s demonstrated that he can score goals and that he’s a playmaker He has some pedigree He played in the NCAA He was over a point per game player and he even played in uh the World Cup for USA The problem with Frell is he’s 5’9 Montreal is not a team that’s afraid to give smaller players an opportunity The thing is they’re kind of at their quota Montreal is already a small team They were being propped up by players like Jaci Arma Josh Anderson Kirby Doc Patrick Line Flaf Ghoulie They have six roster players that are under 6 ft tall And that’s a little bit of an anomaly in the NHL If we look at the Wild right now who are being criticized about their size on the team they have seven players on their roster that are under 6 feet tall I’m not saying that there’s a winning formula with that I’m not saying that you know a taller team is necessarily going to be the better team but I remember reading and looking at a article with statistics demonstrating the size of Stanley Cup winning teams and there there definitely is a correlation to the size And when it comes to that stuff when people are at least confidently talking about it I tend to to at least side with it or when there’s black and white stats showing that there’s a correlation Yeah I I kind of side with it just like uh with the goalender tandem So for a long long time I was ignorant I was a complete donkey I thought there is no way that rotating goalenders when one goalender is playing really hot is the best way to do things But this the science there’s apparently the science says you should rest your goalender you shouldn’t play them backto back nights there’s a mental fatigue there or or something to that effect So if Shawn Frell’s too small what about Owen Beck Well he’s only 6 feet tall as well just like Jared Davidson He has around the same stats as Shawn Frell He’s 2 years younger It’s almost 200 lb He’s solid Owen Beck reminds me a little bit of Nick Suzuki in terms of stature but he’s a little bit taller than Suzuki When when Owen Beck played with the Montreal Canadiens uh last season or I guess this season he had some flashes right There was the play where he was forchecking really hard took a hit retained puck control put it in front of the net to connect on a pass and created a goal Owen Beck skates it in Big body check there delivered by Costa in front line Those types of things That’s what the Montreal management team is looking for That’s strong offensive play strong touches high compete that they want to see on the team right now Owen Beck is also a right shot which if Montreal is not able to sh up right shot defenseman could be really good for his two-way play his defensive play So there’s lots of things to like about Owen Beck The problem is he he might not be ready He is only 21 years old Plenty of runway in front of him but you still kind of want to see him moving along a little bit quicker So then you start thinking about Joshua W He’s also only 21 years old He’s also 6 feet tall He shoots left He’s demonstrated that he can compete in the NHL In the 23 24 season he played 23 games During that time he achieved four goals five assists for nine points And he was definitely uh a good asset for the team during that time When he played for Laval that season he played 41 games 13 goals 19 assists 32 points you know pretty good almost close to a point per game player The 12 games that he played for Montreal in the 24-25 season he didn’t he didn’t look as good He achieved two goals in 12 games zero points But that was still at the time that Montreal was you know trying to find their identity He played a couple of games later in uh into the deeper into the season but was utilized less and kind of utilized as a as a stop gap player But watching him I found that he was uh slower on the ice He didn’t know where he needed to be more often And I I felt there was a real regression So will he or won’t he get another chance I I think he could get another chance but then how about Oliver Kapan Oliver Kapidan is 6’1 shoots right center 21 years old He was a point per game player in the Swedish Hockey League and he played 18 games for the Montreal Canadiens this season registering two assists He needs some more time in the oven too I think it would uh do him a lot of service to play in the AHL this season but I don’t see a reason why he shouldn’t get another crack at the big team I think he has a high compete but I think he needs to understand the pace of American hockey uh a little bit more So we talked about Jared Davidson Sean Pharaoh Owen Beck Joshua Oliver Kapan The one last center that I want to talk about is Florian Jackie There’s probably a lot of you who think the the way that I used to think about Florian Jackie Oh he’s getting a lot of hype because his last name is Jackie I see that he’s doing things but uh he’s probably not a complete player And actually that that second uh criticism you might be a little bit right on that one but he’s 20 years old He’s a left shot center also plays on the left wing he’s 6’4 193 lbs and he can score goals like this I would love to see him have a really good camp and get a crack at the big show He had a rocket fuel end of the season And I think if he just keeps improving and maybe gets some time in the big show that compete level that he has that compete level that the the the jackey guys have the wanting to show that they can do it I I don’t know That might be the incentive he needs to keep working at it and make it Still talking about forwards Uh another individual that’s really interesting is Tyler Thorp He was acquired last season He was playing on the Vancouver Giants in the WHL 68 games played 52 points He’s a right shot right wing 6’5 196 excuse me 214 lbs He’s a big boy I’m interested to see how he develops in the AHL this season But unless he has a really good camp I can’t see him getting a shot at the big show this year In terms of defenseman refer back to the earlier part of the video where I went off on a tangent about uh David Rybacher Logan Mayu Adam Angstrom and uh Bogden uh Keshkuff But honorable mention I wanted to talk about Owen Prosz He will be joining the Laval Rocket this season and uh I expect to see some good things So keep an eye out on him He’s only 19 uh 6’2 207 lbs left shot D So hopefully he uh provides a good asset for the Rocket Now taking all those things into consideration How is the lineup going to look this season Well I think it’s going to be Cfield Suzuki and Slaf on the first line That’s pretty easy Is Kirby Doc going to be ready for the start of the season I’m going to be optimistic and I’m going to say yes Will they start him on the second line I actually don’t think so I think Jake Evans will start on the second line to start the season and I’m hoping that he’ll be paired with Ivan Demidov and Patrick Line There’s going to be a lot of retooling with that On the third line it’s probably something like Oliver Kain or Kirby Doc centering Maybe instead of Kaan they give a try at the start of the season Maybe Davidson had a really good camp Maybe Owen Beck is back Maybe Florian Jackkey has an incredible camp and he gets a shot at But my money is probably going to be starting off with Al Oliver Kapidan And it’s just like last season Lines three and lines four will essentially be two lines given equal or somewhat equal ice time I picture Gallagher and Anderson paired with Kirby Doc and then New Hook paired with Kaan and yeah I guess Hinimman Expect that you know to change but it’s going to it’s going to look something like that defensive pairings Uh it’s not going to you’re not going to see much change here Mat and Carrie at the start of the season Kayen Goully and Lane Hudson And then Jackey Strubal who’s going to be the third to start things off I think they could start Mayu Whoever has the best training camp between Mayu and Rybacher they’re going to get the start Mayou has had some defensive breakdowns but he can play at the pace of the game Yeah it’s not a great answer I’m sorry I thought I would be able to put this together a little bit better but looking at it now it’s difficult It’s very difficult But those are the lines that I foresee So in this video we talked about contract extensions we talked about draft we talked about the prospect pool and we talked about what lineup might look like when the season starts Uh this is going to be a pretty long video Probably should have put this up in parts but this might be a long form video that you’d like to watch uh I don’t know as you’re winding down for the night or something like that Hope you enjoyed it If you did let me know in the comments You’d like to see maybe more of this format for videos If you didn’t like it you tell me that too because it helps with the algorithm if uh you put comments down there But that’s going to do it for me No matter what hit that like button It helps me out with search results or something like that Subscribe if you’re not already subscribed I’d love to have you And as always I will see you down in the comments [Music] Hey hey hey

What’s Next for the Montreal Canadiens This Offseason? 📝🔥

In this video, we break down the crucial steps the Montreal Canadiens need to take between now and puck drop on the 2025-26 NHL season. From handing out key contract extensions, to making smart picks at the 2025 NHL Draft, and evaluating which prospects and veterans will crack the opening night lineup, we cover it all. This is a pivotal offseason for the Habs’ rebuild—don’t miss what could shape the next era of Canadiens hockey! 🏒🔵⚪🔴

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