Making Moves! The Montreal Canadiens Have SO MANY OPTIONS!

Making Moves! The Montreal Canadiens Have SO MANY OPTIONS!

Uh that’s Marco Demo, RG Media. Uh welcome to the offseason for the Montreal Canadians as we look at the NHL draft where the Canadians in the first round have picked 16 and 17. We’ve spoken about this over the course of the last few weeks now when the lottery was announced and we knew kind of what the Montreal Canadians position was as it relates to kind of what Marco’s been telling us about how this draft isn’t star loaded, star frontloaded. Any way, um, what percentage, give me a number you would put on the Canadians management moving up the draft. Is that a realistic option at this point today? Uh, I would put it at high to them wanting to trade up. Yeah. I would put it at low to them being able to do so. Yeah. You know, you know, you we talk about, you know, the Memorial Cup, the Monton Wildcats, Caleb Caleb Denuay, right? I see mock drafts him going six maybe obviously top 10. You see top top 10 higher than six. I think he may go top five. Top five. So Oh yeah. I mean I see lots of I see several several media outlets talking about oh Caleb Donay would be the perfect fit for the Montreal Canadians. I mean that’s as realistic as the Canadians getting Sydney Crosby in a trade with Pittsburgh, right? Like I think getting Kayla Deway is more realistic than getting Sydney Crosby. More re more more realistic. Yeah. By a hair. So what what about trading up in the draft? I mean is there a target that you can that you can talk to today? Like I’m going to defer to you here. Um I’m not I’m not really in the weeds on the draft compared to what you’re going to bring to the table obviously. So go ahead. Sean, I think it’s really tough because a lot of the teams that are picking in that Goldilocks range that the Canadians would have to get into Goldilocks are new rebuilding teams. Right. Right. Nashville not a team that thought they would be rebuilding right now. Yeah. Right. So, they want to get their they want to get their pick. Teams are like, “Oh, well, they’re going to want to turn it around real quick. They have an aging court. they’re just gonna end up, you know, retooling and doing the Mark version thing where they keep their veterans and then they, you know, they they add to they inject youth. Um, or if you’re trying to trade for that fifth overall pick, you better give them a piece that could help them right now for many years, which is ironically also what the Montreal Canadians are looking for themselves. So, they’re not that doesn’t make much sense. We talked about the Boston Bruins. Boston Bruins doesn’t make much sense either. They’re looking to retool quick. Um, I’d see them I my two cents, hot take. I’d see the Boston Bruins trying to jump to like three or four rather than pick at at at seven just because, you know, there may be a player that they would want or they would want to maybe draft that potential top six center to really kind of give them that depth that they that they don’t have anymore with Berseron Crerache gone. So, you know, I don’t necessarily think that that works either. We already talked about Philly. They doesn’t make much sense there either. So, then you get to eight. Who’s at eight? Seattle. But at that point, I can guarantee you that Caleb Dew is gone, right? There is no way he gets past Boston at seven. Zero. And I don’t even think he gets past Nashville at five. That’s these this is my two cents. My hottest take if the if if the Chicago Blackhawks don’t have Michael Misa on their table ah when it comes time they’re going to have a choice between Fondell and Dway and of the two I think Dway is the true center. I think Fondell eventually ends up on the wing and that’s already a problem for them when they have a guy like Connor Baddard who many see as needing like like Matt Barzel as many see as having to shift to the wing to be as effective and need be. Who do you think is going to be the best center if you had to like Misa Deno F you mentioned Fondell Hagen Hagens? Um I mean I think I think I think it’s Misa to be honest with you. just exceptional player. Just exceptional player. Great interview. Um mature, well um well dedicated to the craft. Really improved his two-way game this season. Yeah. You know, led the OHL in scoring, second in the OHL in goal scoring as a 17year-old. Yes, granted it was his third season because he was granted exceptional status like John Tavvarz, like Conor McDavid, uh like Shane Wright, but really unlike Shane Wright lived up to that hype in being a two-point per game player, you know, and and and Sagenov being the powerhouse that they were this year just to me it see it just seems like a shoe in. And for a team like Chicago, I mean, you know, I’m not a fan of teams that intentionally just put out borderline AHL rosters to tank and pick top three, but you know, the Islanders winning the lottery really screwed the pooch for the for the Chicago Blackhawks. Man, Michael Misa was just a perfect fit for the for them, right? you know, and the only snowballs chance they have now is the Islanders, you know, deciding to, you know, screw the consensus and then draft the hometown boy and James Higgins, uh, so that they don’t have another John Tavvaris situation where he leaves at free agency. Um, when we look at the Canadians trying to move up though, like is someone like Roger McQueen, big massive center, mock drafts, have him somewhere in the 10 spot? Because when you look at where the Canadians are, like is Justin Carbono out of BlaVville and the Armada on their radar? I don’t think they’ll need to amount of defenseman around where the Canadians are scheduled to draft Marco. I I like the idea. I think first of all, I think we need to put the idea of Caleb Denier to bed. Yes. You know, you’re going to hear it. You’re going to hear it in the media. Oh my god, the Canadians need to draft him. Not happening. Not unless they trade a ma, pardon me, a major piece, and I’m not talking about Mike Mat. a major piece on their lineup that will hurt them next season, right, for for not being there. And then they’re going to have to wait for the NYA to develop to take that kind of impact and and bring it to the team long term. So you it would be a step back to potentially take a step or two, sorry, a step or two forward. I keep hitting my mic. I’m sorry, guys. Very demonstrative. Yeah. So, it is not necessarily the way that they want to go, but I like the way that you bring up Roger McQueen, right? Justin Carbonel is probably not going to be a guy you need to trade up for. Uh, probably going to be available in that 14 to to 18 slot. Um, but you know, Roger McQueen, if he slides because of the back injury, that’s firstline talent in my opinion. And if he’s available there, the one thing we haven’t talked about, everybody’s talking about packaging the two first round picks. The Canadians have two second round picks in the first half of the second round, right? Think about it. 41 and 49. Well, 49 just on the outside of the second of the second half, but you know what I’m saying. You just 41 and 49 when you have pick 16 or 17, using one of them can get you from 16 to 12, right? Or 16 to 13, right? And at that point, you got a team like we, you know, Detroit at 13. At uh yeah, 13. The Rangers are at 12 if I’m not mistaken. Crazy. Crazy. Or no, 13 is Columbus. I apologize. 13 is Columbus. Uh 14 14 is Detroit and then 15 is is Vancouver. Um so, you know, one of those teams could potentially say, uh, my guy’s off the board. Uh I’m not feeling this player. He’s falling. not, you know, maybe we don’t need a guy like that, but for example, I don’t necessarily think that a team like the Detroit Red Wings would need a Roger McQueen if he’s fallen, for example. Right. Right. Right. They they’ve already drafted Marco Casper. They already have Dylan Larkin. They Nate Danielson is playing in Grand Rapids. They have centers. Right. So potentially they turn around and try to find they try to they they’re saying to themselves, I trade down a little bit. maybe, you know, Jackson Smith or Hes is going to be available at 16 uh and we can bolster our left defense depth at that point or we go and get a bigger winger that we think like a Carbono um you know or Lynden Lakovic uh later on uh and and we pocket the second round pick could happen, right? So there are teams in that kind of a situation and I think that’s where the Canadians can be aggressive is trading into that 12 to 14 like 11 to 14 slot 11 to 15 slot. So, not getting greedy, in other words, like very if they’re going to move up, it’ll be a modest move for for a very specific type of player. We’ll get into some of those targets that we think can be attractive to the Canadians and and absolutely, but I think there’s a lot of, you know, we talked about this in another episode where like last year, nobody thought that you would have a Salv Dickinson Bu available in the teens. Right. Right. Right. and it was just such good value because these are potential top of the lineup players that you’re getting in the teens of a draft. That’s that speaks to the quality of the draft. Well, I don’t necessarily think you’re going to get top of the lineup players here, but there’s definitely players going to be available in the in the teens that have top six ability. And I think that’s the key, right? Whereas if you’re drafting 161 17 this year, more often than not, they’re trying to be middle six players with a chance of being a third liner. So if you were if you because the Canadians, like you said it right, they have so many prospects. They have so many picks coming and then you have to factor in all the additional uh roster space. They’re going to need to sign these guys. They have a 50 contract limit. So you’re going to need to turn quantity into quality. And if you don’t find trades that improve your roster right now, then you’re going to have to get better pieces with value that you’re going to be able to inject into your lineup quicker. So to me, I think it makes sense to dangle, and they’ve already done it, right? They did it last year with Michael Hayes. They dangled Colorado second round pick and a seventh round pick to the LA Kings to move up from 26 to 21. They moved five spots for a late second and a seventh. So that just goes to give you an idea. The cost to move up is a little higher uh as you go up into the draft and then much higher once you get into the top 10. Sure. But, you know, dangling a mid-sec round pick with the 16th overall pick should be able to get you 12 or 13th overall. Let me ask you this here if the team wants to move back. But last question here, would you say educated guess that these decisions to move up, trade up in the draft, are these wheels put in motion, have they already been put in motion or are they more likely to be really put in motion the day of the first round? You know what I’m saying? Like I’m trying to get what’s Ken Hughes doing now? What’s occupying his time? Trying to move up the draft. Trying to amateur scout the draft and land on his picks. Like I’m just trying to sort out how the schedule is. I think right now what they’re doing is they’re setting Well, I mean I could tell you in fact they’re setting up their draft board. Right. Right. So right now you have a board you’re going one to generally NHL lists are like one to 250 players, but really the focus is on one to about 60. And especially with the Canadians, I’d go probably one to 80 because of the many third round picks they have, right? So you have that dressed up and you’re going 1, two, three, four, and then it starts getting juicy around 10 to 15 for the Canadians. Maybe, you know, to be fair to the scouting team, 10 to 20. You’re be you’re you’re checking because there’s also, we haven’t even talked about this, but there’s also the potential of being able to trade back. Yeah. Why would they trade back? Well, you probably get, you know, a lot of people be like, they don’t need more picks. Well, what happens if they like, and we’re going to talk about potential um targets, but what happens if they trade back and they get a 2026 second round pick? That’s what I was going to ask you. Yeah. Right. Because they already have Columbuses, they have their own, and then they if they were to get a third, you get to trade deadline next year. If you’re in the playoff mix, then it’s not that big a deal to trade a second round pick because you’ve already got three. Yeah. And you still get a player that you’ll like. Like for there there are players in the late 20s that have the same potential as players trending for 1617 or sorry I I said the late 20s, the early 20s that have the same potential as 1617. You can get a guy like Just Carbono right now at 1516, but you could potentially get a guy like Malcolm Spence at 2021 and they have similar, you know, potential, but five spots later, but you get that second round pick, right? So, you don’t necessarily know. So, there is a potential to trade when you have two picks, you can go either way, right? So, the thing with me is the Canadians are in a situation where they can control they can control the flow of the draft. When you have two picks back to back, you can dictate, right? Because usually when a team, you’re sitting down, you’re assessing your list, a team is trying to project who teams are going to take. When you have two picks back to back, it is impossible to predict. Mhm. Because are they going to go two forwards? Are you going to have two picks and not go one forward, one defenseman to bolster? Are they already in conversations to trade it away and you need to guess who they’re trading for? then you’re ended up calling them to try to move up and that that’s how that story starts. So I think I like the idea of being flexible. I know a lot of people want to trade the picks for current players. Yeah. But I think I I honestly believe and we’re going to get into the targets in a bit, but I honestly believe there will be players available in the teams that could be worth trading up for. And you know, if there was a draft for the Canadians to start packaging picks to move up, it’s this one. Marco Demo at M and Demo online and through RG Media in season, offseason, all season. Marco, great stuff as always. I hope you all enjoyed this. Thank you so much for being a loyal supporter. Like, subscribe, support us by supporting our sponsors at bedonline.ag, a trusted space in the online gaming community for the better part of 30 years. Marco, thank you so much and looking forward to what’s on tap when we reconvene in a week’s time with a whole new batch of stuff because there is no offseason. Marco, thank you, sir. Always a pleasure, guys. Enjoy.

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Shaun Starr and Marco D’Amico dig in on the NHL Draft and the Canadiens owning picks 16 and 17 overall. Will the Habs try and move up the draft board? Will they move down the board? The team has a lot of options and the boys try and sort it all out!

0:00 Intro
0:40 Can Habs move up in NHL draft
1:22 Caleb Desnoyers
1:55 A few rebuilding teams
3:57 Who is best center in NHL draft
5:38 Will Habs draft a center
7:02 Habs have picks…
10:10 This move makes sense for Habs

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#montrealcanadiens #sports #nhl #shaunstarr