I hate to burst the collective bubble, but the Habs should absolutely not be going after Pierre-Luc Dubois. The team they have right now is porus, with the shopping list of elements they don’t have being much bigger than the list of things they do.
They don’t have an elite goaltender, an elite defensive corps, defensive specialists in the third or fourth units, and they need another top flight offensive threat.
Elite Goalie
I like Sam Montembeault as a person and a player, and I hope he sticks around for a while. He had a good year last year, pushing Jake Allen into a secondary role, and there were times when he showed some real sparkle. But he isn’t a top flight goalie in the NHL, and I don’t think he will be. He will be a super solid 2A. If he proves me wrong I’ll be super happy.
Are elite goalies necessary to make it to the promised land? Well, yes and no. Yes, a hot goalie or a great goalie can get you there. The problem comes when you try to sign the hot goalie to an extension and suddenly they cost 5+ million and your cap is FUBAR.
But what the Habs don’t have right now, at this moment, is a goalie that could get us there, and short of Carey Price coming out of retirement, there is no such goalie in the system that is on his way to elite status. So it would have to be a hot goalie, and that would mean the team would need to make the playoffs, something I don’t think they do next year or maybe even the year after.
In the upcoming draft they need a goalie prospect they feel can be molded into a 1A, but there many not be one that should take priority over the other team’s needs. And they are:
Defence Corps
Is it just me or is the average age of this gangly defense corps still in the teens? No really, they are just a super young group without an overwhelming prospect base on the right side. They have a great set of talent on the left side that they surely will need to dip into soon if they want to balance the prospect pool more successfully.
That’s a tough call right there. I think its the right one, but its still a tough one. Offering Harris might put the Habs in a position to trade up in this draft, but I can’t believe it would take them from the 5th pick to the 4th, forget about the 2nd. More likely to trade him and the Panthers pick (remember when we thought that would be a much higher selection?) for a pick that nets them one of the top Defensive prospects on the right hand side. Luckily, the top three defensive prospects in a forward heavy draft are all right handed. In the perfect world the Habs trade from 31 to 11 and still nab one of the top three names on this list.
https://www.nhl.com/news/2023-nhl-draft-top-10-defensemen/c-344892018: The Habs: Patience is keyElite Offensive Talent
Which leaves the Habs with their focus for their early pick, which must be choosing an elite offensive talent. With Suzuki and Caufield signed to great contracts and a plethora of veterans on expiring deals, the Habs might be in a position to move up on their 5th pick. No matter what, they are going to get a really strong offensively minded player, but I think he is William Nylander. Lots of fly-bay’s, and blowing the zone early too often for my liking. He has the offensive wizardry, but Nylander isn’t a winner and I don’t think Michkov is either. Which means the Habs need to trade up.
What does that look like? I think it looks like the Habs trying to trade for the San Jose pick and grabbing Will Smith, but the one they might want more is Leo Carlsson. Can they trade up two spots for him?
I suspect a package including their 5th overall pick and two of Rafael Harvey-Pinard, Owen Beck, and Mattias Norlinder would be enough. I know this looks and feels like an overpay, but I think each of these players has a shot at cracking the lineup in Anaheim or Columbus and would be viewed as a very tempting package for either team. RHP and Beck are both projected as middle six players, but that means they will top out on the second line. On a team in need to more elite offensive talent, none of these players fit that category and should be viewed as a way to acquire it. Realistically speaking, there is no veteran on the Montreal Canadians that would fit this sort of trade. They need a top line player anchoring the second line, and Smith or Carlsson will be able to do that.
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