Habs Mailbag: Time for Canadiens to make a swing-for-the-fences move?

Montreal’s management and team owner Geoff Molson are aware that fans’ patience with the rebuilding process will eventually run out.

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I’m wondering if there are any concerns about the Canadiens penchant for preferring safe development choices over risk. The decisions to trade first-round draft picks for established younger players seems like a mixed bag. They essentially got Alex Newhook for Mikhail Gulyayev, which probably worked in Montreal’s favour. But Kirby Dach for Frank Nazar doesn’t seem so good. And then picking David Reinbacher over Matvei Michkov seems like another blunder — no one ranks Reinbacher anywhere near Michkov. Bottom line: they don’t seem to want to swing for the fences.

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Ian Johnson, New York

I believe a big reason why Canadiens GM Kent Hughes made the Newhook and Dach trades was to try to speed up the rebuilding process a bit by acquiring slightly older players who had NHL experience and had already shown some of what they can and/or can’t do at that level. Time will tell whether Gulyayev and/or Nazar turn out to be better than them. Dach also has to prove he can stay healthy.

Those trades made sense to me at the time and they still do. It was a surprise to me when the Canadiens took Reinbacher instead of a forward with the No. 5 pick at last year’s draft, but there were obviously some red flags concerning Michkov. After the Chicago Blackhawks took Connor Bedard with the No. 1 pick, four other teams apart from the Canadiens passed on Michkov before the Philadelphia Flyers took him with the No. 7 pick.

The Flyers were willing to take a gamble and time will tell if it pays off. As I’ve written before, my pick at No. 5 would have been forward Ryan Leonard, who went to the Washington Capitals with the No. 8 pick. He had 31-29-60 totals in 41 games this season as a freshman at Boston College.

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It must certainly be time to accelerate this rebuild and go after some big fish via trade or free agency? How the team is currently constructed is not good enough and we can’t wait another 2-3 years to see how the upcoming draft picks play out.

Keith Brown on X (@KBrown3366)

I agree that Hughes needs to do something this summer to accelerate the rebuild and I’d be very surprised if he doesn’t make more of a swing-for-the-fences move. Management and team owner Geoff Molson are well aware that fans’ patience with the rebuilding process will eventually run out.

When I asked Molson about that during a one-on-one interview near the end of the 2022-23 season, he said: “I am so impressed with the fans because I didn’t know either how the fans were going to react to — we’ll call it a rebuild for the use of words. I would categorize last year as the shock year. The system got shocked. We finished last. We brought in a new management, new coach, new players and the old guard has moved on a little bit — Carey (Price) and Shea (Weber) and a few others.

“I don’t know how patient our fans will be, but I’m very impressed with how supportive they are of a team that’s in 28th place,” Molson added. “It’s been 14 years I’ve been doing this and I don’t know of a point in my lifetime where the Montreal Canadiens have said we’re doing a rebuild and I did it. The fans, it’s almost like they’ve been waiting for it and they’re happy that we’re doing it. How long they’re going to wait until we get there, I don’t know the answer to that question.”

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What young Canadiens players/prospects are really untouchables?

Tom Xenn

For me, Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Juraj Slafkovsky and Kaiden Guhle are the four untouchables. I’d also be reluctant to part with Arber Xhekaj because he is a unique player with his mix of talent, physical presence and toughness. But I wouldn’t call him untouchable. I would also think that prospect Lane Hutson is untouchable at this point since we have yet to see what he can really do in the NHL with only two games under his belt.

Any former Habs you keep in touch with?

Darrell Nicholson

No, I don’t keep in touch with any former players. I love what RDS play-by-play man Pierre Houde told me when I asked him this week about his relationship with the players, since he is one of the very few media people who travels on the Canadiens’ charter flights.

“I think it’s important to say I’m first and foremost not a hockey groupie and I need and I force the border between the players and myself because I think it’s good for them, but it’s good for me as well,” Houde said. “I need my space and I want to have my freedom, so I don’t look to go beyond a professional relationship with hockey players.”

Amen.

If you have a question you’d like to ask for our weekly Habs Mailbag, you can email it to [email protected]

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