It's scary how much better the bit players are when they play for other teams. Joe Morrow is a 7th D but he doesn't look bad for the Jets when he has to play. He complained about the confidence of the coach but for whatever reason he's not giving up easy goals every game now. Beaulieu looked bad in Buffalo but everyone looks bad in Buffalo. Davidson looked better after he changed teams and so did Barberio.
Obviously everyone in Montreal was playing a slot or two up from their ability after Weber went out and Markov left, but even so, guys who were still playing bottom pairing have done better elsewhere. Benn went the other way last year, looking better here than in Dallas.
Maybe Markov was coaching the D the last few years? He made a contribution as a player but maybe he was covering for JJD as well?
Could be that going from the relatively simple system that Therrien likes to the more complicated one that Julien runs and that the players never really figured out just makes everyone suck.
Forwards like Andriggeto and Smith-Pelley looked better elsewhere, too. Obviously the habs didn't evaluate Drouin or Sergachev properly.
I wonder if changing the coaching can help or if they really need Markov playing (player coaching?) 20 minutes per game not to suck.
Maybe hire Andrei as a player coach and transition him?