How do you Rebuild... The Montreal Canadiens?

[BlueBull]

This is a new series of me, the OP, asking HFBoards to tell me how you rebuild a franchise that either a Dumpster, Cursed, or in Mediocrity.
In this one... how can we revive the Habs?

Most likely you guys will say Fire Bergevin.

Click to read more...

 

[Mr Zappalanche]

Fire Bergevin, draft well, dont hate your russians.

 

[Kranix]

Trade Shea Weber for a young Norris candidate

 

[Pietrangelo]

Fire pretty much everyone except CJ, get rid of pacioretty and Weber for picks/prospects, maybe see if price can be dumped by the next TDL if he game doesn’t improve next season. Don’t jump on a stupid free agent signing for a dumb long term deal. Sign a good coach in Laval regardless of what language they speak.

What will likely happen:
Bergevin will trade pacioretty for a washed up vet because “character”, he’ll keep Weber, strike out on signing Tavares (not realistic anyways, but too much media hype gets everyone thinking he’s coming to mtl) end up signing Stastny to a long overpayed contract. Sign JVR to the same contract. Pick up some 4th line grinders and Laval players. Resign Hemsky cause we have cap space. And continue to use Douin at 1C.

 

[ACC1224]

This is a new series of me, the OP, asking HFBoards to tell me how you rebuild a franchise that either a Dumpster, Cursed, or in Mediocrity.
In this one... how can we revive the Habs?

Most likely you guys will say Fire Bergevin.

Don't.

They are hilariously entertaining just as they are.

 

[cc]

trade away vets for picks (ie. pacioretty, paul byron etc)
focus on drafting well.

edit: also don't make stupid trades that make the team older

 

[Spirit of 67]

This is a new series of me, the OP, asking HFBoards to tell me how you rebuild a franchise that either a Dumpster, Cursed, or in Mediocrity.
In this one... how can we revive the Habs?

Most likely you guys will say Fire Bergevin.

Hire a president of Hockey Ops and entrust them to keep Molson out of it. Even more helpful, hire one that "gets" what the Habs are. I can't express enough how much Shanny understanding what the Leafs should be as opposed to what they had become for far too long. Montreal has that same downward swirl we used to have.
Let them take stock of the entire organization in much the same way Shanny did. He mostly sat back and watched how things worked so he knew what was working and what wasn't.

Then he acted. I have no idea who that guy is but I expect Habs fans do.

The other piece of advice I'd offer is do what's right. Not what's cheapest or most popular (or whatever).

 

[TMLeafs18]

Trade Pacioretty and hopefully get a decent package

Trade Chucky. His situation is just to toxic to do him any good

Trade Petry. He can return a decent package

Ride with Weber and Price through the whole rebuild their contracts would keep them from getting good packages in trades. They are both awesome role models/ leaders to help the team grow. Keep Gallagher as well. It’s important to have some core pieces in place while doing a rebuild.

After the trade you have to role with Drouin for better or worse. Keep the guy on the wing though it does him no good to play a position he’s not comfortable with.

Team in year one of the rebuild:

Drouin - ? - Gallagher
Lehkonen - ? - Byron
Hudon - ? - Shaw
? - ? - ?

Mete - Weber
Alzner - Juulsen
Reilly - ?

Move forward, take your lumps. Create spots for young guys to come in and compete. Pray to the lottery gods. Draft well and in a couple year things will start to look up.

 

[BlueBull]

Don't.

They are hilariously entertaining just as they are.

Get out.

 

[Soundgarden]

Build from the net out- They better hope that Price rebounds because you need a goalie that can play 60+ games a year and bail them out to steal a 1-0 or 3-2 game.

Drafting: If you don't hit on two NHL players you've had a bad draft in my eyes, it doesn't matter if they're star players or role players, nhlers are valuable.

Stop giving preferential treatment to French Canadiens, this is the only reason why Drouin is on Montreal right now and they'd be better off with Sergachev learning from Weber than playing Drouin at center for some reason.

 

[HomeAndHome]

The right direction may be to do a proper rebuild by trading vets and obtaining picks/prospect, while getting rid of Bergevin and setting a up a better system for running hockey ops. But that won't happen, Montreal will trade for or sign fillers so they can stay average and Bergevin will continue to lead the way.

Montreal really needs to focus on their drafting/developing because I don't think they can trade/sign a savior, 9 picks in the first 4 rounds this year (5 being in the first 2 rounds) should be a good start, but I'm not sure if many Montreal fans trust the current management at all with a rebuild.

 

[beowulf]

It starts at the top. Molson has to realize he is not a hockey guy and needs to step back from being president of the team and hire someone for that role that knows the game and knows how to hire the right people and let them do what they need to do without interference. The Habs end of season presser was weird with Molson answering more questions than his GM...should be the other way around. Heck, Molson should not have even been there.

 

[Cyclones Rock]

Deep and sustained prayer.

 

[Hostile Offer]

I don't think there's much we can do this offseason at goaltending and back end (except potentially drafting an offensively talented dman with our high pick) as both Weber and Price have a lot of question marks going forward. Weber's situation pretty much eliminates the chance of dealing Petry this offseason even with Juulsen looking good late in the season. What we can do is fix the C depth. Pacioretty will most likely be gone, hopefully for either a C prospect or a young scoring roster C (with adds). The rest of the core likely stays for now although I'm not sure what to do with Chucky. He's always seemed like a miscast in Montreal. Throwing money for a guy like Stastny honestly doesn't seem like a bad idea to me, I realize that doesn't make us a contender but we need SOMETHING down the middle, I really really don't want to live through the Drouin chaos again.

 

[Deficient Mode]

Biggest problem is the lack of an elite forward and an elite defenseman. They have good complementary pieces on good contracts, honestly. Not going to be easy to acquire those two pieces though.

So yeah, fire Bergevin, trade Weber while he still has value, draft well, stay out of the FA market.

 

[DANTHEMAN1967]

Start from scratch.

Hire someone to be president of Hockey Operations who has a vision and a plan (regardless of whether he knows French).

He should then fire Bergevin and replace him with a great hockey mind (regardless of whether he knows French).

Fire all the scouting staff, make it a clean sweep!
Their AHL team, the Laval Rocket, was the worst in the League this year.
The coach has already been fired but I am sure that there is more deadwood that should be fired.
Be willing to pay a lot of money to improve the Laval Rocket.
Hire a good GM and Coach there and bring in some good career AHL vets, even if you have to pay them an NHL minimum salary.
The draft picks need to learn a winning culture which has to start in Laval.

Trade Patches for an unprotected 1st in 2020 and hope for the best (look at how Calgary and St. Louis GMs will be sweating out the draft lottery in a weeks time as well as Ottawa next year).
Bring in some hard working vets, on one or two year contracts, to show the "kids" the ropes, that they can hopefully flip at the trade deadline for draft picks.

Accept that Weber and Price are not going anywhere, you need their salaries to get to the floor any way and by most accounts are good role models.

Hope (you always have hope!) to win the lottery over the next 2-3 drafts.

Patience...Patience...Patience
As Babcock told the Leafs there will be pain but if managed properly it shouldn't be for more than a year or two.

In other words they need a "Shanaplan" of their own and they need ownership to "fully" buy in.

Now the real question is who is will be their Shanahan?

 

[therealkoho]

Fire Bergevin Hire St Paddy Hire Bob Hartley rebuild complete

 

[Albert Iafrate]

The best thing that could happen for the Habs is for the Greater Montreal Area to get another NHL franchise. That would hopefully eliminate the politics. All the hardcore Francophones could stick with the historic "Habitants" (heck, officially change the name to the "Montreal Habitants") and create a 2nd franchise that is run like a normal NHL organization, where it doesn't matter what language you speak from top to bottom. Maybe even go one step further and name that team the "Montreal Canadians". This would work wonders.

 

[Draiskull]

1. fire whoever decided to trade Subban away.
2. Look for the next Subban'ish player to build the franchise around.

 

[Mrb1p]

Same as every other franchise ever. Scrap dead weight, commit to a few years of sucking (two is good), stock pile prospects, build a core, keep picks and cycle contracts, profit.

 

[PensandCaps]

You invent a time machine.

 

[TheGoldenGod]

First, hire a new GM and get under the bed.

The next step is very important. You're going to let them tank you...

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

Keep ALL the draft picks because you have the worst prospect pool in the NHL.

Try to sign at least 1 center in free agency because you have the worst center depth in the NHL and it's not close

Get Price a real backup

Add some youth to the D because you have an old D.

 

[The Macho King]

They have like... zero core players that you would say are prime age to rebuild around. Their 1D is on the wrong side of thirty, as is their goalie. They have no 1C. Their prospect pool is about as shallow as one you buy at Wal-Mart.

They need to draft impact players. Look for market inefficiencies. Fire Bargainbin and probably Julien. They need to seriously improve their scouting and development. Stop wasting draft picks to bring in a fourth line grinder at the trade deadline.

 

[DowntownBooster]

Stop giving preferential treatment to French Canadiens, this is the only reason why Drouin is on Montreal right now and they'd be better off with Sergachev learning from Weber than playing Drouin at center for some reason.

This. Hire the best talent available even if they only speak English. Limiting yourself to bilingual candidates will also limit your team's opportunity for success.