Considering how hard it is to sign big UFAs in Montreal, i hope they go hard after talent upfront starting 2024 summer. Of course it's starts with 2024 1st pick which i hope will be top 10 or even top 8. We should be able to get a pretty solid offensive prospect out of it.
Then we have UFAs. I think Reinhart and Nylander will want to get paid and will hit the market. I wouldn't pay extra bucks (we know we have to to attract players in MTL) to bring Reinhart but Nylander? I definately would. I'd give a mid round pick to Leafs after the season for his negociation rights and give him 8 X 11M$.
Since it probably won't happen, 2025 will also saw great potential in quality signings.
Now on the trade front, our multiple quality draft picks in 2025 and 2026 and depth in young quality defensive prospects should make it possible to go after a great youngish top 6 scorer. And that time, i wouldn't go after a reclamation project like Newhook or Dach. I would go for a known commodity. Like a 25-26 yo on his last contrat year that we can trade for and sign to an extension immediately.
What we need to compete is top more top 6 talent, one of which needs to be a top line scorer.
Add that to 2024 1st pick and the inclusion of Hutson, Reinbacher and possibly Mailloux on defense and Beck and maybe Roy up front and we become relevant starting in 2026.
We miss talent up front. That's easy to understand.
We definitely agree that we are missing talent up front. We just don't agree on the timelines. Adding Reinhard -- or Nylander -- right now, IMO, is too early to add players in that age bracket.
We need to remain patient since the situation on D and at G is still years away from being resolved.
I don't believe that Hughes will be in a position to add a youngish, know quantity that is a bonafide top line scorer in 2024 via a trade. I'd rather use our picks on forwards in this, the third draft of the rebuild and add more top picks for 2025.
That offseason should lend itself more to adding a young impact forward via the trade route. We will have more strong picks to deal, more polished prospects to dangle, more Cap space to extend any acquisition long term and veterans either becoming rentals(easier to move) or coming closer to the end of their contracts that remain value contracts (Matheson could fetch another 1st round pick for the 2025 draft and an interesting prospect in the 2025 offseason, or at the 2024-2025 draft deadline).
In the 2025 offseason, Montreal will have both the assets and the Cap space to be part of many conversations. Their are legitimate odds of having three first round picks, three or four 2nd round picks and three or more third round picks (we already have two of each and several rental players to trade at the 2025 trade deadline), with something important panning out on the trade front, IMO.
Getting an established, youngish scorer should be the top priority in that offseason. As you say, one on an expiring contract that can immediately be extended long term.
Picks from 2022, 2023 and 2024, for the most part, even if they make the team beforehand, aren't likely to have a confirmed impact until the 2027-2028 season, even if they show positive signs before that in the 2026-2027 season.
Contrary to popular belief, it's really not a high percentage of prospects that have a high end impact at the NHL as 20, 21 and 22 year old players.
Hutson, Reinbacher and Mailloux, on D, may make the team in 2024-2025, 2025-2026 (more likely), or after that, but making the team does not represent having an impact worthy of a contending team.
In 2027-2028, a 23 year old Slafkovsky will be something else to watch. 26-year old Dach, Caufield and Newhook should be in their prime, or, at the very least, entering their prime.
What we get from Guhle, Reinbacher, Hutson and Mailloux, at that point, will also be more significant than what we seen now from Guhle and what we will see fromtheothers in their first few years at the NHL level.
The beauty of this team is that the prospects should be fully developed by the 2027-2028 season. The performances the ice, especially if we have added an impact forward in 2025, should make Montreal an attractive team for UFAs at a time where Montreal will just have freed up 12M - 15M, depending on what is done with Montembeault at that point.
Steady but surely. The bonus would also be that the prospects drafted in 2024, 2025 and 2026, could also potentially add cheap, talented depth over a 3-year window when we are ready to compete for a Cup.
It's a rebuild and waiting a bit for a finalized roster is only normal. Furthermore, being patient and lining up assets as prospects get evaluated over time will provide Hughes with bargaining chips to make meaningful changes and additions to the roster.
