Can the Montreal Canadiens finish the next season with 50+ wins?

[Artorius Horus T]

They had a solid season, 9th in the conference, 14th in the league.
Took 44 wins and collected 96 points, in any other season, they would of qualified.

Canadiens have plenty of talent, young and experienced, Price is still one hell of a goalie.
Kotka is one year older and stronger, one could only speculate what sort of season they'd had
if Weber played a full 82 game season, now he is healthy, so that's a huge plus for them.

The young and not so restless, the new comers for the next season: Ryan Poehling & Nick Suzuki
both of them are gonna bring some serious additional scoring for the Habs i reckon.

Wild card new comers: Jesse Ylönen (F), Cale Fleury (D), Joel Teasdale (F), Josh Brook (D)

Canadiens contract situation is great, only 6 without a contract, Artturi Lehkonen, Joel Armia,
Brett Kulak, Mike Reilly and Jordie Benn and obviously Antti Niemi.

Personally, i think Montreal will achieve 50 wins (or more) next season,
they have a really strong team, good mix of everything for each position,
not many weaknesses.

Click to read more...

 

[abo9]

not many weaknesses.

The offense is coming along nicely, still missing some high-quality pieces (by that I mean elite talent).
Defensively, they need to pray that the rookies (Romanov, Fleury, Brooks) all reach their potential or close, and that Mete continues improving. The D is pretty awful (fortunately they have Price who balances that).

They are young so surely they will improve so they might make the playoffs barring injuries (we were pretty lucky this year, but what if Domi was injured 1/2 season?). I like the prospect pool, looking forward to a time when we can look in Laval for immediate help when injuries happen instead of relying on waiver wires and lifelong AHLers.

 

[Artorius Horus T]

The offense is coming along nicely, still missing some high-quality pieces (by that I mean elite talent).
Defensively, they need to pray that the rookies (Romanov, Fleury, Brooks) all reach their potential or close, and that Mete continues improving. The D is pretty awful (fortunately they have Price who balances that).

They are young so surely they will improve so they might make the playoffs barring injuries (we were pretty lucky this year, but what if Domi was injured 1/2 season?). I like the prospect pool, looking forward to a time when we can look in Laval for immediate help when injuries happen instead of relying on waiver wires and lifelong AHLers.

The D is pretty awful? I disagree, Shea Weber, Jeff Petry, Victor Mete gives the Canadiens strong top 3,
Brett Kulak was surprisingly good for them last season, Jordie Benn is a solid defensive d-man,
Fleury and Brooks are both really good prospects, plenty of teams have pretty awful D, Habs do not
well, at least that's what i think.

 

[Mugzy97]

I actually believe they will slightly regress next season. Strong candidate for regression.

 

[Fugazy]

I can’t see them eclipsing the 50 win mark as of right now.

 

[George Clooney]

As of right now, no. They need someone to play with weber. That someone cant be mete or kulak.

 

[abo9]

The D is pretty awful? I disagree, Shea Weber, Jeff Petry, Victor Mete gives the Canadiens strong top 3,
Brett Kulak was surprisingly good for them last season, Jordie Benn is a solid defensive d-man,
Fleury and Brooks are both really good prospects, plenty of teams have pretty awful D, Habs do not
well, at least that's what i think.

I agree with you that we have good prospects and Petry/Weber being 2 solid defensemen.

My problem is with Kulak, Benn and co. They are good third pairing D's but unfortunately that is the best they can do. They won't improve much if at all anymore. Imo, the D is a big weakness of the NHL roster right now (we will see how the prospects do), otherwise with Carey Price and a good offense we would have made the playoffs.

Quality depth also scares me. Our AHL team is pretty bad and we don't have players knocking at the door of the NHL roster apart from prospects coming from juniors. With them coming and hopefully playing with Laval, that might change and the Habs will have a sustainable and healthy rotation of young players knocking at the door ready to step in in case of injuries, UFA loss, etc.

I'm hopeful for the near future (in 2-3 years) but believe the current team/roster is still a wildcard come next April.

 

[KingTux]

I can't see them getting better, especially considering how strong the East is getting.

 

[Lshap]

Wouldn't shock me if they did. Habs have had some impressive bounce-backs in recent years, despite predictions they'd be a lottery team. Would I bet on it? No.

But we'll have a much better idea over the summer. Bergevin will either continue rebuilding and stock up on picks, or make a run at it now by pursuing UFAs and trading for talent. If he does neither and passively waits for his prospects to rescue him, the team will go nowhere. There are some great prospects who are close, but they won't become impact players next season.

 

[Paris in Flames]

Uhhh...

Last season only 2 teams hit 50 wins. The season before that 5 teams did. The season before that....4 teams.

So if the Montreal Canadiens were to win 50 games they'd likely be firmly in the top 5 teams in the league.

So...no. I don't think they can do that.

 

[Pyrophorus]

Domi blip incoming...

 

[Captain Mountain]

Doubt it, but I'd bet against most teams hitting 50 wins.

Domi blip incoming...

Possibly given how efficient a point producer he was.

But he doesn't really fit the mold of a significant "blip" player.

He set career highs in iS%, IPP and S%, but none were far off his previous career highs or really crazy from a league or a team perspective. He did elevate his game across the board (individual events, expected stats, etc.). He also played for a team that plays much higher event hockey than Arizona, which tends help production.

 

[Randy Randerson]

I see it getting worse before it gets better for Montreal, but I think they'll still have a reasonable chance at the playoffs and I hope they make it

 

[stopclickbait]

Not likely they will fall between that of not being good enough to make the playoffs and not bad enough to draft a game changing talent. The perfect bubble team ever!

 

[The Moose is Loose]

Nah they’ll regress

 

[2023FriendshipTour]

I see it getting worse before it gets better for Montreal, but I think they'll still have a reasonable chance at the playoffs and I hope they make it

I agree. They really needed to tank another year or two.

 

[Haatley]

They aren't good.

 

[TimeZone]

Can they? Of course it's not impossible.

However, the likelihood of it actually coming to fruition is....not great.

I'd bank on them being a borderline playoff team/just missing again.

 

[Kotkaniemi15]

Price and Weber bounced back and are not declining. Petry had an outstanding year. Gallagher just came off his second 30+ goal season and is improving each year. He's a perennial 30 goal scorer. Domi and Drouin are only 24 and are both getting better just as they enter their primes. There is no logical reason as to why Domi would regress from his 72 point season. The team around him is only getting better. Drouin went through a 25 game slump and the Habs still managed to put up 96 points. If he can play consistently next year, he will be a 65 point+ guy. Kotkaniemi and Mete are both super young and developing. Kotkaniemi showed some great potential last year and hopefully will come back ready to play the 2C. Mete played top pair minutes with Weber this year. It may be because of a weak left side but he held his own. They will come back next year with an extra season of experience. The possibility of adding top young prospects like Poehling, Suzuki and Brook to the team also provide an opportunity to improve. Lehkonen was extremely snake bitten this year. He will improve on this season. The Habs aren't some old team with no young talent. The entire forward group, aside from Nate Thompson, is under the age of 30. The Habs have one of the top prospect pools in the league. The Habs are trending upwards, not downwards. If the Habs add a top free agent, they will be even better. Why would the Habs regress?

 

[Randy Randerson]

I agree. They really needed to tank another year or two.

I feel like they're too good to tank, but not good enough to be a legitimate threat if they got into the playoffs, sort of where the Leafs were for a long time after the cap was introduced (and a while before). If they're not good out of the gate, I think they need to find a way to get returns on Petry, Weber, Price, etc and just be bad for a while to get some face-of-the-franchise prospects

 

[MXD]

They absolutely could, but that's pretty much reliant on things that will happen between now and October 2019. (Not to mention, well, the games between October 2019 and April 2020)

 

[TomasHertlsRooster]

They had a solid season, 9th in the conference, 14th in the league.
Took 44 wins and collected 96 points, in any other season, they would of qualified.

Canadiens have plenty of talent, young and experienced, Price is still one hell of a goalie.
Kotka is one year older and stronger, one could only speculate what sort of season they'd had
if Weber played a full 82 game season, now he is healthy, so that's a huge plus for them.

The young and not so restless, the new comers for the next season: Ryan Poehling & Nick Suzuki
both of them are gonna bring some serious additional scoring for the Habs i reckon.

Wild card new comers: Jesse Ylönen (F), Cale Fleury (D), Joel Teasdale (F), Josh Brook (D)

Canadiens contract situation is great, only 6 without a contract, Artturi Lehkonen, Joel Armia,
Brett Kulak, Mike Reilly and Jordie Benn and obviously Antti Niemi.

Personally, i think Montreal will achieve 50 wins (or more) next season,
they have a really strong team, good mix of everything for each position,
not many weaknesses.

Yeah, except you know, last season, where the Florida Panthers missed the playoffs with 96 points.

 

[lilmaxo]

They will regress. It’s not a new thing to see players come to mtl and have career year. Most of the guys that come to mtl plays under some sort of hype. The year after, they regress. I expect tatar and domi to regress.. as for the rest, I think we won’t make the playoff again and i hope we end the season in the bottom 5 instead of that trash worst spot we had this year (15th overall pick, yikes). We need a real young superstar for once. On paper, we dont have anything like a 70 + point player like every single team in the league do.. i have been saying it for the past 10 years.. mtl always do good during regular season, but once we get to playoffs we clearly see that we have no offensive tools. We need top high end young guns. Fortunately,we getting there with the recent draft picks.

 

[euhchepas]

They will regress. It’s not a new thing to see players come to mtl and have career year. Most of the guys that come to mtl plays under some sort of hype. The year after, they regress. I expect tatar and domi to regress.. as for the rest, I think we won’t make the playoff again and i hope we end the season in the bottom 5 instead of that trash worst spot we had this year (15th overall pick, yikes). We need a real young superstar for once. On paper, we dont have anything like a 70 + point player like every single team in the league do.. i have been saying it for the past 10 years.. mtl always do good during regular season, but once we get to playoffs we clearly see that we have no offensive tools. We need top high end young guns. Fortunately,we getting there with the recent draft picks.

really? who?Erik Cole is the only player that fits that description that I can remember

maybe not 50 wins but I expect more than 100 points

 

[Laveuglette]

Can they? Yes
Will they? No idea, probably not

Depends of the moves they make this summer