montreal
Go Habs Go
haven't had the time to do much scouting but either I'm out of touch or perhaps need new glasses as the little I did see I wasn't in favor of picking any of Reinbacher, Slaf, or KK as I wanted to trade down all 3 times for an extra 1st but my guys have been injured in Boqvist, Nazar and this year the only one I badly wanted us to get was Smith so we couldn't. I didn't know who Maiiloux was until a few days before the draft when it came out he didn't want to be drafted but I thought the pick made sense once I watched him. Of course I think just about everyone wanted Caufield.
With the team building it's self around Caufield, Suzuki, I can see why they want to add size/skill in guys like Slaf, Reinbacher as I'm sure they are looking at Hutson and seeing that with the right fit he could be a f***ing star in several years. You just have to hope that Hughes is looking at the situation closely and making decisions based off correct info. It's way too early but a year later gives you some indication and there's a lot to like and several to be concerned with from the Habs group of scouts.
But that doesn't mean anything at this point, it's just way, way too early to say what the Habs have in all these prospects they have amassed lately. We have a HC that looks like he can develop offensive talent, we have a lot of prospects that will need top notch development from this organization every step of the way going forward if they are to get this right imo. Or I could be wrong and Slaf, Reinbacher, Mesar end up kicking major ass vs Kulich, Leonard, Cooley as well as Dach and Newhook since they will need to hit on both to some degree.
Goaltending was my big concern as I just can't say I believe in Monty just yet to be the one to lead us to being a contender but it's hard to say how long that will take as clearly management is looking to speed things up by trading the 13th, 31st, 37th OA picks in the last year. That could be a very smart move or it could just set us back further. So now we'll need to see did they find their goalie of the future, cause right now we have the most goalie prospects I have ever seen, so I at least like our odds that we hit pay dirt on one of them.
I really like the D prospects, we know Guhle, Harris will be very solid NHLers or better, Barron is showing things but still needs improvement/development, Xhejkaj is a beast. They will need time to learn, grow, progress, improve. It should be lots of ups and downs. Hutson, Mailloux are very much boom or bust types but they are a lot of fun and highly skilled. Reinbacher looks to worse to be a solid bottom pairing D, of course you expect better but it's hard seeing him bust. That alone is an excellent mix, add in Engstrom who had an outstanding season in the SHL at 19, how much progress does he show will be massive for the Habs. Norlinder struggled badly in the first half but he really turned it around in the 2nd half so we'll see if he can show progress or is this it. Struble will play in the NHL at some point.
Clearly the strength is the D prospects/youth. Lots of hope in net but will likely need a few years to really get a good idea of where both stand. At least you can see how this could end up going either very well, good, great even as there is a lot to like here. Not saying it will or won't as how could I know one way or the other but I can at least see how we could be set here like really set. Which then leads to the offense where imo we still need a lot of work. As much as I like the Caufield/Suzuki do, I was surprised by Dach and RHP being so good this year and even a little bit by Guhle as I didn't think he would look so good so fast.
I really like Farrell but you got to wonder how it could work with Caufield in the top 6 and perhaps Newhook. Heineman at worst I think will be a 4th liner as he should be a safe bet to be an NHLer. Roy is certainly one of the most interesting prospects we have, how they develop him and Farrell in terms of improving their physical tools of strength, skating, speed, mass, will be very interesting to see how it unfolds.
It looks like they will need a high pick in '24 and '25 to help with the offense or trade for someone in the Dach-Newhook range or hopefully better as Anderson is 29 and this could be a few years so that asset could end up being wasted depending of course on how everything else goes, if Hughes gets this thing going faster then expected then hopefully the right moves are made. It's way way too early to say one way or the other at this point but it will be very interesting to see from a development standpoint at least.
With the team building it's self around Caufield, Suzuki, I can see why they want to add size/skill in guys like Slaf, Reinbacher as I'm sure they are looking at Hutson and seeing that with the right fit he could be a f***ing star in several years. You just have to hope that Hughes is looking at the situation closely and making decisions based off correct info. It's way too early but a year later gives you some indication and there's a lot to like and several to be concerned with from the Habs group of scouts.
But that doesn't mean anything at this point, it's just way, way too early to say what the Habs have in all these prospects they have amassed lately. We have a HC that looks like he can develop offensive talent, we have a lot of prospects that will need top notch development from this organization every step of the way going forward if they are to get this right imo. Or I could be wrong and Slaf, Reinbacher, Mesar end up kicking major ass vs Kulich, Leonard, Cooley as well as Dach and Newhook since they will need to hit on both to some degree.
Goaltending was my big concern as I just can't say I believe in Monty just yet to be the one to lead us to being a contender but it's hard to say how long that will take as clearly management is looking to speed things up by trading the 13th, 31st, 37th OA picks in the last year. That could be a very smart move or it could just set us back further. So now we'll need to see did they find their goalie of the future, cause right now we have the most goalie prospects I have ever seen, so I at least like our odds that we hit pay dirt on one of them.
I really like the D prospects, we know Guhle, Harris will be very solid NHLers or better, Barron is showing things but still needs improvement/development, Xhejkaj is a beast. They will need time to learn, grow, progress, improve. It should be lots of ups and downs. Hutson, Mailloux are very much boom or bust types but they are a lot of fun and highly skilled. Reinbacher looks to worse to be a solid bottom pairing D, of course you expect better but it's hard seeing him bust. That alone is an excellent mix, add in Engstrom who had an outstanding season in the SHL at 19, how much progress does he show will be massive for the Habs. Norlinder struggled badly in the first half but he really turned it around in the 2nd half so we'll see if he can show progress or is this it. Struble will play in the NHL at some point.
Clearly the strength is the D prospects/youth. Lots of hope in net but will likely need a few years to really get a good idea of where both stand. At least you can see how this could end up going either very well, good, great even as there is a lot to like here. Not saying it will or won't as how could I know one way or the other but I can at least see how we could be set here like really set. Which then leads to the offense where imo we still need a lot of work. As much as I like the Caufield/Suzuki do, I was surprised by Dach and RHP being so good this year and even a little bit by Guhle as I didn't think he would look so good so fast.
I really like Farrell but you got to wonder how it could work with Caufield in the top 6 and perhaps Newhook. Heineman at worst I think will be a 4th liner as he should be a safe bet to be an NHLer. Roy is certainly one of the most interesting prospects we have, how they develop him and Farrell in terms of improving their physical tools of strength, skating, speed, mass, will be very interesting to see how it unfolds.
It looks like they will need a high pick in '24 and '25 to help with the offense or trade for someone in the Dach-Newhook range or hopefully better as Anderson is 29 and this could be a few years so that asset could end up being wasted depending of course on how everything else goes, if Hughes gets this thing going faster then expected then hopefully the right moves are made. It's way way too early to say one way or the other at this point but it will be very interesting to see from a development standpoint at least.
