You would trade the 2023 1st round pick, which could easily be a top 5 pick in a draft with 2 generational talents, for a defenceman who turns 30 this summer and is looking for a massive new deal? How on earth does that help us my god man this is bananas.
Which friggin' 2023 1st round pick that would easily be destined to be a top-5 pick?
Some people are absolutely bonkers thinking that Gorton-Hughes are on their fantasy mission to tank all the way through 2023 as well!?
Right now, its a perfect storm for Gorton and Hughes. They just stepped in (Hughes, especially) and can claim they need to évaluâtes A-Z of this organization before making any concrete moves.
Basically, they can let this season self-destruct all the way to Hiroshima levels and still blame the prior management team for the disaster that 2021-2022 will have been, all the while profitant from the sweet top-4 or top-5 (at worst) pick they will be gifted from the team's implosion.
Next year is far from this year.
In a market like Montreal, eyes will be rivetted on what Gorton and Hughes do, starting with the trade deadline.
I'm not sold on any moves NEEDING to be made. All are just suggestions that might have some value of their own, without being the ideal move, necessarily.
However, I highly doubt that Gorton0Hughes saddle themselves with a tanking roster next season as some of that tank will start being splashed on them, now that bergevin is a full season out of the picture.
Evaluations of Hughes' performance will be at the foreront of mainstream media's concerns, not to mention those id-yots just waiting to say that Gorton and Hughes were a mistake over a Savard-Roy tandem, or some other incarnation of their ideal franco-duo.
The only possibility of the team being made to tank inconspicuously is if Gorton-Hughes trade Petry and Kulak without actual replacements being factored in and Edmundson, somehow, can't return to the lineup, or doesn't do so as a healthy D.
Not being able to overhaul the D overnight and deciding (with a public rationale exposed) that quality young Ds that will be graduating steadily is the way to go, is the way to ensure that a team won't be all that competitive.
Just look at next year's D-Corps if this were to happen and youngsters aren't rushed to the NHL to plug obvious holes.
XXX - XXX
Romanov - XXX
Harris - Savard
Wideman, Clague, Niku, ???
Not very promising immediately, anyhow, despite, Guhle, Mailloux, Xekaj, Struble and Norlinder in th wings still needing to mature before getting tossed into the lion's Den at the NHL level.
Harris is the prospect deemed closest to playing in the NHL and I suspect that signing here will require an NHL guarantee for next season. Playing alongside a cet like Savard on a 3rd pairing should be appropriate for his development, but doing so without any depth ahead of that 3rd pairing may not be a Wise move either?
Best case scenario is a légitime 1st pairing RHD and the return of Edmundson as a stay-at-home D for that pairing. It would handle a lot of the difficult minutes and lessen the growing pains of playing a young, NHL-ready RHD that was acquired in a trade with Romanov on a 2nd pairing, in order to allow for a 3rd pairing of Harris - Savard.
We're talking, here, not determining what will or must happen, just discussion repercussions of certain moves.
I doubt that Gorton-Hughes allows the D to suck as badly as...
XXX - XXX
Romanov - XXX
Harris - Savard
...next season.
Something needs to happen as a transition D while Harris (next season), Guhle (the one after), Mailloux (the one after that), along with, maybe, Xhekaj, gradually integate the Habs' lineup.
Obviously, a 1st pairing D (which Petry might have been a lite version of had his game not imploded this season and his wife not packed thing up to take the kids back to Michigan) to stabilize the D-Corps alongside Edmundson for another three years would have been\would be ideal.
Gorton-Hughes could then look to acquire a promising RHD (top-4 upside) that is NHL-ready or very near NHL-ready to ease in at the NHL level next season, with Savard still signed for another three seasons beyond this one, same as Petry, or what a Petry equivalent would need to be.
The point would be to groom that RHD into a top-4 RHD, if not a first pairing RHD over the next three seasons, as Mailloux keeps getting groomed for the other top-4 RHD slot, with two more years in Juniors and a year in Laval.
In year 4, Mailloux is playing in the NHL, the other young RHD has three years experience at the NHL level and Romanov can play third pairing RHD with a rookie by has side at LD.
Next year (year 1), Harris will be starting out at the NHL level with Edmundson in the first of his two remaining years on his current contract.
Meanwhile, Guhle will play the year in Laval.
In 2023-2024, (year 2), Guhle will finish his apprenticeship in the AHL as Edmundson ends his contract (to be flipped at the trade deadline, allowing Guhle to step up to the NHL at season's end.
By 2024-2025, Mailloux will have started playing in Laval. Harris will be in his 3rd year at the NHL level and Guhle will be playing his 1st full season there.
Whomever Montreal acquired as a top-4 RHD this year will be in his 3rd season at the NHL level.
If the young Ds progress in an ideal fashion, we would be all set in 2025-2026.
The top-4 RHD could step in for Petry (or the Petry equivalent) upon his retirement. Mailloux would slot in on the 2nd pair.
Romanov could play on the first LD pairing, with Harris on the 2nd pairing and Guhle stepping in on the 3rd pairing.
Montreal could get a veteran RHD as a complément to Guhle on the 3rd pairing.
