Line Combos: Montreal Future

[beowulf]

Another 25 years of misery? This lineup is far from being a contender team. Yikes

Nice magic eight-ball you have there. We also don't know what trades or draft picks will become part of the organization in the coming years.

 

[angry pirate]

We are into the 2019 WJC and the Habs prospects are looking incredible, so I wonder what the lineup will look in 3 - 4 years.
My opinion:

1: Domi-Kotkaniemi-Suzuki
2: Drouin-Poehling-???
3: Tatar-Danault-Gallagher
4: Lehkonen-Evans-Armia

1: ???-Weber
2: Romanov-Juulsen
3: Mete-Brook
Extra: Fleury

1: Price
2: Primeau

We could trade Byron, Shaw, Petry, Peca, Hudon or Benn for a good 2nd line RW and z good and YOUNG 1rst LHD

2 players over the next two seasons who could fill those question marks nicely are Mark Stone and Erik Gustafsson; should he show he can do it again next year.

We have the cap space for Stone, and if Gustafsson can continue his play from this season through next than you have to think that the Blackhawks will have trouble paying him. I would really enjoy this possible lineup for the 2020/21 season.

Drouin - Domi - Stone
Tatar - Kotkaneimi - Gallagher
Lehkonen - Poehling - Suzuki
Byron - Danault - Shaw

Gustafsson - Weber
Romonov - Petry
Mete - Juulson

Reilly
Evans
McCarron

 

[DesmondDekker]

This type of thread will be fun to read 3 years from now. As much as I want all our prospects to succeed, there’s like a 10% chance we ever see that lineup come to life. Some players will be traded, some prospects may never make it.

And we will draft other talented youngsters who may end up much better than the ones we have right now

 

[Archijerej]

If I could get a dollar for every projected future lineup on this board...

 

[Habs Halifax]

If I could get a dollar for every projected future lineup on this board...

Don't bother stopping by then? Some people like to chit chat about it. It's just simple projections and if you were the GM, you would be doing the same thing (or you should).

 

[bobholly39]

Don't bother stopping by then? Some people like to chit chat about it. It's just simple projections and if you were the GM, you would be doing the same thing (or you should).

I enjoy the discussions but the element that never gets taken into account (mostly because it can't as it's guesswork) is how much turnover there is in the NHL on a roster from year to year.

Look at our roster from 4 years ago vs today. How many players are still here? It's fine project 1-2 years maybe, but more than that is always extremely inaccurate.

 

[Habs Halifax]

I enjoy the discussions but the element that never gets taken into account (mostly because it can't as it's guesswork) is how much turnover there is in the NHL on a roster from year to year.

Look at our roster from 4 years ago vs today. How many players are still here? It's fine project 1-2 years maybe, but more than that is always extremely inaccurate.

I get your point but was our prospect pool as good 4 years ago as it is today? Don't you think that projecting things forward helps you address areas of need and targets we should go after in trades?

I think most people realize that there will be trades and UFA signings that we can't predict. If you don't like it, don't read it. Why try to ruin it for others who are interested in it?

 

[Pat Riot]

Nice magic eight-ball you have there. We also don't know what trades or draft picks will become part of the organization in the coming years.

An eight-ball, is this a lapsus?

 

[DramaticGloveSave]

Drouin-Domi-Gallagher (this is going to be a heck of a line for us at some point)
Lehkonen-Kotka-Yolo
Tatar-Poehling-Suzuki
Byron-Danault-Shaw (more of a 3rd line, essentially to take key draws and key defensive matchups)

Mete-Weber
Romanov-Brook
Kulak-Juulsen

 

[Gaylord Q Tinkledink]

Based on this, I feel even more justified for wanting this team to lose.

There's no real high end skill there. I'm talking players who will consistently be above a ppg.

The habs will need to land a grand slam, or acquire one somehow.

A dream off season would be landing Panarin/Stone and Duchene. Doubt Stone comes here, but you never know.

Take those 2 and then what we have and we're looking good minus an actual top pairing lhd.

 

[Habs Icing]

Give the man some credit. We HAVE been a crap team on at least four occasions this year.

I stand corrected...................but sit vindicated

 

[Habs Halifax]

This type of thread will be fun to read 3 years from now. As much as I want all our prospects to succeed, there’s like a 10% chance we ever see that lineup come to life. Some players will be traded, some prospects may never make it.

And we will draft other talented youngsters who may end up much better than the ones we have right now

If you don't project potential future line-up's, you are making a mistake in terms of addressing team needs and who you can and can't trade. Nobody is saying their projected line-up is a guarantee. It's an exercise that you need to keep doing year after year to evaluate where you stand today and how it looks in the future.

You say we will draft other players and they will be better? Aren't you projecting things? Personally, I rather project what we actually have vs what we don't have yet.

 

[Habs Halifax]

Give the man some credit. We HAVE been a crap team on at least four occasions this year.

The narrative will be back when we lose 2 in a row. Wait for it.

 

[Scriptor]

You are overrating Ylonen...

More than likely.

 

[Scriptor]

Lol..Is this meant to be a contending team?...Or still a rebuilding team?
If this is the line up in 3 years, I think we will be bottom tier.

I doubt it, personally, but your ever resounding optimism doesn't surprise me. If we're not a bottom tier team now, and since I believe this lineup would be better than what we currently have, I thnk it is pretty safe to say that we would not get worse than we currently are. You lay it on a little thick.

I agree that Ylonen might not be ready or even pan out, but I'm pretty sure we will have something with Poehling and Suzuki. At that point, if we're short a player or two, given the team's overall youth and the expansion draft perhaps yielding unforeseen opportunities, it might be a ripe time to trade some futures for a top-6 RW or another missing element.

 

[Scriptor]

Petry, Tatar, Byron, Shaw, Armia. Hard to predict how the young kids behind them develop and show ability to replace them.

Factors at play
- How the young prospects develop in the next 2 or 3 years
- RFA controlled assets and where they fit moving forward
- Soon to be UFA players
- Term left in their current contracts. Are they going to be UFA or RFA?
- Trade Market
- Expansion draft

I really believe that the expansion draft will once again be a factor, but teams will be less panicked than they were the first time around. By this, I mean that the Seattle GM likely won't make a killing in amassing assets the way McPhee did with Vegas.

Unless we want to believe that MON will keep Petry as a wink, wink deal for him to only re-sign in MON as a UFA once the expansion draft is over (I don't believe these fairy tale scenarios), keeping Petry and re-signing him will mean needing to protect him as one of our 3 Ds, along with Weber, on top of surely having overpaid and signed the ageing veteran D for too many years.

That leaves one of Juulsen or Mete at risk of being snagged at the expansion draft.

Who would you protect with your last choice? Mete or Juulsen?

 

[1909]

I really believe that the expansion draft will once again be a factor, but teams will be less panicked than they were the first time around. By this, I mean that the Seattle GM likely won't make a killing in amassing assets the way McPhee did with Vegas.

Unless we want to believe that MON will keep Petry as a wink, wink deal for him to only re-sign in MON as a UFA once the expansion draft is over (I don't believe these fairy tale scenarios), keeping Petry and re-signing him will mean needing to protect him as one of our 3 Ds, along with Weber, on top of surely having overpaid and signed the ageing veteran D for too many years.

That leaves one of Juulsen or Mete at risk of being snagged at the expansion draft.

Who would you protect with your last choice? Mete or Juulsen?

Time will tell who's the most useful. Brook can be the answer IF we don't protect Juulsen.

 

[DesmondDekker]

If you don't project potential future line-up's, you are making a mistake in terms of addressing team needs and who you can and can't trade. Nobody is saying their projected line-up is a guarantee. It's an exercise that you need to keep doing year after year to evaluate where you stand today and how it looks in the future.

You say we will draft other players and they will be better? Aren't you projecting things? Personally, I rather project what we actually have vs what we don't have yet.

All I said was people posting future line ups end up being wrong 90% of time. I did not mean to sound pessimistic, I am excited about our prospects as well.

 

[Scriptor]

Time will tell who's the most useful. Brook can be the answer IF we don't protect Juulsen.

We still need to address the comparable drop in skill on the left side. I like Romanov's skating and ability to process the game, with and without the puck, along with the potential that transpires from that. I like Mete, but ideally, as an elite 3rd pairing D, so we're still missing a 1st pairing LHD or, at least, another top-4 LHD.

I have zero faith in Kulak or Reilly filling that spot at a level we should aspire to see.

Do we try to land a Gardiner? How do we get that other top-4 LHD that can make the D-Corps gel in the medium term at the latest? I doubt that the draft will provide that soon enough at the NHL level as we surely won't be drafting 1st overall for the next three years and hoping to land the next Rasmus Dahlin.

 

[Scriptor]

All I said was people posting future line ups end up being wrong 90% of time. I did not mean to sound pessimistic, I am excited about our prospects as well.

The team's portrait in 3 or 4 years is anyone's guess, for sure. It will not be 100% how anyone guesses it will be because there are too many unknown factors to come in the meantime. But, the future does look much better than it did just a year ago.

 

[Kriss E]

Two of the top nine forwards and one of the top four D are not in the NHL. That's not even close to half, it's less than a quarter. And these 3 players are arguably our best prospects, slotted into current positions of weakness. The bar is not very high for them to be better than what we currently have. So yes, I'm pretty confident that this roster would be better than our current roster.

But that's not really relevant anyway, since the roster in 3-4 years will look nothing like this. It's unlikely there will be this little turnover in the roster in that time. It's impossible to predict what any NHL roster will look like in 3-4 years given the number of trades and free agent signings.

..Hmm..well okay, what's the point of making this line up then?

Confident this would be better? Meh. I'm not.

 

[Kriss E]

I doubt it, personally, but your ever resounding optimism doesn't surprise me. If we're not a bottom tier team now, and since I believe this lineup would be better than what we currently have, I thnk it is pretty safe to say that we would not get worse than we currently are. You lay it on a little thick.

I agree that Ylonen might not be ready or even pan out, but I'm pretty sure we will have something with Poehling and Suzuki. At that point, if we're short a player or two, given the team's overall youth and the expansion draft perhaps yielding unforeseen opportunities, it might be a ripe time to trade some futures for a top-6 RW or another missing element.

Someone has to bring a level of rationality and realism to this board..
It's not just about them making the team, it's about them making solid contributions while everyone else also improves or stays on par.

There is ??? as our #2 guy..bunch of juniors on D...and two guys who haven't been able to keep a regular spot on our roster this year.

It's very easy to just take our best prospects and say they will all become great for us, but when does that ever happen?

 

[Kriss E]

If I remember correctly you said the same thing about this Habs team at the start of the season. If memory serves you called it a crap team.

Yes and I was wrong, it's not complete crap...its mediocre..a bubble team. Cool.

What an argument though...

 

[Kriss E]

I don't know how you can predict how bad our age 25 and under players will develop in 2/3 years from now? I get your point but do you get mine? We can wine about not having a Crosby type in our line-up all we want. The key here is development and how the young players improve. Yeah, there will be disappointments but it's weird how you project all of our younger players to not turn into impact players?

Let me ask you this. What's the probability of the Habs having back to back drafts (Crosby/Malkin, Marner/Matthews, McDavid/Drai, Towes/Kane)? Were talking about 15 draft years here with the players I showed you. Waiting around for this situation is silly. The timing of tanking, getting solid top 5 picks, and snagging franchise talent when you do is rare. Especially in back to back drafts or in a short span of drafting. It's possible the Habs can have another 2007 draft and get McDonaugh, Patch, Subban with the 12, 22, and 43 picks. There is more than one way to build a contender. Pretty sure you would of called that draft year meh in 2008

Price/Weber leading a very good young core has the potential to be a cup contending team. It just depends how good Kotkaniemi, Suzuki, Poehling, Romanov, Brook, Mete, Juulsen, Ylonen, etc become. None of us know the future

Lol..Price and Weber..cup contention with our group. Keep dreaming girl.

For that to happen...we need all our 5~6 best prospects to reach their potential. I'll wait to see it happen before making it an expectation.

 

[Kriss E]

The development of Domi and Kotkaniemi as centers is a huge factor in determining how good that lineup will be. In theory kotkaniemi could be an elite 2 way center in the kopitar mold and domi could be close to a point per game player. When you look at a li NJ eup of young players bow 3 - 4 years from now, theres a huge variation in how good or mediocre they can be.

I'm still not convinced about Domi. I just dont see him as that legit #1.
Kotka is great..so was Galch...I wont get my Hopes up that high again.