It also says a lot about how some (not all) Hab fans scapegoated Pleks though. Yes, he's declined. Yes, he was overpaid. But context, he got zero PP time, faced the brunt of the top lines every night, and still was the leader on the Habs in ES points. Even if Chuck got dangled around, or Drouin couldn't hold fort as a center (which should have been to expected from day 1)....that says a lot about their quality as well.
As per Timmins, he's sucked in the draft for a little while now. It's historically difficult to get gems out of the 2nd, but it's not like he's really gotten any top 6, top 4 talent beyond the 2nd, and certainly has flubbed multiple 1sts now. If you trying to be a top dog in this league, you can't consistently flub those, expectations should be higher unless your aiming for mediocrity or below. There are teams in this like that use the draft almost like a sustainable, replenishing cupboard that never ends.....Tampa just traded a fair amount of prospects/picks and still have a better pool than Montreal today.