Post your short-term Montreal Canadiens predictions

[HabsInsider]

Share your ideas concerning how the Montreal Canadiens will fare in the next 5-10 years and beyond.

Honest predictions are preferred, but sarcastic, cynical, unrealistic, lofty, funny, unfunny, egregious, incredibly biased and paranoid opinions are permitted, though frowned upon.

Feel free to include salacious predictions and headlines, such as:

"Montreal re-acquires PK Subban"
"Bergevin trades Subban a 2nd time, to the Leafs"

In October 2017, I posted a thread with several predictions. Although my own speculation and opinion, some things have come to pass or will shortly:

- Galchenyuk trade (Done)
- Pacioretty trade (Imminent)
- Organization 'rebuilding' or 're-tooling' (the latter Confirmed as per Molson)
- Duchene coming to MTL (Didn't happen, went to Ottawa, Bergevin still pursuing)
- Bergevin fired in off-season (It's coming... I hope)
- MTL losing the Subban-Weber trade (Confirmed)
- Patrick Roy as GM (probably the one thing that won't come true)

I'll post more predictions later if ever I can make a thread without a Mod merging or deleting it.

Let's use our intuition and knowledge to predict what will happen with our team in the coming years.

Have fun!

Click to read more...

 

[26Mats]

The only important event that needs to take place is Bergevin being fired AND replaced with someone better (leave it to Geoff to bring in someone no better than MB).

But I don't know whether this will happen anytime soon. After saying the team will be better next year and making a sales pitch to free agents at the end of year press conference, Molson is now backtracking from those statements. It sounds like he doesn't blame Bergevin for the fact that no one wants to come here, and he may not blame him if we suck again next year. This could take a while.

 

[Kevs Security]

2018-19:
Max Pacioretty traded
Gallagher is named captain
Carey Price injured for the rest of the season after 30 games
Bergevin trades Juulsen at the TDL for a 31-year old winger rental
Habs finish 14th last

2019-20:
Bergevin trades for a winger
Philipp Danault traded for two draft picks
Carey Price injured for the rest of the season after 30 games
Habs finish 5th last
Habs win the lottery
Habs draft Lafreniere
Claude Julien fired
Alain Vigneault hired

2020-21:
Lafreniere plays 3rd line minutes, although his P/Min is the highest of the team
Bergevin acquires a winger
Drouin traded
Carey Price injured for the rest of the season after 30 games
Montreal finishes the season with 68 points
Carey Price injured for the rest of the season after 30 games
Habs finish 4th last
Shea Weber retires

2021-22:
Lafreniere named captain
Gallagher traded before the season starts
Bergevin's retool/rebuild starts to seem like a disaster
Carey Price injured for the rest of the season after 30 games
Domi traded at the TDL
Habs finish dead last but don't win the lottery
Vigneault fired
Bergevin fired

2022-23:
Habs hire a french-canadian ex-player as their President of the hockey ops.
Lecavalier names Doug Wilson as the senior-advisor for the hockey ops.
Lecavalier names Bill Guerin the team's General Manager
Guerin hires Scott Nichol as the AGM
Guerin hires Darryl Sydor as the HC
Sydor builds his coaching staff: Curt Fraser, John Slaney, Manny Legace and Brian Gionta.
Everyone except the few promising U23 guys and some veterans are traded away.
Carey Price injured for the rest of the season after 30 games
Habs finish 6th last

2023-24:
Young guns are starting to take over
Lafreniere puts up over 82 points for the first time in his career
Signs of a promising future
Carey Price injured for the rest of the season after 30 games
Some trades are made
Habs clinch a play-off spot but get swept in the first round
Molson promises the management 5 more years

2024-25:
Everything is going according to the plan
Team makes it to the second round
Carey Price retires

2025-26:
Team value is now $1.6 billion
Molson sells the team
Some french-canadien douchë buys the team
"Listen fellows, I want to touch le Cup de Stanley by the end of the next season"
Montreal loses in the 2nd round
New owner is now the de-facto GM of this team
Sydor fired
Some french-canadien guy named as the HC. His name is probably Pierre, Vincent or Jean.

2026-27:
Team doesn't make the playoffs
Guerin fired
Lecavalier named as the GM

2027-28:
Team doesn't make the playoffs
Lecavalier fired
Owner makes himself the General Manager
HC Pierre/Vincent/Jean fired
HC Alain/Yves/Marc-andre hired

2028-29:
Owner trades Lafreniere
Team doesn't make the playoffs
Owner steps back and appoints Marc Bergevin as the General Manager
HC Alain/Yves/Marc-Andre fired
Michel Therrien hired

2029-30:
Now-senile Bergevin makes some bad trades
Now-senile Therrien makes some bad coaching decissions
Owner gives media some comments about the lack of grit and soul of his teams players
Team somehow makes it to the second round despite all of this
Bergevin is given a 5-year contract extension
Therrien is given a 5-year contract extension
Therrien is now the highest paid coach in the world

 

[habsgirl5000]

I have been saying the same thing for years, there is no hope for a cup as long as Price is on this team, when he was given that contract it solidified 8 more years of cup drought, get rid of Price any which way you can, then we can start building a real team, we are not winning anything until he is gone,

 

[sandysan]

I have been saying the same thing for years, there is no hope for a cup as long as Price is on this team, when he was given that contract it solidified 8 more years of cup drought, get rid of Price any which way you can, then we can start building a real team, we are not winning anything until he is gone,

Yeah on a team with no centers, no defense having an all star goalie is the real albatross around the teams neck.

Because for a team that can't score or defend the one player who can keep it close is the problem.

I'm sure niemi and Lindgren ( or mabey we bring back halak) is precisely the salve that this team needs.

Get rid of our only upper echelon talent player
??????????
Profit

And with that nmc/ntc he's the one who decides when it's time to leave. If we do ship him maybe we can try Drouin in nets, he can't be a worse goalie than he is a center.

The Habs literally have 99 problems but goaltending ain't one.

 

[Kriss E]

I have been saying the same thing for years, there is no hope for a cup as long as Price is on this team, when he was given that contract it solidified 8 more years of cup drought, get rid of Price any which way you can, then we can start building a real team, we are not winning anything until he is gone,

If a team can tank with Tavares or McDavid, we can easily do it with Price too.
We don't have to get rid of him, although I would welcome the move.

 

[habsgirl5000]

Yeah on a team with no centers, no defense having an all star goalie is the real albatross around the teams neck.

Because for a team that can't score or defend the one player who can keep it close is the problem.

I'm sure niemi and Lindgren ( or mabey we bring back halak) is precisely the salve that this team needs.

Get rid of our only upper echelon talent player
??????????
Profit

And with that nmc/ntc he's the one who decides when it's time to leave. If we do ship him maybe we can try Drouin in nets, he can't be a worse goalie than he is a center.

The Habs literally have 99 problems but goaltending ain't one.

If you change the goaltender, you change the entire game plan and strategy of the team,

Price being a Vezina goaltender is not a recipe for winning a cup, a defensive startegy like we have had for 10 years has not worked since the mid 90's devils with Brodeur,

The game has changed too much since then, but or management and game plan are still stuck in the 90's,

10 years of "price or bust" has got us nowhere, and it never will,

When you score one goal in soccer you can waste time and try to run out the clock, we have yet to realize that doesn't work in hockey

 

[sandysan]

 

[Man Purse]

Petry will hang 60 this year without Galchenyuk's no look drops on the PP

 

[sandysan]

If you change the goaltender, you change the entire game plan and strategy of the team,

Price being a Vezina goaltender is not a recipe for winning a cup, a defensive startegy like we have had for 10 years has not worked since the mid 90's devils with Brodeur,

The game has changed too much since then, but or management and game plan are still stuck in the 90's,

10 years of "price or bust" has got us nowhere, and it never will,

When you score one goal in soccer you can waste time and try to run out the clock, we have yet to realize that doesn't work in hockey

So we get rid of price to "change the system" and we still have no centers, porous D and a demonstrably worse goalie and THAT is the path to success?

The problem isn't price, it's the over reliance on him. So fix that. Get better defensively, give him some goal support. The idea that we win a ton of 1-0 or 2-1 squeakers no matter how bad the defense is idiotic. A race to the bottom and roulette luck isn't a plan.


NFL teams with bad O lines who can"t run the ball generally don't blame the QB when things go as predicted.

 

[blarneylad]

• Pacioretty traded before season starts
• Habs grab a 6-7 dman off of waivers
• Team starts off strong but starts losing by mid November.
• Team is out of playoff picture by February
• Habs finish bottom 4 of league
• Draft center in top 5 of draft

 

[Le Tricolore]

- Pacioretty traded before the start of the season.
- Habs don't name a captain this year even though everyone wants it to be Gallagher.
- Kotkaniemi looks good at camp, doesn't make the team and goes back to play in Finland. Has a decent run in the World Juniors.
- Carey Price plays 60-65 games, and puts up very solid numbers.
- Max Domi scores 20+ for the first time in his career.
- Gallagher does not repeat and score 30+ this year.
- Byron, Plekanec, Benn, Niemi and McCarron all traded this year.
- Habs don't make the playoffs.

 

[habsgirl5000]

• Team is out of playoff picture by February

February?....we are out of the picture now!