Predict the upcoming season

[Lafleurs Guy]

Who do you fellows predict to win the major trophies? I think Price wins the Vezina, McDavid wins the Hart, Matthews the Rocket, MacKinnon the Art Ross. Makar the Calder, Reilly the Norris, Bednar the Jack Adams.

If Weber and Petry can stay healthy, I think Price has a really good shot at the Vezina again and I think we make the playoffs. If either one of those guys goes down though it's a shit show back there. Our left side sucks so bad.

I think one of those three gets hurt this year and I think we'll be outside looking in.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

No playoffs, less than stellar year. I'd say 10th to 14th range in the East.

East is a powerhouse all over. West not so much. But we just can't win that much against the West.

Oh! And I predict this will be Ottawa's last season in our nation's capital. They will be moving East and picking Lafrenière on their way to Videotron Centre. And THEN, Molson will need to act.

Crazy prediction:

Molson buys Lafrenierre from Melnyk for a ridiculous sum of money.

 

[L4br3cqu3]

We'll end up bottom feeders...

And I don't mind that one bit with that 2020 draft.

 

[The Real Timo]

My prediction is that we, as fans, will go through exact same frustrations that we did while the bufoon therrien was the coach.

This will NOT be a fun season.

 

[Montreal Impact FC]

ill say we surely wont make the playoffs.. its nice that suzuki is a 2 way player but im not expecting a 60pts season.. more like 30 pts or so.. Kotkaniemi too im expecting a similar results... (Sophonire jynx incoming imo his offense wizardy is less and less apparent as time goes by.. I hope he starts thinking on how he can produce every shift and not just survive the nhl and make a nice play once in a while.. (why I didnt want him in the nhl last year) and I pretty sure key players will be injured.. why? cause they will be overuse.. and over exposed.. then injured.. once that happen I expect a collapse for a reasonable period of time hence will be too far to really be a treat to even make the playoffs.. Domi a less offensive season too who will be there to play the sparkplug that Shaw was doing last year?

nahh I dont drink the koolaid Bergy and Molson are drinking..

bottom 10 nhl wise is my expectation this year.

but I would love to see Suzuki and Kotkaniemi somehow blossom but I would be surprised.. NHL seasons are long. and our system isnt really built for kids like em to be super productive this soon this in their career..


we shall see

 

[sergejean]

I want to be positive! The lineup can still be tweaked and Poehling should be back before Christmas. We have a balanced team who can compete hard with the best teams on any given night. The question is can they come out on top more often than not? Tonight the glass is half full - the team will make the playoffs

Out: Benn/Reilly/Juulsen/Schlemko/Ouellet/Alzner
In: Chariot-Fleury

Weber is healthy as of day 1 and Mete has one more year under his belt after a strong second half
Petry is a solid veteran and Chiarot will complement him well
Kulak and Fleury will surprise a lot of people with their level of confidence and efficiency

Out: Deslauriers/Chaput/Dagostino/Shaw/Peca/Hudon/Plekanec/Scherbak
In: Weal/Thompson/Poehling/Suzuki/Cousin

Tatar-Danault-Gallagher will remain together and should be solid all-around
Lehkonen-Domi-Suzuki is probably a little bit of a question mark. Can Domi replicate last year's season? Will Suzuki quickly adjust to the NHL and be a consistent contributor as a top 6 forward? Lehkonen can't really be as snake bitten as he was last year... or can he?
Drouin-Kotkaniemi-Armia line has potential if they can gel together. As much as it's easy to crap on Drouin, he has the talent to produce offensively. Kotka should keep improving. He surprized everyone last year making the team at 18 and should continue to impress again this year. I'm not sold on Armia but he does bring some size and could retrieve some pucks deep for his linemates.
Byron-Thompson-Weal is a huge improvement from what we had last year

Out: Niemi
In: Kinkaid

Niemi could no longer be trusted so Kinkaid should bring much more stability when Cary Price has a night off.

 

[Goal Caufield50]

East could very well be even more tight than last season. Should be a hell of a fight all year long again with no easy games.
With Weber from the start, the addition of Suzuki, Poehling, Fleury and Chiarot Habs are a better team than last year at the same period.

Bergevin will make some other moves during the season, adding size and bring a new dman in.

Caufield will join in March.

I voted first wild card but I got this feeling the Habs could surprise a lot of people again and finish as high as top 3 in division with something around 104 points.

Have good time and enjoy the season Habs fans

Suzuki will likely not perform better than Shaw. Chiarot will not likely to be better than Benn. Will be tough for Gally, Domi and Tatar to repeat good years. A 10th place in the conference and 20th overall is a reasonable expectation. On paper Florida, Philly, New Jersey are much better. It won’t be easy to improve on last year.

 

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

too proud of an org to miss the playoffs again. we'll be in comfortably.

I think you mistook the words proud and profitable.

 

[THE HOFF]

I think you mistook the words proud and profitable.

as much as I can agree molson plays the PR game, i'm pretty sure he'd welcome the extra gravy.

 

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

as much as I can agree molson plays the PR game, i'm pretty sure he'd welcome the extra gravy.

But not at the expense of continuing profit

 

[Halakitlikethat]

Somewhere between terrible and mediocre

 

[Runner77]

I want to be positive! The lineup can still be tweaked and Poehling should be back before Christmas. We have a balanced team who can compete hard with the best teams on any given night. The question is can they come out on top more often than not? Tonight the glass is half full - the team will make the playoffs

Out: Benn/Reilly/Juulsen/Schlemko/Ouellet/Alzner
In: Chariot-Fleury

Weber is healthy as of day 1 and Mete has one more year under his belt after a strong second half
Petry is a solid veteran and Chiarot will complement him well
Kulak and Fleury will surprise a lot of people with their level of confidence and efficiency

Out: Deslauriers/Chaput/Dagostino/Shaw/Peca/Hudon/Plekanec/Scherbak
In: Weal/Thompson/Poehling/Suzuki/Cousin

Tatar-Danault-Gallagher will remain together and should be solid all-around
Lehkonen-Domi-Suzuki is probably a little bit of a question mark. Can Domi replicate last year's season? Will Suzuki quickly adjust to the NHL and be a consistent contributor as a top 6 forward? Lehkonen can't really be as snake bitten as he was last year... or can he?
Drouin-Kotkaniemi-Armia line has potential if they can gel together. As much as it's easy to crap on Drouin, he has the talent to produce offensively. Kotka should keep improving. He surprized everyone last year making the team at 18 and should continue to impress again this year. I'm not sold on Armia but he does bring some size and could retrieve some pucks deep for his linemates.
Byron-Thompson-Weal is a huge improvement from what we had last year

Out: Niemi
In: Kinkaid

Niemi could no longer be trusted so Kinkaid should bring much more stability when Cary Price has a night off.

A lot of the posts in this thread are basing their assessments of how the Habs will do by how the current roster compares to what it was at the end of last season.

Sure, one can find several factors that indicate a positive step forward.

Ultimately however, the key question is how well the Habs have fared versus their counterparts and in particular, those who may potentially block them from earning a playoff spot.

How well have the Habs done in this regard? Here are takes from 3 different sources:

Grading the offseason for every NHL team

PHT Power Rankings: Looking at every NHL team’s offseason

NHL Off-Season Power Rankings: Who’s improved most (so far)? - Sportsnet.ca

None of these are bullish about the Habs's off season, however, they do recognize that several of the Habs's immediate competitors have improved.

 

[sergejean]

None of these are bullish about the Habs's off season, however, they do recognize that several of the Habs's immediate competitors have improved.

Oh I agree. Some other teams didn't improve very much though. Just like last year, it will be a dog fight until the very end.

 

[shamrun]

People will expect so little from drouin he will impress this year....until about March when people will expect him to help and he will disappear.

 

[SnapVirus]

No playoff.

 

[Habs Halifax]

Wild prediction but I'm calling a Leafs vs Habs 1st round match-up. Tampa faces injuries and the Leafs take the Atlantic. Habs sneak in as the last wild card spot. Habs give them a test but their PP is too much for us to overcome.

 

[Roadhouse]

 

[ahmedou]

Unpredictable are they... Even them can't predict themselves...