HF Habs: When will the Habs have an elite forward?

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

I'll say something about life.... it's about patterns. Patterns repeating and patterns changing, sometimes in very extremist ways.

We've had decades where we were lucky enough to have massive amounts of talent and now we seem to flow in a complete opposite stream.

My guess is, it's going to keep going this way and there will come a time where this timing/luck/tendency will completely flip the other way. Call it quantum entanglement, call it luck, but that's my intuition about our future.

 

[Frank JT]

You have to accept to pay the price to get top end talent.
Montreal doesn't want to pay the price (aiming the series every years).
We had top5 picks (Glacheniuk, KK).
We had our chances for a couple of years...

 

[MasterD]

What?

I can't tell if this is sarcasm

KK might or might not become a good too 6 center in this league, but call me when he becomes "elite".

I won't be waiting on that call

 

[dcyhabs]

The 93 Habs did not possess any elite forwards and did quite well.

Its about building a well balanced team

Damphousse? Combination of defense and offense was amazing.

 

[MakeTheGoalsLarger]

I actually think Suzuki has more offence than Bergeron

I agree but unfortunately for him he won't have elite linemates.

 

[Sterling Archer]

I agree but unfortunately for him he won't have elite linemates.

I disagree. Caufield has star potential and the perfect linemate for Suzuki to set up.

 

[dcyhabs]

Pacioretty was an elite goal scorer. He also played good defense. Haven't had too much other elite forward talent since the '93 team was demolished in a textbook "how not to succeed in hockey management" series of trades.

 

[Gravity]

I'll say something about life.... it's about patterns. Patterns repeating and patterns changing, sometimes in very extremist ways.

We've had decades where we were lucky enough to have massive amounts of talent and now we seem to flow in a complete opposite stream.

My guess is, it's going to keep going this way and there will come a time where this timing/luck/tendency will completely flip the other way. Call it quantum entanglement, call it luck, but that's my intuition about our future.

Call it time, call it karma, call it justice. I agree though that in all situations time will flip the coin and make the king a beggar and a beggar a king. However, my question is how long until the coin flips again for this org? How long until a Habs GM realizes that you need high end talent to win?

Also if this were entirely the case, then wouldn't the Leafs have won something for all their continued misery? Although I think there is a poetic aspect to it, it really comes down to having a GM identify what it takes to win and ensure to build a team as such. We don't have such as GM.

 

[blarneylad]

When the team has a bad season in a good draft year. And the top3-5 prospects are elite potential. Not your Galchenyuks and Kotkaniemies

 

[Gravity]

When the team has a bad season in a good draft year. And the top3-5 prospects are elite potential. Not your Galchenyuks and Kotkaniemies

Galchenyuk was perceived to have elite potential when he was drafted and the 2012 draft was regarded as quite good at the time.

 

[admiralcadillac]

You have to accept to pay the price to get top end talent.
Montreal doesn't want to pay the price (aiming the series every years).
We had top5 picks (Glacheniuk, KK).
We had our chances for a couple of years...

The only reason the team was garbage is precisely because they wanted to make the playoffs every year without having a team good enough to compete

 

[Habs]

When they learn how to tank like the Penguins and Oilers. Need a top 3 pick, not a 7-10

 

[Tyson]

Damphousse? Combination of defense and offense was amazing.

He was terrific but not elite

 

[Sasha Orlov]

When Suzuki is a top 10 C in 2 years

 

[Legend123]

We're cursed so I'd say never. We never getting an elite superstar forward. The most if we're lucky is by trading or signing an aging one. So don't expect any Matthews or the like for the next few years at the very least

 

[Hins77]

An elite player to me is a guy who are the best in his own skilllsett. So there is maybe 10 elite players in the league? Maximum 15. About elite speed, im thinking to mcdavid. Creativeness playmaking, crosby, having a guy on the back and still playing , malkin. Wrist shot ovechkin. They are elite by their attributes.

 

[26Mats]

As pathetic as this sound, I legit believe Ilya Kovalchuk was our last elite player and we won’t see a player remotely close to this talent for 5+ years.

Kovalchuk had elite hands and a shot - even still in his stint with us. But he had slowed down enough to no longer be elite overall.

But man would I have liked to have seen what he could do for a full 56 games playing in our improved and healthy top 9. I think he would have surprised a lot of people, just as he did in the first half of his first stint here.

 

[HuGo Sham]

after drafting the shit out of C's and D's, it's time Timmins went crazy and drafted 14 wingers next summer

 

[HuGo Sham]

I disagree. Caufield has star potential and the perfect linemate for Suzuki to set up.

he has the hands, but to hit a martin st louis level, he needs to develop big time strength and more of an edge

 

[Gravity]

after drafting the shit out of C's and D's, it's time Timmins went crazy and drafted 14 wingers next summer

I'd keep drafting Cs as well and heavily. Imagine if Tampa thought they were set with Stamkos and Johnson down the middle so they passed on Point and Cirelli?

 

[HuGo Sham]

I'd keep drafting Cs as well and heavily. Imagine if Tampa thought they were set with Stamkos and Johnson down the middle so they passed on Point and Cirelli?

that's true. i was kidding though

 

[Gravity]

that's true. i was kidding though

I know but I'm just so pro continuously drafting Cs as it's such a valuable position that's impossible to fill any other way. However many other posters are not kidding and think we're set up the middle so as to draft for needs, which I think is a tremendously terrible idea.

 

[MasterD]

Galchenyuk was perceived to have elite potential when he was drafted and the 2012 draft was regarded as quite good at the time.

There was debate as to wether or not he was the best of his draft class, but it was widely agrees that his draft class was pretty weak.

 

[Gravity]

There was debate as to wether or not he was the best of his draft class, but it was widely agrees that his draft class was pretty weak.

In relative hindsight (2014 onwards) sure . But I don't recall it being labelled a weak draft class early on during the failforNail campaigns of 2011.

 

[TopTenPlayz]

Who would you consider to be "elite" from the past 30 years?

• Pacioretty
• Radulov
• Plekanec
• Kovalev
• Koivu
• Ryder
• Ribeiro
• Rucinsky
• Savage
• Recchi
• Damphousse
• Corson
• Turgeon
• Bellows
• Muller
• Lebeau
• Leclair
• Savard
• Courtnall
• Richer

Turgeon was elite imo. Damphousse, Recchi, Koivu, Pacioretty and Kovalev were close