Who will be the 2018-19 Golden Knights?

[WatchfulElm]

Please don't take this thread too seriously. I'm aware the Habs don't have a good team on paper at the moment.

But when we look at it closely, there are some strange similarities between next year's Montreal Canadiens and last year's Vegas Golden Knights. Both teams were expected to finish in the basement. Both team lacked star firepower, except between the pipes. Both teams had a nice collection of young 2nd and 3rd line forwards with upside. Both teams had a lot of forward depth. Their roster have a lot of similarities, as you can see here :

1- In the role of the goal scorer who wants to rebound
VGK : James Neal
MTL : Max Pacioretty

2- In the role of a rising star who underperformed so far
VGK : William Karlsson
MTL : Jonathan Drouin

3- In the role of the talented player who's been rejected by TB because of their depth
VGK : Jonathan Marchessault
MTL : Matthew Peca

4- In the role of the 3rd line forward with upside who finally has an opportunity in a top 6 role
VGK : Erik Haula
MTL : Joel Armia

5- In the role of the left wing playmaker
VGK : David Perron
MTL : Max Domi

6- In the role of the underrated right winger
VGK : Reilly Smith
MTL : Brendan Gallagher

7- In the role of the rookie with offensive upside
VGK : Alex Tuch
MTL : Nikita Scherbak

8- In the role of the centerman with a defensive mission
VGK : Cody Eakin
MTL : Tomas Plekanec

9- In the role of the 20 goals scorer who plays on the bottom 6
VGK : Tomas Tatar
MTL : Paul Byron

10- In the role of the european forward who has the potential to break out
VGK : Tomas Nosek`
MTL : Arturi Lehkonen

10- In the role of the 4th line tough guy who can chip in offensively
VGK : Ryan Reaves
MTL : Nicolas Deslauriers

11- In the role of the 4th line Swedish defensive center
VGK : Oscar Lindberg
MTL : Jacob De La Rose

12- In the role of the centerman who can replace on every line
VGK : Ryan Carpenter
MTL : Phillip Danault

13- In the role of the energy depth player who can contribute offensively
VGK : Pierre-Édouard Bellemare
MTL : Andrew Shaw

14- In the role of the veteran top 4 defenseman who can play top 2
VGK : Nate Schmidt
MTL : Jeff Petry

15- In the role of the rookie defenseman with offensive upside
VGK : Shea Theodore
MTL : Victor Mete

16- In the role of the veteran defensive defenseman who will be given an expanded role
VGK : Deryk Engelland
MTL : Karl Alzner

17- In the role of the promising but deceiving young defenseman who is given an opportunity with a new team
VGK : Colin Miller
MTL : Mike Reilly

18- In the role of depth defensive defensemen`
VGK : Brayden McNabb / Luca Sbisa
MTL : David Schlemko / Jordie Benn

19- In the role of the all star goaltender who wants to rebound
VGK : Marc-André Fleury
MTL : Carey Price

20- In the role of the rookie goaltender
VGK : Malcolm Subban
MTL : Charlie Lindgren

Additionally, Montreal has Charles Hudon, Shea Weber, Noah Juulsen and Anti Niemi, for which I could not find any good comparable.
Vegas best players remaining are Brad Hunt, Brendan Leipsic and Jon Merrill.

Now, can we do this exercise for every team, or if there are truly more similarities between 2018 Montreal and 2017 Vegas?

Click to read more...

 

[CantLoseWithMatthews]

Montreal has proven to be terrible, Vegas was an expansion team. not really the same. A lot of your comparisons are huge reaches as well

 

[WarriorOfGandhi]

I'm sold. If Montreal doesn't make the Cup Finals next season it'll be the biggest choke job in the history of professional sports.

 

[Peasy]

A for effort.

 

[Its a Trap]

No...no, there's nothing similar. At all.

 

[solidprospect]

Nobody.

 

[tom leafers]

Vancouver is my bet

 

[De Montreal]

I'm putting some serious money on Montréal to win the East next year. Maybe like 10 dollars.

 

[rent free]

Montreal is a good bet. They had bad shooting percentages and bad save percentages that should rebound to normal next season. Price is healthy and when he's healthy he is elite.

 

[TheGoldenGod]

 

[Saekk]

Just skimmed through quickly, Haula is a center though.

 

[BonMorrison]

How do you delete someone else's thread?

 

[KingsFan7824]

Montreal or Detroit. Probably Ottawa at this point. Maybe Vancouver. I think Buffalo or Arizona might not be completely shocking if they turned it around next year.

99.5% of people would've said of course Vegas won't even be a playoff team, outside of picking them ironically, so, yeah, why not Montreal? Colorado was also a complete mess in 16-17, and pretty much did a full 180 last year. 12 months ago, who thought Sakic was even an average GM? He was just a former big name player that didn't seem to know what he was doing.

 

[A1LeafNation]

The 2017-18 golden knights, but with a few adjustments.

 

[Rebels57]

110% Definitely NOT the Montreal Canadiens.

 

[BlueDream]

Lmao. I see Montreal fans have reached this stage of denial, depserately trying to convince themselves their team is a Cup contender.

I love how you compared Vegas' top 2 centers to WINGERS on the Canadiens (yes, Drouin should be at wing). There's your hint right there... you might want to actually acquire a top 6 center before you can expect your team to get out of the basement.

 

[BladeRunner66]

@OP

Both teams were expected to finish in the basement.

You lost me there while the rest is way too optimistic for some of your Habs players.

 

[WatchfulElm]

Lmao. I see Montreal fans have reached this stage of denial, depserately trying to convince themselves their team is a Cup contender.

I love how you compared Vegas' top 2 centers to WINGERS on the Canadiens (yes, Drouin should be at wing). There's your hint right there... you might want to actually acquire a top 6 center before you can expect your team to get out of the basement.

I see you didn't make it to the first sentence of the op. And apparently you are not the only one.

I just raised some similarities between the 2017 Golden Knights and the 2018 Habs. I thought it would be interesting to discuss even though I don't seriously expect the Habs to get the same kind of success. It would be nice if, for once, people would try to reply to the content of the messages, instead of trying to attribute motives to the op.

 

[Kamiccolo]

Vegas' success was like how prospects come up and destroy the NHL for a bit. Just pure adrenaline. They were united by something bigger than themselves. That does not last. They will miss the playoffs next year.

Habs locker room is defeated. As of now they are going into the season with their captain knowing he is not a Hab long term.

Not even remotely the same.

 

[WatchfulElm]

@OP

You lost me there while the rest is way too optimistic for some of your Habs players.

I don't get your point. Both teams were not expected to finish in the basement?

 

[ek93]

It won't be the Habs, but I appreciate the time and effort it took to make the thread.

 

[WatchfulElm]

Vegas' success was like how prospects come up and destroy the NHL for a bit. Just pure adrenaline. They were united by something bigger than themselves. That does not last. They will miss the playoffs next year.

Habs locker room is defeated. As of now they are going into the season with their captain knowing he is not a Hab long term.

Not even remotely the same.

I totally agree that the momentum is not the same at all. What I wanted to do here was more of a roster comparison. I agree that the intangibles are not the same.

 

[BladeRunner66]

I don't get your point. Both teams were not expected to finish in the basement?

Maybe MTL but not as bad as they did unless your expectation was after the pre-season...

Totally disagree with Vegas, that expansion draft was picked apart by their GM. OK nobody expected them to be that good but basement worth? No way man.

 

[WatchfulElm]

Maybe MTL but not as bad as they did unless your expectation was after the pre-season...

Totally disagree with Vegas, that expansion draft was picked apart by their GM. OK nobody expected them to be that good but basement worth? No way man.

I'm comparing the 2017-18 Golden Knights and the 2018-19 Habs. Both are/were expected to finish in the basement. I haven't read a single magazine that was not ranking Vegas in the bottom 5 last summer.

 

[La Masse]

Montreal is a good bet. They had bad shooting percentages and bad save percentages that should rebound to normal next season. Price is healthy and when he's healthy he is elite.

They have a terrible with Weber and Price.