HF Habs: Your Thoughts on the 2022 Class

[Vachon23]

I mean, was Kotkaniemi a better pospect than Quinn Hughes and Noah Dobson? He was in the NHL at 18 and did infinitely better than Slaf.

When they were 18 ? Yes

 

[Miller Time]

Slaf is not a bust and there is no way anybody can claim such a thing and have any credibility.

With that said, he did not earn a spot on the NHL roster (he was outplayed by both Beck and Mesar) and was behind the play a significant enough amount of times that almost every Habs fan would admit he looked unprepared or “raw”. So his playing in the NHL the past season is not indicative of his trajectory or quality, the Habs would’ve rushed Wright or Nemec or Jiricek if they had drafted any of them too. Cooley was likely committed to the NCAA and would’ve been spared such a fate.

So much wrong about this take lol

Funniest part is that you seem to flip flop in your own definition of "earned" depending on what argument you are trying to make.

Go back and read what the coach and GM said about their decision to keep Slaf in the NHL... Completely contradicts this weak take.

Context & facts don't seem to apply to your (poor) takes on Slaf. Such an odd obsession.

 

[montreal]

just starting to get into the OHL playoffs, but watching a little of Beck vs Goyette, I so badly wanted us to get Goyette along with Tucker Roberston and to trade down for Nazar if it got us a late 1st. I didn't know Kulich or Mesar but since teams almost never trade down from 1st OA, man would things look different right now if we got Cooley, Kulich, Goyette and Hutson with our first 4 picks.

Of course time will tell and you just hope that the scouts know what they are doing and that this new development team can get the job done.

 

[jfm133]

Engstrom, and Hutson, if he can mature into a frame that is strong enough, could save this draft for HuGo. Beck will make it, just hard to know his future role at this point, more likely a bottom-6. Mesar? Another very small player. Hard to say at this point. Then there is the elephant in the room with Slaf. Impossible to count him out as a potential good player, but there is more doubts today than after he was drafted. He showed very little this year because he was clearly not ready for the NHL.

His place was in the OHL to hopefully dominate. This kid never dominated a league since the junior in Finland when he was 16. I watched Heineman and Struble with Laval, these guys are 21, so closer to maturity and close to be ready for the NHL. Both will be 22 next year when they will try to make the NHL team. The difference between 18 and 22 is enormous for non exceptionnal players. It was hubris on the part of Gorton and Hughes to keep him in Montréal this year. They wanted their shinny new toy close to them, such a mistake.

 

[Canadienna]

It was hubris on the part of Gorton and Hughes to keep him in Montréal this year. They wanted their shinny new toy close to them, such a mistake.

I think you make a lot of fair points in your post, but imo I feel Slaf would have been sent down if he had not been injured.

We'll never know, but I fully support starting him in Laval next year if he fails to impress over camp.

 

[SlafCaufield]

i cant believe there are people in here calling Slaf a bust

i guess nobody watched Tage Thompson this year because that is the mold of what Slaf will become

 

[Mrb1p]

i cant believe there are people in here calling Slaf a bust

i guess nobody watched Tage Thompson this year because that is the mold of what Slaf will become

Nobodys calling him a bust

How many Tage Thompson cases are there in the NHL?

just starting to get into the OHL playoffs, but watching a little of Beck vs Goyette, I so badly wanted us to get Goyette along with Tucker Roberston and to trade down for Nazar if it got us a late 1st. I didn't know Kulich or Mesar but since teams almost never trade down from 1st OA, man would things look different right now if we got Cooley, Kulich, Goyette and Hutson with our first 4 picks.

Of course time will tell and you just hope that the scouts know what they are doing and that this new development team can get the job done.

Picking Mesar ahead of Kulich stings, as of today. To me Kulich is a lot of what the Habs need. Strong, fast, north south shooting winger vs a small close space player.

 

[SlafCaufield]

Nobodys calling him a bust

How many Tage Thompson cases are there in the NHL?


Picking Mesar ahead of Kulich stings, as of today. To me Kulich is a lot of what the Habs need. Strong, fast, north south shooting winger vs a small close space player.

Mesar was our only bad pick of the draft

 

[Mrb1p]

Mesar was our only bad pick of the draft

How can you be so definitive about the Mesar pick but not the Slaf pick and Beck? Theyve both been outplayed by players picked after. Cooley, Nemec and Jiricek and Luneau and Firkus and others.

 

[SlafCaufield]

How can you be so definitive about the Mesar pick but not the Slaf pick and Beck? Theyve both been outplayed by players picked after. Cooley, Nemec and Jiricek and Luneau and Firkus and others.

slaf is a big body that once he matures into himself is going to be a beast for us

there was a reason Beck was added to the world junior team, he has leadership qualities that you cant teach

Mesar is an offensive smaller player that seems too be struggling to be an offensive player in the OHL,, I fear that we chose him to give Slaf some comfort and that was a huge mistake by HUGO

 

[417]

Nobodys calling him a bust

How many Tage Thompson cases are there in the NHL?

of players breaking out at 23 years old?

I’d reckon quite a bit

 

[1909]

Mesar was our only bad pick of the draft

Rohrer is not far behind....

 

[abo9]

of players breaking out at 23 years old?

I’d reckon quite a bit

Tage Thompson is 14th in pts in the entire NHL...

But yeah Slaf has plenty of time to develop, I thought it was pretty well accepted after the draft that Slaf was a project

But like Kotkaniemi, as soon as they touch NHL ice the word "project" gets thrown out

 

[NobleSix]

People need to pump the f***ing brakes on some of these takes in this thread my god

 

[Boss Man Hughes]

I think you make a lot of fair points in your post, but imo I feel Slaf would have been sent down if he had not been injured.

We'll never know, but I fully support starting him in Laval next year if he fails to impress over camp.

As I have said before HuGo may not trust Houle to develop prospects. They know St Louis can.

 

[jfm133]

Once he matures, maybe, but he was clearly not mature enough this year, so why did they decide to keep him? The reason given by Hughes this winter is not a good one. He said they kept him to be able to closely follow his "development". Also, the kid gave the worst possible answer when he said he tought that the best place to learn to play in the NHL was by playing in the NHL. That is a sophism. If you are not ready to play in the NHL, it's not good to play at that level. He came close to be destroyed a couple of times at least. In fact, HuGo are lucky that Slaf was not more severely injured this season.

Also, I am not calling him a bust, it's way to early to say that, like I never called KK a bust. But one thing is sure, HuGo did not help the kid this year. If he would have dominated the OHL and would still play in the playoffs there, everybody would be positive about his future. Instead of that, there is more doubts about him, and next year there will be more pressure on him to live up to his first overall status. Maybe he will deal well with that, but again, it would have been much easier for him to come out of a great junior season. And the other reason not to keep him this year is obvious, the team was not ready to compete, they did not need him.

Also, all the good young players coming with the team in the last few years, Suzuki, Romanov, Caufield, Guhle, Harris, Xehkaj, Barron, Ylonen and RHP, they all played at least two years post draft at a lower level of competition. The only one that struggled, is KK, and himself now says he should have played in Finland at 18 in his post-draft season. Dach is also another example this year of a player that needed maturity. Lafrenière and Kakko should have been other red flags for Gorton. I really like what HuGo did since taking over, but the Slaf case is the outlier and even if Slaf ends up being a Rantanen, I will still think it was not the right decision. And they burned an ELC year for nothing on top of it.

slaf is a big body that once he matures into himself is going to be a beast for us

 

[EXPOS123]

Rohrer is not far behind....

I think people are overhyping Hutson too much.

Read an article in Journal de Montreal on the opinions of 2 scouts about him and both basically said they have a hard time seeing him succeed in the NHL

His lack of size and skating are obstacles that in their opinion would be very difficult to overcome.

As much I thought the previous regime drafted poorly, the first draft under Hughes thus far appears to be just as underwhelming - which is bad news given how we are supposed to rebuild through the draft.

I hope im wrong, but I still don’t believe we have a good enough prospect pool.

 

[ReHabs]

So much wrong about this take lol

Funniest part is that you seem to flip flop in your own definition of "earned" depending on what argument you are trying to make.

Go back and read what the coach and GM said about their decision to keep Slaf in the NHL... Completely contradicts this weak take.

Context & facts don't seem to apply to your (poor) takes on Slaf. Such an odd obsession.

He didn’t earn a spot out of camp and it wouldn’t be the first or last time the Habs organization fibbed to justify a decision that later proved to be a mistake.

You surely believed Bergevin when he said the Habs were better after signing Alzner, Hemsky, and Streit and releasing Markov and Radulov. Right?

I don’t believe I am or have “flip flopped”, I think all along I’ve sustained the same suspicion that Slaf was not ready to play in the NHL and his own erratic performances were evidence enough for most of us who haven’t made this a partisan “Protect the Habs organization at all costs” thing.

When Slaf had the mini hot streak, I wanted him to play more minutes. When he was ice cold I wanted him in the AHL so he could produce and learn how to reproduce against tougher opposition than he’s used to.

Ever since Slafkovksy’s massive injury outlay, the pressure is on the Habs organization in a bad way — if he doesn’t make the team out of camp next year, there is hardly any justification or good result of him making the team out of camp this year. So they’re likely going to give him a spot whether he earns or it not, we should hope he puts those doubts to rest because it won’t be just a few of us rolling our eyes at that point.

 

[ReHabs]

Tage Thompson is 14th in pts in the entire NHL...

But yeah Slaf has plenty of time to develop, I thought it was pretty well accepted after the draft that Slaf was a project

But like Kotkaniemi, as soon as they touch NHL ice the word "project" gets thrown out

1) You don’t draft projects with the 1OA because it’s very hard for them to succeed in nailing all their improvements and become a realized end product.

2) Tage Thompson is an outlier in every way but is especially a bad comparison to Slafkovsky.

 

[Whitesnake]

People need to pump the f***ing brakes on some of these takes in this thread my god

I would have love for this organization to ALSO pump the brakes on kids. Our pros make comments. Our pros decide that these young players are READY for the NHL. But then we blame fans for having expectations...

Also in this board, being dissapointed or recognizing a bad stretch or a bad year AUTOMATICALLY means calling a prospect a bust....

And finally, it's insane how poster's opinions are more scrutinized than the actual pros being paid the big bucks to make those decisions. The day that a poster who uses 1% of his actual time to be as right as a guy who uses 100% of his time for the same result is the day that you should acknowledge how those pros are insanely bad....

 

[CHwest]

Tage Thompson is 14th in pts in the entire NHL...

But yeah Slaf has plenty of time to develop, I thought it was pretty well accepted after the draft that Slaf was a project

But like Kotkaniemi, as soon as they touch NHL ice the word "project" gets thrown out

Neither one of them should not have been in the NHL at 18. In my mind you need to be pretty special to be in the NHL at 18. But yes Slaf has time.

 

[Whitesnake]

How can you be so definitive about the Mesar pick but not the Slaf pick and Beck? Theyve both been outplayed by players picked after. Cooley, Nemec and Jiricek and Luneau and Firkus and others.

Mesar should be dominating with his eyes close. Beck plays a pro game. Beck could have 0 points that you could EASILY see him as a future 3rd line C while Mesar if not scoring could easily not make it.

Cooley, Nemec and Jiricek were outplaying Slaf for one good reason...their respective teams made them follow the appropriate development course. If Slaf would have been playing in juniors, we'd be drooling right now. Yet, he'd be the same Slaf.

Yeah, there could be better picks. There often are. But at the very least you still want to get a guy who plays a significant role no matter how ''worst'' he is than the guys picked later. I believe Beck has the game to be significant. I believe Slaf could be too. Remains to be seen how Mesar will be....

 

[Rapala]

Looking back a sense of "left wanting more is palpable." Perhaps because of what is coming down the pipe this upcoming draft.

I think Slaf can become a force but like every very good player in this league he is going to show the desire and drive to get there. We saw the big goofy kid in him on more than one occasion this season and I remember remarking on how missing out on playing with kids in his own age group sucks in some ways. Toss a coin. Better to produce at a very high level in junior and play for your country at the WJHC or to play limited minutes in an NHL environment learning the Pro routine? I opted for the former and at first glance seeing him hone his skills/Dominate at that level would have been reassuring. The argument that he was too good for that league is about as bogus as it gets for me. He wasn't isn't and never will will be Connor Bedard.
The Dach move will very much depend on how much hockey we get out of him in the upcoming years but it looks like a winner. I'm not a big fan of the Mesar pick because he does look like more of the same and will probably not end up being BPA in that spot. With regards to the susequent picks I think we all realize the impossibility of all those players graduating. So The ultimate litmus test for me will be who stays who goes and what do we get in return. There is also a secondary team to fill so we do have to look at who may end up being a good fit there.

The jury is still out as it should be for another two years.

 

[abo9]

1) You don’t draft projects with the 1OA because it’s very hard for them to succeed in nailing all their improvements and become a realized end product.

2) Tage Thompson is an outlier in every way but is especially a bad comparison to Slafkovsky.

Did the Habs really have a choice? Nobody from that draft played in the NHL in their first season (a consistent role anyway). They were all "projects" to a certain degree.

 

[_vivelequebec_]

Slafkovsky starting in the NHL was so wrong for obvious reasons. I still trusted the management, but damn…

1) he was gas out after playing a lot of games in 2021-2022, no way he was ready for 82 games 2) you want him near to control his development, that’s not why we moved our farm team from Hamilton? 3) Heineman is GPG against AHLers like Slaf was at the Olympics, that doesn’t make him an NHLer (and he’s 2 years older) 4) we knew we were to have a really bad season, 18 yo will learn nothing in defeat and we burnt his first ELC 5) at least send him to the WJC 6) now we gonna be super protective and probably won’t play straight to the NHL the next kid who deserves it.