"Haven't won with this core and every year gets worse and worse. We'll just overpay our players and make them untouchable"

Great logic to build a winning team.

The way I see it, the Habs should be positioning themselves thusly for the 2021-22 season (first year of Gally's new contract):

Drouin-GUY-Gallagher
Domi-JK-Suzuki
Lehkonen-Poeling-Caufield <---- Caufield may not be quite ready*
Guy-Guy-Guy

GUY-GUY
Mete-Weber
Romanov-Guy

Price
Primeau

I know this won't be popular among Habs circles, but I don't see JK as being a 1C. I think he will be a good 2C, but I don't think he can be a high end 1C modern teams need to build around. I also don't see Romanov as being a 1LD, but rather a 2nd pair/top 4 guy. He will still be developing at this point which is why he is on the 3rd pair but still.

You need to draft a 1C, a 1LD, and a 1RD. You can make due with getting a 3rd top 4 LHD and just roll the left side, but that means you will need a VERY good young RHD coming up.
Tank the season, draft well and you have a shot (ofc there arent many good 1C's or 1D's in this draft but do your best lol). While you are at it tank next season too and you should be primed to contend for YEARS if you do it right. This team is sooo close but I think they aren't going to take the bold (and unpopular) steps required and will hamstring themselves because of it... Not that I'm complaining lol.

This core you mean Plekanec Galchenyuk Pacioretty Markov Desharnais Eller Beaulieu Gilbert Emelin ?

Switch them for Danault Domi Tatar Petry Byron Armia Weber Suzuki via trades
Draft : Price Gallagher Lehkonen Mete Poehling

Now they'll try to win with Domi Drouin Gallagher Danault Lehkonen Weber Price as Vets and Adding yougster like Suzuki Poehling Fleury Kotkaniemi Romanov Primeau Caufield Ylonen Brook to that core

Drouin-Danault-Gallagher
Domi-Kotkaniemi-Suzuki
Lehkonen-Poehling-Caufield
Byron-Evans-GUY

GUY-Weber
Mete-GUY
Romanov-Fleury

Ylonen(RW) Brook(RHD) Norlinder(LHD) could all be add

Danault is a 3C on a deep team due to his utter lack of offence (great defensive centre tho, JK will take over that role while adding offence, hence the 2C evaluation). I've also heard from Habs fans here that they likely wont keep Danault due to cap reasons.

I am expecting Weber to decline more by then, but even then my point of you needing to draft a #1RHD of the future still stands.

Don't see any of those guys being a #1. You have tons of depth but you need a really high end talent.

I know but since the media and fan base are totally against a rebuilt, we'll have guys like Danault as our 1C. But saying Danault is a 3C is an insult, he's a solid 2C like Plekanec was

Tavares have 5 more points than Danault ...

He'd be a solid 2C if he contributed offensively at all, but because he doesn't he'd be relegated to a 3C on a team not desperate for centres. He can fill in at 2C well enough, but he certainly isn't ideal.

The Habs are in a very interesting position where they have most of the pieces, so a re-build would be incredibly short (and a poor description of what is actually happening). If you really break it down to the bare bones, they are one good draft away from contention. They need 2 pieces (as long as one is a 1C and the other is a 1D (of either handedness).

said no one who's watched a game in 2 years .

i would have 100% agreed before his consistency kept increasing in all Possession area's and production wise at both ends.

Plus and most Glaringly Obvious is the Coach that Plucked Bergeron off 3rd LW when Savard went down after just taking over a Bruins team that traded Thorton was forced to build his top 6 center core on the fly with a Green Krejci and an untested Bergeron. Now this same Coach says almost every time he comments on Danault that he reminds him of a young Bergeron and that tells me at the very least he's got 2nd line Center potential on a Contender .

i know you guys like to be petty about things never giving credit where its due but its 2020 guy its time you update your facts or stop sitting on your shoulders .

Points are a poor evaluation tool.
He is actually dragging his linemates down offensively, and being propped up by them (I cant seem to find the chart, will post if I do).

wtf good does that do us ?
he's covering all our defensive holes with Lehkonen and we have big defensive holes

if Danault stops fore checking and back checking every shift to try and score we're down 5-1 by the time we get that goal

you just based your entire evaluation on why Danaults a 3rd based on points . . .

Be Accountable

Also Literally Every Team Mate going back to Junior when he played here in Moncton says the opposite
Jaskin was a nobody on our team before Danault was brought in then went over a point per game in some ridiculous 5-6 point nights more then once being placed by Danault .

Jaskin finished 4th in QMJHL scoring as a 3rd line Checker

Danault beside Gallagher was the first 30 goal season he ever had and has been with Danault since .
Tatar was a throw in thought to be a cap burden , placed beside Danault back to back career high years

Be Accountable

Ummm, no I didn't lol. I am evaluating by isolated impact through a RAPM regression model. Christ you are just making assertion after assertion in this thread and whiffed on all of them. Good lord this is bad.

you're not though , you're saying stuff without any basis in reality

Danault + Gallagher = Gally's only 30 goal seasons
Danault + Tatar = back to back career years after being considered a capdump in a trade

i know explaining this wont mean crap because you dont rely on such things as Facts and Logic but i do .
Here's a little taste of all things habs and a statistical breakdown on a level no other Fanbase has brought to you by my Province University.
Browse around , soak it in and realize how wrong you are .

Not to forget every interview with every player asked about him always gives Danault a ton of credit especially Gally who loves bragging up Phil.

I'm afraid you're just wrong on this one .


http://www.cs.unb.ca/~mwf/habs/

Bro at 24 yo people were saying is a 3rd liner at 25 yo Danault hit 53 points people were saying in an ideal world he's a 3C now he's going for 60+ and he's still a 3C ? So he needs to put up 90 points to be what a 2nd line center ?

Oh sweet jesus...

Has nothing to do with points. Literally nothing at all.

ok but he's doing everything perfect on the ice, he's a ROR Couturier Bergeron type of guy with less offensive skills but still

He has no offensive skills, that is the issue. Hold on I am trying to find the thing

@Billy739 @SevenLeg ahah Danault have no offensive skills lmao

some people dont know hockey and Random2152 is one of them .

i mean its one thing to be wrong or even have a different opinion .
he had none whatsoever just a predetermined notion set in stone that can never change .

my Grandfather was like that , if Don Cherry didnt say it then it wasnt real .
Old people are just that way and i blame lack of desire to educate themselves.


its my bad i fed the troll
after reading his posts i just felt pity more then anything

Uhh buddy, you know you just described yourself right? See my last post.

yeah i dont expect him to wise up
a lost cause is a lost cause

he expects the best defensive player who's also double shifting to take faceoffs for Domi to also score goals .

Given his job is to basically be a 3rd D as our D cycle in and attack in the OZ it tells me this Jamoke hasnt watched a single habs game nor does he understand our system .

as original as your name
i dont trust people without an original thought who just borrow from smarter people without understanding the context

i'm not your dad , stop trying to get my approval lmfao