Habs just beat Pittsburgh..........................

Pros:

- Young players like Suzuki and Kotkaniemi got vital experience and confidence. Lot of people tend to shrug this off as not a big deal because it kind of feels like an intangible but playoff experience and more importantly success, acts like a multiplier on players development. Every playoff win compounds and really helps a players confidence (assuming they actually played a decent part in the success)
- Players values increased. Guys like Domi and Drouin probably didn't really improve their value but many of the others guys increased their trade values if they should be moved.
- "Once you get in, anything can happen." - I mean I can't stand this motto but yes technically it's true.
- Image. Montreal's image just got a serious bump. With UFA's and resigning players mainly. Maybe not enough to get Hall to come here but even if gets some of the smaller guys t want to come that's good and helping pending UFA's want to resign as well. This win coupled with more wins should help those causes.
- Culture improvement. Winning makes getting better easier (as weird as that sounds). No one wants to be a Sabres, Oilers fan right now. A winning culture is really really important. Consider it another one of those intangible things that can't be quantified but every hockey player will tell you is really important to being "good".

Cons:

- Missed out on 12.5% of Lafreniere. A true stud but not just any stud, a hometown kid that the french media constantly babbles about the Habs never making any major efforts to go out and get.
- Missed out the 9th pick which my gut tells me would have been Jake Sanderson. I think this kid could have been our future pillar on defense similar to Ryan Suter or Ryan McDonagh. For argument sake, assume it isn't Sanderson because he's taken earlier, that means it pushes one of the other guys I had in the top 8, into the Habs slot which I would have been equally happy with. Perfetti, Lundell, Holtz, Quinn, etc. Now with 16th or worse if the Habs manage the impossible, I just feel the quality of pick drops off significantly at....you guess it. 16-18ish.
- Not only do the Habs not get Lafreniere or the 9th pick but now Pitts has that chance at Laf and even if they don't, they get a 10-15 pick which is still gonna be a good player. Another great asset to a team within our conference that already has studs on it.
- Habs lack that superstar player in his prime (Price as amazing as he is getting up there in age) While Suzuki, Kotkaniemi, Romanov, Caulfield could all be really good players, (Suzuki really tooks steps in this playoff) I still think we lack that elite player like Lafreniere. 12.5% was the best odds we've had at a superstar in a long long long time. This really was the year we needed to suck.
- Winning the lottery (although unlikely) would have fast tracked the Habs into being contender soon. Instead having to wait on the development of Suzuki and KK with hopefully Romanov and Caufield take the big step next year. Laf would have given us a true under 23 core of studs. Arguably Sanderson or whomever would have also.

I might have missed a couple aspects but I think I got the important ones out of the way.

How do I feel? My gut tells me this win will come back to haunt the Habs down the road. I think cons are great and definitely will help the future of this team but based on what this team was for 6 months of the year, this team really deserved a top prospect, in one of the best drafts in recent memory, this year.

So.................. how you feeling Habs fans?

@Campabee @GMs @math731 @MTLaveragefan @SevenLeg @DriveFor25 @Blazingbat11 @Kotkaniemi15 @MaxDomi13 @DomCholette @Howisbergevinstillhere @CLR @Bigphil

That was a great summary of the situation. It’s one of those things where your cheering for them to win but deep down you knew we were better off losing.
We’ll never know if we would have got lafrenière and that will be one of the great what ifs, but now you can look forward to the next decade of offersheet, signing and trade of lafrenière rumors.
In the end it’s a HUGE maybe. Maybe we lost lafrenière but maybe not. Maybe we lose a star at 9 but maybe not. Maybe this hurts us but maybe not
Now we just watch this team and hope they go far.

Even if Bergevin is somehow able to trade for Laffy, the amount Habs will have to sacrifice will make the acquisition a bitter sweet deal. Suzuki is basically untouchable at this point imo. But it wouldn’t surprise me that Caufield or KK (maybe even both) along with a bunch of picks will need to get it done.

Not to mention it will depend on what team wins the draft lottery, teams like EDM, TOR, PIT, NSH would much rather have 1 young cheap superstar over any package deal imaginable. Perhaps if WIN or MIN win, a trade might be possible

No one will trade Laffy. That would be very stupid.

I am pissed we won honestly. We badly needed ELITE talent. Because we never attract good ufa, our only way of getting good talent was the draft and we scrapped everything by this fck win. Now let’s hope to have an enough good run to maybe help attract better UFA, but I doubt it .

We will over pay Danault, Tatar,
Gally instead because we won’t have other choice .

I’m not that upset about missing out on Lafrenière. Now if MIN wins the lottery that might change my mind, but I wasn’t getting my hopes up to begin with. I’m a little disappointed that we’ll pick 16th instead of 9th, but we didn’t really NEED to get a high pick, and who knows, maybe we get a really good player, like we did with Caufield last year. Otherwise, I’m excited. Sure I didn’t really need this team to prove that it can win with the core it has, but it’s good to see it nonetheless.

Now I’m just focusing on Philly/Tampa, and seeing what we can do against them. I’m not holding my breath, but it should be fun, win or lose.

A great mystery. Would we have won lafrenière. It seems like Sanderson would have been pick 9 but who the hell knows. The talent does seem to drop off but if you take a swing we could get some good talent at 16 if that where we pick. Gunler, Perrault, foerster, or a safer great pick in Holloway is he’s available

Exactly! To me, the best scenarios on monday (that could help MTL trading for Laf) is WPG or EDM winning it. WPG already have the best depth on the wings in the NHL imo and could use some more prospects and a 2C (Domi). EDM doesnt need another superstar (actually you never have enough of them but) and lack the depth especially in offense...

The horror situation imo for Habs fans would be getting Laf

Lafreniere - Matthews - Marner
Hyman - Tavares - Nylander
Mikheyev - Kerfoot - Robertson
Engvall - Spezza - Kapanen

The third line could easily be a second line, same with 4th (it could be a 3rd line)
And then the Leafs will prolly trade Johnsson/Kerfoot/Kapanen and maybe even Hyman/one of the big 4 on offense

Sucks to not draft Lafreniere, but the Elite talent was top8 Lafreniere Byfield Stutzle Rossi Drysdale Perfetti Raymond Holtz. After it drops at 9 with Sanderson Askarov Quinn Lundell, those will be 9-10-11-12 whatever the order they comes out. 13-14-15-16-17 you have Mercer Jarvis Guhle Schneider Holloway so whoever fell to 16 between those players will probably go at 16.

At least their D wouldn’t be any better. At team that’s good defensively or with a hot goalie could still take them down.

Yeah i mean they could try to trade johnsson+nylander+pick+prospect for Klinger instead of Marner 🤦‍♂️

Well, at least there’s an 87.5% chance that that doesn’t happen. And that’s assuming that they lose tomorrow.

I definitly sucks to trade a chance for laff for a (most likely) short run in the playoffs.

But at the same time, I think it gives a great amount of info for MB to evaluate his players and needs. With KK and Suzy playing some upstanding hockey, guys like Domi, Tatar, Drouin could be involved in a trade this summer to buy some future.

Long term, It can also convince MB to trade with a lot of upside, guys like Gally... if he decides to trust the youth movement. Teams like the penguin, the Jets who have a window right now, could be interested in moving picks and prospect to get a player that is ready right now.

Ex: the Pens... if they pick 9th? (They don't win the lottery) they can't afford to wait 3 years for a prospect to develop, crosby will have earing aids by then.

The habs have 2 different core at the moments - the old core whose window is closing, and the newer core.
It will be hard to keep everybody at the same time. Do we want to give a 5y contract to a 31yo Petry? A 7 years contract to 30yo Gally... ect.

When the young core will get good enough to compete, the old core will be long past their prime. We should take the Ls for the next 2 years... but have an amazing core for the next 10 years after that.

It is all about entertainment. Montreal fans had the pleasure to win a serie against Pittsburg. They will have the ultimate chance to follow a best of 7 serie against Pilly. How much first draft picks do you need to win the cup. Look at the Devils or the Oilers and even the TML. They have issues to win with all their picks. It is all about motivation and chemistry. Losing the lottery is not that bad of an issue. The young players are gaining experience. This Montreal team looks like the 1985-1986 edition. There is a mix of young and veteran. Without all the media pressure, Price, Drouin and all the other could step up and surprise. Anyway, Bergevin wants to draft Askorov with his first round pick. This player will be available at the 16th draft pick. If Mtl wins the serie against Philly, we will have had a great playoff ride.

Attracting UFA is not a garantee of success. Duchene, Panarin....

At 1st , we don’t attract the elite ufa’s. so 0% chance of success . Haha. That’s why we’re bad since 20y. Bad drafting (often mid to late picks) and we can’t attract good ufa (even if risky money wise$$)

IMO who we should shoot for at maybe 16th overall is a sorta risky guy like
Braden Schneider(not really risky, but most mocks have him going early twenties),
Tyson Foerster(the dude can score, and if he’s can sharpen everything else, he’s could be a monster)
Brendan Brisson(don’t know much about him, but he seems legit. Maybe we can get one of his daddy Pat’s clients in free agency?)
I feel like if we take a guy like Holloway, who will for sure end up as at least a middle six guy, we’ll probably get a turnout similar to Cam Fowler’s, which is he has a decent career, but not a game-changing career, which a guy like Foerster might just have.
That’s just what I think, and Bergevin usually doesn’t care what I think

With the amount of second rounders we have Montreal could easily jump back in the top 10 but at 16 you could very well get a faller like Caufield last year that no one expects to drop, it's not ideal to trade away assets but it'd be doable. At the end of the line I'm with you, they should've sucked but it's over so let's just enjoy now.
Latest 16OA picks with NHL games;
Mathew Barzal
Jakob Chychrun
Juuso Välimäki
I'd take any of them any day and guys like Jarvis, Reichel, Holloway or Amirov could all end up being great assets.