Edited Mar. 5, 2021 at 11:48 p.m.
Excellent question. I enjoy these questions and yes they should be in the forums but hardly anybody reads the forums. Capfriendly, should make the forums a bigger platform or easier to access with maybe a logo button or something. Now back to the question.
From 2012 to 2016, I really wanted Bergevin fired. But also Trevor Timmons. Heck I remember calling my friend Stephan Lebeau and telling him David Fisher will never play one game in the NHL, yet MTL drafted him in the 1st round. Now I believe something happened around 2016. Because Bergevin's style changed to resemble Sam Pollock, the legendary GM of the Habs that many people aspiring to be GM's will study. He was able to not chase big free agents, pluck underperforming players and also move Hab players for draft picks. Since 2017, MTL has had 36 picks. Especially in the last 3 drafts, MTL should have had 21 picks but had 29. Those extra 8 picks, adds a full extra year of draft picks, as teams get 7 picks each year.
So MTL has statistically given themselves better options of having players make it. Each day I see all kinds of trades for LD's, we have Romanov and Edmundson that are very solid and locked players. Chiarot is the weakest this year. Forget about Mete and Kulak. People fall in love with them because they can skate. Mike Reilly can skate like the wind, but produced little, so he is in Ottawa now. Habs have Guhle, Fairbrother, Norlinder, Struble, Harris, Leskinen, Schueneman that all shoot left and can play. Out of those 7 players, 2 will make it. So we can stop with LD trades.
RD, Petry is solid, Weber has lost a step but still efficient plus 5 more years after this year. We have Fleury and Brooke. If one of those guys cannot make it, then we have a need for a RD.
Up front, I divide the 12 into 3 groups. Top 9 wingers, which equals 6 players. Down the middle, your Centres and Your 4th line. Locked in and or keepers are Anderson, Drouin, Gallagher, Toffoli. That leaves 2 openings. I believe one of the openings will be Caufield (2022) and then the following year Ylonen (2023). Rounding out your top 9. I have always liked Tatar but if you sign him where do the two just mentioned play? unless you sign him for 1 or 2 years, but he will fetch something bigger elsewhere and MTL can flip him for picks. Armia, has sick hands, his keep aways are unreal. I understand why Dominic is using him more and trying to get him going. The potential is there. Again, where does he play in coming years?
Now to tackle the Centres. We all see the crazy potential in Suzuki and he will only get better. MTL has been screaming for someone like him for 20 years. Next is KK, lately people are yelling at Bergevin for not drafting Tkachuk but remember MTL only got Suzuki after that draft was over, so picking KK was a massive need. We also see the potential in KK. He is still only 20 years old. He will be a solid player in about 2 to 3 years until he is 30-32. So it was a very good pick. Not saying Tkachuk will not have a good career, he will and he will be the next captain. Now we get to Danault. We all love him, good guy, good player but for 3 years he was the #1 Centre and the most he gave you was 12-13 goals in a full 82 game season. People have said yes but Lemaire was a defensive Centre between Steve Shutt and Guy Lafleur. Go look at Lemaires goals each year, much higher than Danault. He is a 3rd line Centre, a very good one. Will he accept that? probably not because it means minimum $2 Million less per season. So, I see him gone next season. I would like to keep him but I believe he is gone by seasons end. Evans is very smart and a player I have known since 2012 when he was in my hockey camps. Very cerebral player, vastly improved on face off's. He is a good 4th line Centre but would not be surprised if he plays most of his career as a 3rd line Centre. So Montreal needs 1 more Centre should Danault leave. I have watched Poehling in Laval and so far I am not convinced. He shows flashes but lacks consistency. Another guy is Vejdemo. He is good on face off's, excellent speed, good passer. When he plays north south, he is dynamic and noticeable. When he plays west east he disappears. Joel is working on that with him.
That leaves Lehkonen, Byron as 4th line wingers. They are actually really good but as we all know paying Byron $3.4 and Lehky $2.4 to play on 4th line is a lot of bacon. So do you bring in wingers that love to hit and you can pay $750 per season? So I would say keep Bergevin because his last three drafts have been good and he has brought in good mostly players.