Love Letter To HuGo So Far

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Created by: jonh514

Team: 2022-23 Montreal Canadiens

Initial Creation Date: Sep. 11, 2022

Published: Sep. 11, 2022

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

Description

I was not a fan of Pierre Gauthier or Bergevin, but am I the only habs fan who did not know just HOW BAD we had it before? In 10 years Bergevin did nothing to bring me the level of enjoyment and hope I feel after 1 year of Gorton & Hughes. It's not even funny how they've graced this franchise with their imprimatur of class, competence, and stature. Let's review some of the achievements:

Communications:

Bringing in Chantal Machabée who instantly transformed the Canadiens communications room from a reactive foxhole behind enemy lines, to a beautiful puppet show where she and Hughes push all the right buttons and pull all the right strings to get everybody dancing to the same tune

Scouting:

Bringing in Vincent Lecavalier who players and coaches globally will actually talk to and give up the goods on any given player just to have a chance to spend a few minutes with him
Bringing in Nick Bobrov who actually seems to have some convictions in what he is looking for in a player and a strategic approach picking the safe pick in some cases and swinging for the fences with others. The contrast with Marty Lapointe was certainly not lost on anyone.

Coaching & Player Development:

Bringing in MSL and his philosophy that veteran players can and should continue to learn and improve their game until the day they leave the NHL. Just hearing the players speak about him... is it possible he'll be a better coach than he was a player?
Bringing in the incredible Marie-Philip Poulin and ending the stigma that NHL players have nothing to learn about hockey from women. Just listening to the excitement of the kids working with her, they worship her talent and for all that she's done for this country and women's hockey in general
Bringing in Stephane Robidas who courageously said publicly that he's here to work with the kids and teach them how to win, not how to not make mistakes

Drafting:

The courage it took to draft Slafkovsky overshadowed the courage it took to draft Hutson. If those 2 players work out they'll look like geniuses... if they don't many fans will turn on and laugh at them, including Habs fans
The coffers are getting full with lots of great prospects and pretty soon the league is gonna say Montreal has the deepest prospect pool in the league

Trades:

You all know the trades. Bringing in 3 x 1st round picks and Justin Barron & Sean Monahan in a single year. A few other nice prospects as well. Setting himself up to bring in another great haul at the TDL

Boy oh boy this team is on an upward trajectory and I can't wait to see what they do in year 2

Buyouts

Karl Alzner: $833,333

Draft	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5	Round 6	Round 7
2023
2024
2025

ROSTER

LONG-TERM OUTLOOK

EMBED

TEXT-EMBED

ROSTER SIZE	SALARY CAP	CAP HIT	OVERAGES	BONUSES	CAP SPACE
25	$82,500,000	$77,114,166	$1,132,500	$5,070,000	$5,385,834

Left Wing	Centre	Right Wing
Monahan, Sean $6,375,000$6,375,000 C, LW, RW M-NTC UFA - 1	Suzuki, Nick $7,875,000$7,875,000 C UFA - 8	Caufield, Cole $880,833$880,833 ($850,000$850K) LW, RW UFA - 1
Drouin, Jonathan $5,500,000$5,500,000 LW, RW M-NTC UFA - 1	Dvorak, Christian $4,450,000$4,450,000 C UFA - 3	Anderson, Josh $5,500,000$5,500,000 RW, LW M-NTC UFA - 5
Slafkovsky, Juraj $950,000$950,000 ($3,500,000$4M) RW, LW RFA - 3	Dach, Kirby $3,362,500$3,362,500 C, RW RFA - 4	Dadonov, Evgeni $2,500,000$2,500,000 RW, LW M-NTC UFA - 1
Pitlick, Rem $1,100,000$1,100,000 LW, RW UFA - 2	Evans, Jake $1,700,000$1,700,000 C UFA - 3	Gallagher, Brendan $6,500,000$6,500,000 RW, LW M-NTC, NMC UFA - 5
Hoffman, Mike $4,500,000$4,500,000 LW UFA - 2		Armia, Joel $3,400,000$3,400,000 RW, LW UFA - 3
Pezzetta, Michael $750,000$750,000 LW, RW UFA - 1
Byron, Paul $3,400,000$3,400,000 LW, RW UFA - 1

Left Defense	Right Defense	Goaltender
Matheson, Michael $4,875,000$4,875,000 LD M-NTC UFA - 4	Savard, David $3,500,000$3,500,000 RD UFA - 3	Allen, Jake $2,875,000$2,875,000 G UFA - 1
Edmundson, Joel $875,000$875,000 LD/RD M-NTC UFA - 2	Barron, Justin $925,000$925,000 ($212,500$212K) RD RFA - 2	Montembeault, Samuel $1,000,000$1,000,000 G UFA - 2
Harris, Jordan $842,500$842,500 ($507,500$508K) LD/RD RFA - 1	Wideman, Chris $762,500$762,500 RD UFA - 2
Schueneman, Corey $750,000$750,000 LD/RD UFA - 1

Scratches	Injured Reserve (IR)	Long Term IR (LTIR)
		Price, Carey $10,500,000$10,500,000 G NMC UFA - 4

Sep. 11, 2022 at 4:17 p.m.

ht42

Joined: Apr. 2022

Posts: 2,506

Likes: 712

You forget the players development by the management, but I 1000% trust them.

And about free agency when they will be competitive, I hope that playing under MSL will be a huge argument to convince some big name's and somes great players.

jonh514 liked this.

Sep. 11, 2022 at 4:47 p.m.

jonh514

Thread Starter

HuGo is a Boss GM

Joined: Dec. 2021

Posts: 7,142

Likes: 3,111

Quoting: ht42

I thought I said a few nice things about it with the coaching & player development section. Marie-Philip Poulin... I mean wow!

Sep. 11, 2022 at 9:04 p.m.

BoudreauFan

Bruce, There it is

Joined: Sep. 2022

Posts: 117

Likes: 50

Good analysis. I seem to like the moves from Hughes and Gorton like shipping Lehkonen for a great offer and acquiring Monahan from the desperate Flames. HuGo have played ball well.
I, however, feel it was a mistake to select Slafkovsky, but I could be wrong. Gorton's drafting has been hit and miss. He struck on Bergeron, but has struck out on Lias Andersson and Kakko so far. However, he has been doing well so far.

jonh514 liked this.

Sep. 11, 2022 at 9:05 p.m.

BoudreauFan

Bruce, There it is

Joined: Sep. 2022

Posts: 117

Likes: 50

On Bergevin, I think he deserves some love for taking the Canadiens to the finals. You guys are kind of ignoring the fact that Montreal was thrilled to see their team in the finals just a year ago

jonh514 liked this.

Sep. 12, 2022 at 3:15 a.m.

jonh514

Thread Starter

HuGo is a Boss GM

Joined: Dec. 2021

Posts: 7,142

Likes: 3,111

Quoting: BoudreauFan

On Bergevin, I think he deserves some love for taking the Canadiens to the finals. You guys are kind of ignoring the fact that Montreal was thrilled to see their team in the finals just a year ago

It was nice, but honestly it was Carey Price and Shea Weber emptying the tank that got them there. The team had no business being there in the first place and the players he gave big contacts to were not a part of the solution (Gallagher 6.5M/6 years, Anderson 5.5M/7 years, Armia 3.4M/4 years).

The team could not sustainably win and the coach he hired was a total disaster. The assistant coach (and Weber) got them past rounds 2 & 3 when Ducharme got Covid. They actually played better without him.

I do not think Bergevin deserves a lot of praise in the win. His drafting record and inability to make impactful trades speak for themselves. He could not evaluate talent.

He famously said, "you cannot trade for a Center, you need to draft one". In less than 1 year HuGo has traded Romanov for Dach & Cap Space for Monahan. In 10 years Bergevin did not bring in an additional 1st. HuGo has brought us 3 so far in year 1.

Even the Pacioretty trade... He didn't want Suzuki, he almost killed the trade fighting to have Glass. Imagine if he'd gotten his wish where this team would be and how they would feel about the trade.

Sep. 13, 2022 at 3:16 a.m.

BoudreauFan

Bruce, There it is

Joined: Sep. 2022

Posts: 117

Likes: 50

Quoting: jonh514

Thanks for the detailed information

jonh514 liked this.

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