Downgrading our evaluation of Dmen

Forums/Armchair-GM

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Created by: Ste_Catherine_Street

Team: 2025-26 Montreal Canadiens

Initial Creation Date: Feb. 2, 2024

Published: Feb. 2, 2024

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

Description

Ok, listen. My argument is *currently* Mtl has 2 top4 dmen. (Mattheson and Guhle).
Arber Xhekaj can potentially be a corner piece with what he brings. So, where do we find the other 3 defenders? (2 top2 & 1 bottom pair).
This is my projection for 2025/2026
Don't get caught in the weeds. All I am saying is we are currently overvaluing our defence, we have lots of bottom-pairing dmen and not enough top4

Free Agent Signings

RESERVE LIST	YEARS	CAP HIT
Hutson, Lane	2	$950,000
Fowler, Jacob	2	$950,000
Davidson, Jared	2	$950,000
Konyushkov, Bogdan	2	$1,250,000
Guindon, Cedrick	2	$950,000
Tourigny, Miguël	2	$950,000
Tuch, Luke	2	$950,000
Kapanen, Oliver	2	$950,000
Miller, Quentin	2	$950,000
Xhekaj, Florian	2	$950,000
Sobolev, Daniil	2	$950,000
Engström, Adam	2	$950,000

RFA	YEARS	CAP HIT
Farrell, Sean	3	$1,200,000
Barron, Justin	2	$1,200,000
Guhle, Kaiden	5	$5,000,000
Harris, Jordan	2	$1,800,000
Struble, Jayden	2	$1,500,000
Xhekaj, Arber	4	$3,000,000
Slafkovsky, Juraj	3	$2,500,000
Primeau, Cayden	3	$2,500,000
Heineman, Emil	2	$1,000,000
Dobes, Jakub	2	$1,000,000
Mysak, Jan	2	$1,000,000
Simoneau, Xavier	2	$1,000,000
Trudeau, William	2	$1,000,000

CREATED		YEARS	CAP HIT
1st round pick, 2024		2	$950,000

Trades

MTL

2024 2nd round pick (VGK)
2025 2nd round pick (VGK)

VGK

Additional Details:

Any team, similar value.
All I am saying is they have no place on the team long term

Draft	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5	Round 6	Round 7
2024
2025
2026

ROSTER

LONG-TERM OUTLOOK

EMBED

TEXT-EMBED

ROSTER SIZE	SALARY CAP	CAP HIT	OVERAGES	BONUSES	CAP SPACE
22	$90,000,000	$65,407,500	$0	$1,500,000	$24,592,500

Left Wing	Centre	Right Wing
Caufield, Cole $7,850,000$7,850,000 LW, RW UFA - 6	Suzuki, Nick $7,875,000$7,875,000 C UFA - 5	Slafkovsky, Juraj $2,500,000$2,500,000 RW, LW RFA
Newhook, Alex $2,900,000$2,900,000 C, LW RFA - 2	Dach, Kirby $3,362,500$3,362,500 C, RW RFA - 1	Anderson, Josh $5,500,000$5,500,000 RW, LW M-NTC UFA - 2
Roy, Joshua $835,000$835,000 LW, RW RFA - 1	1st round pick, 2024 $950,000$950,000	Farrell, Sean $1,200,000$1,200,000 RW, LW RFA
Heineman, Emil $1,000,000$1,000,000 LW, RW RFA	Beck, Owen $885,000$885,000 C RFA - 1	Gallagher, Brendan $6,500,000$6,500,000 RW, LW M-NTC, NMC UFA - 2

Left Defense	Right Defense	Goaltender
Matheson, Michael $4,875,000$4,875,000 LD M-NTC UFA - 1	Guhle, Kaiden $5,000,000$5,000,000 LD/RD RFA	Montembeault, Samuel $3,150,000$3,150,000 G UFA - 2
Hutson, Lane $950,000$950,000 LD RFA - 1	Mailloux, Logan $875,000$875,000 RD RFA - 1	Primeau, Cayden $2,500,000$2,500,000 G RFA
Xhekaj, Arber $3,000,000$3,000,000 LD/RD RFA	Reinbacher, David $950,000$950,000 ($1,500,000$2M) RD RFA - 1
Struble, Jayden $1,500,000$1,500,000 LD RFA	Konyushkov, Bogdan $1,250,000$1,250,000 RD RFA

Scratches	Injured Reserve (IR)	Long Term IR (LTIR)
		Price, Carey $10,500,000$10,500,000 G NMC UFA - 1

Feb. 2 at 9:51 a.m.

Just_A_Guess

Joined: Apr. 2021

Posts: 4,889

Likes: 3,248

Trading Barron is a mistake imo. We'll be another 2 years determining what we really have in our defense, trading them prematurely like MTL normally does is not the right course of action.

Feb. 2 at 9:53 a.m.

Ste_Catherine_Street

Thread Starter

Joined: Jun. 2019

Posts: 1,674

Likes: 719

Quoting: Just_A_Guess

Trading Barron is a mistake imo. We'll be another 2 years determining what we really have in our defense, trading them prematurely like MTL normally does is not the right course of action.

Exactly, we still need to evaluate. This is why this is a 2025-2026 team.
A franchise cant afford to wait 4 years to evaluate a dman 2-3 years is enough.

Feb. 2 at 9:56 a.m.

turtlemountain

Joined: Jun. 2015

Posts: 2,697

Likes: 3,013

Reinbacher should be a solid top 4 guy, no?

I think it’s more likely to see Barron becomes a 4/5 guy in the NHL than Xhekaj being anything more than a 7D/role player. Dude would need a lot of growth to justify $3M contract any time in the near future.

Feb. 2 at 9:58 a.m.

Campabee

Joined: Nov. 2018

Posts: 15,512

Likes: 6,439

Edited Feb. 2 at 10:19 a.m.

LOL, Reinbacher's floor is a #3 D man, he is basically Guhle with more offensive upside and a heavier shot. Our future 7 D man based on what we have right now is

Hutson-Reinbacher, these two paired together have similar chemistry and upside as Foote-Osolinsh did in the 90's.

Guhle-Konyushkov, this pairing is more in line with Markov-Subban pairing but I just don't know how physical Konyushkov is.

Xhekaj-Mailloux, this could end up as a one of the best 3rd pairings in the league. Both are physical with good skating and size, on any other team they have the potential to be a 2nd pairing.

Kovacevic as the 7th D man, or someone similar

Ad a side note Konyushkov and Mailloux can be swapped to give a whole new dynamic to the bottom 4 when things plateau or we need a heavier 2nd pairing vs western conference teams

Feb. 2 at 9:59 a.m.

Just_A_Guess

Joined: Apr. 2021

Posts: 4,889

Likes: 3,248

Quoting: Ste_Catherine_Street

Exactly, we still need to evaluate. This is why this is a 2025-2026 team.
A franchise cant afford to wait 4 years to evaluate a dman 2-3 years is enough.

Trading away D too early (again) would just leave a bad taste, I'm willing to wait on Barron in the hopes Reinbacher, Mailloux, and Barron lock up the right side for a decade. Love Matheson but I think Guhle is the 1LD of the future with Hutson and Xhekaj/Struble rounding us out. Trading some of the excess LD in the system makes sense because we have a plethora of them but I'd much prefer to keep our RHD options.

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