Hello All,

I would like to know what you guys think of the chances of the habs to win a cup in next 4 years and the work of Kent Hughes

With one of the best draft class in many years, Kent and the Canadian management decided to trade a 1st and 2nd round pick for Newhook.
Since in position, Kent is trying to hit a home run on every trade and its hard to understand the plan behind his moves.
We can all agree that getting Monahan for free and a first round pick was a great move, same goes for the acquisition of Kirby Dach.
The one trade he should've done was for Dubois. Many think the Kings over paid, but players like this just don't become available especially at 25.
After missing the playoff many times and trading players for draft picks. We have one of the best pool of prospects but no superstar on the horizon.
So giving draft pics or prospects for an established player was a no brainer.
Yes Dach is a top 3 pick but not all players bring the talent to the NHL (Galchen, Kotkaniemi, Leblanc....) and in 4 season in the NHL, wasn't able to play a whole season.
Monahan, is a great player, but also always injured...

I read that if the 2019 draft would be redone and the Habs would draft Dach, Caufield and Newhook, the fans would all be happy.
The problem is not with each player taken individually. But with the plan.

If you look at the teams that won the Stanly cup in the last 9 - 10 years
Chi: Amazing offense with Kane, Toews, Panarin, Sharp, Saad,... Defense: Seabrook, Hjalmarsson, Keith. Kane smallest player a 5'10'' surrounded by monsters
2X Pitt: Crosby, Malkin, Kessel, Hornqvist, Dupuis, Kunitz...Letang, Fleury. Same here team built for the playoffs with no player under 5'11''
Wash: Ovechkin, Backs, Kuzn, Oshie, Eller, Wilson, Stephenson...Carlson, Orlov, Holtby, Grubauer No player under 6'0''
St-L: O'Reilly, Tara, Schenn, Perron, Bozak, Maroon, Pietrangelo, Bouwmeester, Edmunston, Bennington
2xTB: Kucherov, Stamkos, Point, Palat, Cirelli, MAroon, Hedman, Sergy, McDo, Shat, Vasy. Power House
Colorado: Rantanen, Mankinnon, Kadri, Bura, Lendes, Compher, Maker, Byram,...
VG: Stone, Eichel, Marches, Stephenson, Smith, Big D and surprising Goalie

The teams are built on skills, speed, grit and great D.

If we look at our top 9:
Suzuki: 5'11'
Caufield' 5'7''
Dach:6"4''
Gallagher: 5'9''
Pinard: 5'9''
Newhook: 5'10''
Anderson: 6'3''
Monahan: 6'2''
Dvorak: 6'1''

More than half the team is too small, its one thing to have 1 or 2 players well protected but when half your team is too small, its not good for playoffs
If they manage to get to the playoffs, who will be the pest in your face player (Wilson, Stone, Kadri, Maroon...) . Their bigger players are injury prone in Monahan and Dach and Anderson runs like a chicken with no head.

The future players: Slafkovsky, Bech, Mesar, Roy, Farrell, Kidney, are very good but Hughes missed a golden occasion to let go some of them for a proven player who is also French.
With Dubois on the roster, the line up becomes totally transformed and he also removes some of the stress from the Suzuki line.

Its too late now, but hopefully Hughes has a big plan but i am not seeing it.
The other GMs are not idiots. Some of them are stuck with the salary cap but they are not stupid. We should stop with the homeruns and learn from the other teams
We are a dynasty but our last cup is more than 30 years ago.

Your comments are appreciated

I fully support, I have been talking about this with friends for a long time