If you guys had read my previous article, you’ll know this is answering that. It is indeed time to hit the panic button and start selling for the future. The Montreal Canadiens are once again on a 8 game winless streak, and now fans are starting to look ahead to the Quebec born wonder, Alexis Lafreniere, and hope the Canadiens win the lottery and select him at this year’s draft, which ironically is being held in Montreal, so that would be a treat for the fans. However, that’s still too far ahead, so we’ll focus on what the Canadiens should be doing instead of what they are doing from now until the draft
- Start tanking IMMEDIATELY: If the Canadiens want to have the best shot at getting Lafreniere, they have to get behind Detroit, who’s dead last in the league right now. As hard as this is to say, it’s only fitting, because even if the Canadiens miraculously make the playoffs, they don’t have the players that can take over a game for them. Lafreniere is exactly that type of player they need desperately. Hopefully, management sees this, same for ownership.
2. Offload your assets at the trade deadline: According to Pierre Lebrun, Marc Bergevin and co. are meeting today for their pro scout meetings, and on the agenda supposedly, is to determine what their game plan will be for the rest of season. After hearing that Drouin and Armia won’t be back until after the All-Star break(both have been out with injuries), it’s safe to say that now, Bergevin should be leaning towards trading any expiring contracts or anywhere close to that and getting value in return. Whoever that may be, IIlya Kovalchuck, Marco Scandella, even Tomas Tatar, who’s having another good year, has this year and next year remaining on his deal, so if the Canadiens were to make him available, the return for Tatar would be quite profitable(1st round pic, an A prospect perhaps). Marc Bergevin should be looking at every option when the trade deadline arrives. Jeff Petry is another player to watch out for, who, same as Tatar, has this year and next year remaining on his contract, so it’ll be interesting to see what happens come trade deadline.
3. TRADE Price and Weber in the offseason: Ray Ferraro said it best on TSN 1050 yesterday, “The Canadiens are trying to go in two different directions at the same time right now, and that’s clearly not working. In one direction, they’re trying to win now with Carey Price and Shea Weber as their core leaders, and in the other direction, they’re stockpiling prospects and playing them in the lineup where they don’t get much playing time. It just doesn’t work; the losing doesn’t help either obviously, and the problem with a $10 million goalie is the league has made that position less dominant”. Boy, did he hit the nail on the head there! Fact is, Weber and Price are never going to win a cup if they stay on this team. This team is getting younger, and they are not. Trade them now while they can, and they can still get a decent enough return that includes draft picks and prospects whereas Price and Weber can solidify a contending team and help them towards the goal that every player wishes of getting.
4. Start giving bigger ROLES to the younger players: Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Nick Suzuki, Cale Fleury and heck we’ll put Victor Mete because he’s in the same category with these guys, even though he already 3 years of experience. Suzuki is blossoming playing beside Max Domi, Kotkaniemi is holding his own on the 3rd line and Cale Fleury is doing particularly well, but with the Canadiens playoff hopes rapidly vanishing, it’s time to start seeing what these younger players have got by putting them in bigger roles. Suzuki can stay where he is, Kotkaniemi should be tried as the first line centre with multiple responsibilities and Fleury should be put in the top 4, so he can get more ice-time and get some offensive production going because he’s shown he has the potential to be a really good defenceman.
All in all, if they can go in this type of direction, hope can once again be restored and fans can start believing that the Montreal Canadiens can once again be a Stanley Cup winning team, with a newly adopted philosophy and culture.
JV Sports Blog 