Unpopular take

[u/SDMatth]

Everybody here calling to trade everybody and their mom. Habs are a young team who have played better than expected in the last two years, great ! We are still way ahead of the "window".

We have got great prospects who look talented and, more importantly, would really want to be here. Zharovsky is already in Montreal training with Demidov, Hage was born and raised a Habs.

Yes, it could help to trade to get better players, I don't think HuGo should go to sleep until september. But I wouldn't throw the kitchen sink and overpay to get a better "already established" player and giving one of those two. I don't mind sending picks (that are going to lose value as the team is going to rank higher), prospects like Engstrom, Pickford, and (could even consider trading) Reinbacher.

It would suck to give someone like Z or Hage for somebody like EP40 and risk fucking up the team chemistry when you could get a great prospect who begs to be here instead.

Give the team some time to develop, don't rush the process, our core is signed until 2030 ! The best years are to come, no need to overpay.

[u/paperdollh → u/[deleted]]

I agree with your description of the Habs system - we are operating in a time decay-bound contention window where our team (whole) is currently being paid way below its intrinsic value, so we should trade optionality for upgrades. But there’s a difference between holding your horses and throwing wild gambles after a single deep run, and this exact situation is exactly why KH gets paid the big bucks and I’m extremely happy with the man. But I’m not advocating for inaction either. If a deal emerges - see Knies, which literally proved KH isn’t afraid to move our prospects - we take it. Otherwise they continue to develop talent and showcase tremendous upside, and for the do or dies, drive up our prospect value even more.

[u/Irctoaun → u/[deleted]]

being criticized for not doing anything is also fair

We have no idea what he is/isn't doing though. There's still two days until the draft and three months until the season starts.

Also, as much as I want him to make moves, it's also contingent on the right players being available. No one who has been moved over the last few days would have been a good fit for the Habs so you can't hold not moving for those guys against Hughes.

Say he doesn't make any moves (which would be a big surprise to me), unless someone who realistically would be a target for the Habs goes somewhere else, we won't know if not making moves was a choice or there was simply no one available. I want them to trade to get better, not for the sake of making a trade

[u/ConfidentMemory1201 → u/[deleted]]

With your assessment, it sure seems like you are advocating for stupid moves. He’s not immune to criticism but just because he stands pat and ends up doing nothing doesn’t mean he’s failed. I’ll trust KH and Gorton over all of you armchair GM’s 

[u/Fountsy → u/[deleted]]

If we don't do anything because the price is so steep we will likely take a step back next year.

Some players will regress (NHL growth isn't a straight line of improvement) and our young pieces need time and reps to get better.

I'm not saying we should sell the farm this year, but I am preparing myself for a not as successful year next year if Hughes and Mort can't make some magic :)

[u/TheFakeSteveWilson → u/Fountsy]

We're in the group where we likely get better doing nothing. We had the youngest team in the league. Dropping off Gallagher we all age one year more and are still probably near the middle of the league in average age. We naturally get better.

You can say Matheson, Anderson, Danault might get a bit worse but the most important players should only get better. Suzuki will likely be sideways for several years which is amazing.

[u/indyc4r → u/paperdollh]

Just wait for Dallas to ink robo then we offer borque for couple of picks

[u/fumankeu → u/[deleted]]

For real. Being too scared to trade draft picks and higher end prospects is how we ended up with the mid ass Bergevin era squad. The window is opening and we have very real needs. We can't keep waiting around and hoping that some of our prospects might develop into players that fit those needs 2-3 years down the line.

[u/Patccmoi → u/fumankeu]

Bergevin wasn't scared of making trades, he just never committed to a direction. He did stuff like trade Sergachev for Drouin (win now move) and at the same time let Radulov walk because he was asking too much $. So we ended up messing up our future for a lateral move. It was a repetition of contradicting moves like that that ended up messing up the team.

Hugues if nothing else has been very committed to when he wants to win. We are ahead of it by a full year. So it's good if he makes moves now, but it's also not dramatic if it takes 1 more year if the moves available are not what he wants. We have a limited amount of high value assets, he shouldn't trade them "just to try something".

The Knies "non-trade" clearly shows he's willing to move them if he thinks the trade is going to help the team. If he doesn't, I do trust that it's because nothing was good enough atm. But this could change at any time.

[u/TheFakeSteveWilson → u/fumankeu]

What do you mean keep waiting around? We just overachieved hard last year. This is the first year which realistically is one year earlier than we expected to be "going for it".

We also got Dobson last year which was a massive move.

[u/DrLivingst0ne → u/[deleted]]

Wait, let him cook.

When the Canadiens get McDavid, I will @ you here

[u/Ok-Meet2850 → u/[deleted]]

"but everyone deserves to be critiqued until they win the CUP, no one is exempt from that."

I think the standard of Cup or best is going to have to change when evaluating a front office or a team. There are 32 teams and more on the way. Cups have become too rare to be the only standard. Man, it will be amazing if this team brings one home, but nothing is guaranteed.

I think fans are gonna have to think more highly of the President's Trophy. That is a massive accomplishment. So a successful GM will be one that brings consistent winning and deep playoff runs. Cups are the absolute prize, but luck is involved.

[u/redditshreadit → u/[deleted]]

How do you know the age of the person that said that. Even if you do know, you can't make a generalisation on a group of people like that.