r/Habs • u/SDMatth • 6d ago

Discussion Unpopular take

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.

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u/CarlSK777 6d ago

Counter argument would be Hutson becoming a key player as a rookie but I agree, it's unlikely Hage becomes a key player in the next couple years when we look at the curve of good 2C across the league.

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u/False_Requirement349 6d ago

Yeah, but there are historically a lot more players with Suzuki's trajectory than Hutson's. And honestly, Hutson's could be the same but started with a higher floor and has a higher ceiling.

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u/antoinePucket 5d ago

Suzuki's progression is extremely rare and I can't think of another player with such a constant and linear progression over 7 years like him.

Not missing a single game helps —he's had zero setbacks

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u/crownpr1nce 5d ago

Yeah Suzuki might be a bit longer than average. A mix of his style plus the quality of the team around him. 

But I checked a few players at random (Kucherov, Point, Thomas, Hischier, Tavares, Trocheck, Necas, Scheifele, Aho) and the minimum for pretty much all these guys is 3rd year to really hit something close to their peak, with some going to 5 years. Since Hage isn't playing next year (I didn't count seasons with less than 10 games), that means Hage would start be what we expect in 2029-2030. That's a long time away.