Canadiens: Building a Champion: Key Advantages for 2016

To the average hockey fan, the Montreal Canadiens‘ 2014-15 regular-season record of 50-22-10 stands as an incredible accomplishment and proof that a very good team once again graces the ice of Canada’s second-largest city.

Despite their second-round exit at the hands of the Tampa Bay Lightning in a close six-game series, the team showed flashes of brilliant play and strong team chemistry that should bode well for seasons to come.

To the Habs faithful still thirsting for their team’s first Stanley Cup since 1993, however, this season fell painfully short of expectations and left many–including myself–wondering what went wrong.

They’re still too small. Not enough scoring. Not physical enough. Too much reliance on Carey Price.

None of that matters now as they begin building towards next year with three of the biggest advantages in the league today: a creative GM in Marc Bergevin, a dynamic young core, and the best goalie on ice today.

The always-crafty GM has yet to make a significant blunder as he works to make a championship squad. In building through the draft and making effective trades, Bergevin constructed a team with great chemistry and incredible skill.

Do they still have to fix an abysmal power play and add scoring depth? Of course, and Bergevin knows that; one of his greatest strengths is constantly talking with teams about potential trades, pulling off moves that prove more beneficial than expected.

For example, take the trades that brought Thomas Vanek and Jeff Petry to Montreal. Vanek’s lack of production in the playoffs showed he wasn’t worth a long-term investment, while Petry’s dynamic play showed he’s a top-four defenseman worthy of his newly minted six-year deal.

In his first taste of NHL playoff hockey, Petry dazzled with two goals and three points in 12 games while playing solid defensively and adding a new level of offense from the point. As Petry will undoubtedly look to prove he deserves the hype, his name is merely the latest addition to the young core that looks better with each passing season.

Petry joins Brendan Gallagher, Alex Galchenyuk, P.K. Subban, Nathan Beaulieu and Max Pacioretty as one of the best young cores in the league, both in terms of sheer skill and overall potential. Even when one or two of these players struggle, the rest of the group picks up the slack, playing exciting hockey that again makes Montreal a champion threat.

With steady contributions from role players like Dale Weise and veterans like Andrei Markov, this core grows with every game into a lineup that can beat any team on any given night.

Not surprisingly, the team’s biggest threat can regularly steal wins away from even the best teams, and is the Habs’ key to making a deep playoff run.

Carey Price comes off a highly successful 2014-15 season in which he led all players in accolades at the NHL Awards gala to go along with a league-best 44 wins, .933 save percentage and 1.96 goals-against average.

Price’s historic season officially marks his maturing into the thoroughbred many claimed him to be with the fifth overall pick in the 2005 NHL Entry Draft, as he now sits as the cornerstone to a team ready to earn its first championship in over 20 years.

Regardless of the subsequent trades Bergevin may make or how the young core may fluctuate, Price remains the key to the team’s future, and is with every game proving himself as one of the greatest goaltenders of my generation.

Just like Patrick Roy, Ken Dryden, and Jacques Plante before him, Price has the potential to lead his club to the promised land and bring the Cup back home to Montreal.

After all, who better to carry the torch than one of the biggest faces in the game today?

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