Montreal Canadiens: Lack of Front Office Confidence

According to an article done by TheHockeyNews.com, the confidence in the Montreal Canadiens front office isn’t at it’s best at the moment.

Dom Luszczyszyn of thehockeynews.com had a pretty creative addition to the site. For the second year in a row, he’s done a Front Office Confidence Ranking. In a nut shell, fans complete a survey on how confident they were in the management group of every NHL team. The results are out and Montreal Canadiens fans may be interested to see where the team ranked.

The teams were ranked based on the overall score from six categories: Roster Building, Cap Management, Drafting and Development, Trading, and Vision. At the end of the survey, the participant was asked how their confidence in the team changed. That information was included in the results as well.

The Montreal Canadiens finished 28th overall. They were ranked in the bottom half of the league for every category. Additionally, the confidence in the team has decreased since last season. It seems like the confidence in Habs’ management isn’t too good at the moment.

Breaking Down the Categories

With the decisions that Marc Bergevin has made lately, this shouldn’t be a surprise. The roster on paper is nice to look at but the team still hasn’t been able to find a number one center. There isn’t a contract that looks bad on the books at the moment. The only one is the Tomas Plekanec deal which will be up at the end of next season. Another concerning contract may be Shea Weber‘s because of the term, but only if his performance takes a steep decline.

The Habs have their fair share of prospects. However, there are none at the moment that scream star. Another thing to add is that the one’s that did have a ceiling similar to that were moved before they could reach it.

Bergevin has made three trades this offseason. He acquired David Schlemko from the Vegas Golden Knights for a 2019 fifth round pick, Jonathan Drouin for Mikhail Sergachev, and Nathan Beaulieu for a third in this past draft. Schlemko will be on the third pair and matches the new blue-line philosophy the Habs appear to be working through. Beaulieu was moved to get value instead of losing him for nothing in expansion. The Drouin trade will be the most impactful going into next season.

Free agency was pretty underwhelming. The biggest signing for the Canadiens on July 1st was Karl Alzner. Although there isn’t an issue with Alzner as a player being on the team, some believe the cap hit to not be ideal. Besides that, the rest of the signings that day were for players who will most likely be on the Laval Rocket.

Overall, the Canadiens’ front office is surrounded with question marks. Bergevin has cap space to work with, but no one can get a sense of what he’ll do with it. Ever since the news that Andrei Markov won’t be returning broke, fans may find it difficult to back the decisions of the Canadiens.

That being said, there is still a month left in the summer. Additionally, there’s another 82-games season waiting to be played. We can’t truly judge Bergevin’s decisions until we see how they fair on the ice. Hopefully Montreal manages to whip something together that will help fans believe in the process. Maybe they’re working on something as we speak.

Next: Offer Sheeting Leon Draisaitl

Do you agree with where the Canadiens ranked? Are you confident in Bergevin and the rest of management? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!

Home/Editorials