Montreal Canadiens: Extending the Window to Compete

The Montreal Canadiens are currently in their window to compete for a Stanley Cup, and they’ll try to keep that window open as long as possible.

The salary cap has made it pretty difficult for the NHL to have yearly domination from teams. The Chicago Blackhawks and Los Angeles Kings had a lot of success with alternating Stanley Cup wins. The Pittsburgh Penguins have also done well for themselves with back-to-back championships. Even though the Montreal Canadiens haven’t been able to win in the last 20 years, there’s still hope that they can in the future.

It’s not just the players on the team that open your path to win, but your cap situation as well. The cap allows you to keep good players for sometime, but eventually you’re forced to make hard moves to compensate for them. Look at what Chicago has had to do in the last few years.

Drafting has become more important as ever. Finding players to insert in your line-up that play more than their worth has been a great way to extend a team’s window to compete. Montreal has been built to be competetive for a number of years, and the moves they’ve done and hope to do in the future will extend that window.

Marc Bergevin mentioned that in the interview he had with TSN’s Bob McKenzie. He told McKenzie that filling inserting young players into the line-up is a good way to ensure that your team steers clear of being a bottom-feeder.

Artturi Lehkonen, Jonathan Drouin, Charles Hudon, Alex Galchenyuk, and Phillip Danault are examples of this. Even now, 19-year-old Victor Mete may make the team out of camp.

Tomas Plekanec, Torrey Mitchell, and Ales Hemsky have one year left on their deals with Montreal and they probably won’t be back. Jacob de La Rose, Martin Rèway, and perhaps Michael McCarron will replace them. Even further down the line, the Habs two gems from the 2017 draft are Ryan Poehling and Joni Ikonen could be option to play.

Having Carey Price for the next eight years will make it pretty hard to be bad (assuming they ever get to that point). As long as he’s the team’s number one goaltender, the Montreal Canadiens will have a chance to compete. It’s up to the coaching staff and the rest of management to insert players into the line-up that can contribute to the team’s success.

If they’re able to do that, then their window can remain open as long as they want it to be.

Next: Laval Rocket Lines and D-Pairings

What do you think about the Habs’ window? Do they have the prospect depth to compete for a long time? Let us know what you think in the comments.

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