Montreal Canadiens: 22 Things For Habs Fans to Look Forward to in 2022

2021-22 Season will End

The best thing about 2021 was the playoff run that kind of came out of nowhere. That is not going to happen in 2022. Even in a 30 team expanded postseason, the Canadiens would be one of the two teams to miss out. A 2022 playoff run is just not happening.

One of the best things that will happen in 2022 is the 2021-22 season will mercifully end for the Montreal Canadiens and its fans. By the end of October, fans were looking ahead to the offseason and hoping for a better year next year.

Well, it is going to take a while, but this season, which could be the worst even in Canadiens history, is scheduled to finally end of April 21st 2022. Of course, with all of the postponed games that could get pushed back a bit yet, but at some point in 2022, the Canadiens will finally wrap up a truly awful and disappointing season.

They lost their first five games, and now sit at 7-23-4 after 34 games. It feels hard to believe that they aren’t even halfway done and still have to play 48 more games this season. It is one of the longest “dead team walking” seasons in NHL history, but it will come to an end sometime in 2022 and we can start to move on.

There will be home games again

At some point, there will be home games again in 2022. The Canadiens had their schedule torn apart by Covid interruptions once again this season.

They played their last home game at the Bell Centre in front of zero fans on December 16th and have had five home games postponed without a make up date announced just yet for any of them. They are still scheduled to host the New Jersey Devils on January 15th, but that game is in jeopardy as well.

The league wants to push these games back as far as possible since the provincial government will not allow the Canadiens to sell tickets to these games right now. But like, who is going to a game between this year’s Habs and Devils in the middle of January anyway? Okay, I kid, but the league would rather sell 15,000 tickets to this game in February than zero in January, obviously.

The January 15th game will likely get postponed because New Jersey isn’t far away and it wouldn’t be impossible to reschedule. The Habs next home game after that isn’t until January 27th when they are supposed to host the Anaheim Ducks.

Whether it is January 15th or 27th or sometime in February, those fans who want to travel to the Bell Centre to watch a Habs game this season will eventually get to do so…. sometime in 2022.

Kaiden Guhle’s NHL Debut

The Montreal Canadiens first round pick from the 2020 NHL Draft has looked like a terrific prospect since his draft. He battled through an odd 2020-21 season (like most players) but he only played a handful of games.

Guhle played three games in the AHL that season while waiting for the delayed WHL season to begin. He also played six games at the World Juniors. When the WHL finally fired up he played just two games before being injured and missing the rest of the season.

Still, he looked poised at the AHL level and was steady as can be defensively at the World Juniors. It is a shame that this year’s World Juniors were cancelled (for now) as Guhle was serving as captain for Canada at the event.

Though he only played 11 hockey games in the 2021-22 season, Guhle looked great at Canadiens training camp and was one of the final cuts before this season. He plays a physical, defensive style but he has enough smarts and playmaking ability to move the puck up ice to his forwards as well.

He was just on outside looking in when the 2021-22 season began for the Montreal Canadiens. We should be looking forward to seeing him make his NHL debut early in the 2022-23 season as he tries to solidify a roster spot for the season.

Healthy Lineup

While the writing is on the wall that this season is not going to be a success, there still are 48 more games to play. The word fans is short for fanatics and us fans are going to watch the rest of those games, no matter how many times we say they aren’t worth watching.

The Canadiens are currently battling a Covid outbreak and a handful of other injuries on top of that as well. Their first lineup of 2022 was missing 15 players due to Covid and had only 11 forwards and five defensemen. Samuel Montembeault, the Habs fourth string goalie started his third straight game.

Even though wins and losses are kind of pointless at this point of the season, it would be nice to see a healthy lineup once again. The Canadiens don’t play another game until January 12th, and while that won’t be enough time to get everyone back, at some point in 2022 they are going to ice something close to a perfectly healthy lineup.

Even if the team is going to finish near the bottom of the standings, it would be nice to see a healthy lineup again at some point. Getting a glimpse at the youngsters in the organization is fine, but players like Brandon Baddock being forced to play in the NHL when they are closer to ECHL caliber isn’t ideal.

Jordan Harris Signing

Going out on a little bit of a limb but the Canadiens will have an interesting decision to make near the end of the season.

Well, the Canadiens decision to offer Jordan Harris a contract is an easy one, but the prospect himself will have a difficult decision to make on whether to sign and join the Canadiens or wait it out until he becomes a free agent.

Harris was a third round pick in 2018 and is currently playing his fourth college season with the Northeastern Huskies. He has grown steadily at both ends of the ice during his NCAA career and appears ready to step into an NHL lineup immediately.

The problem is, since this is his fourth year, he could become an unrestricted free agent in August if he just chooses not to sign with the Canadiens. However, if he does sign with the Canadiens he would be able to make his NHL debut this season and though the Habs spot in the standings isn’t that attractive, Harris won’t be playing 2022 NHL Playoff games no matter what he decides.

He either plays for the Montreal Canadiens at the end of this season or he doesn’t play in the NHL until the start of 2022-23. It will be interesting to watch, but I think Habs fans are going to see Harris sign here and immediately step onto this team’s top four on the blue line.

Alexander Romanov’s continued development

Alexander Romanov really made a name for himself as one of the best blue liners at consecutive World Juniors in 2019 and 2020. The Russian was an unknown commodity when the Canadiens drafted him in the second round of the 2018 NHL Draft.

He was a rookie last season and played all but two regular season games. When the playoffs arrived, Romanov was in the press box watching trade deadline pickups Erik Gustafsson and Jon Merrill get their turn on the ice.

The Canadiens played 22 playoff games in 2021 and Romanov skated in just four of them. He did score a goal, which put him in a tie for first among Canadiens defencemen in the postseason.

This season, Romanov started on the third pairing and was even made a healthy scratch early in the season. Since then though, he has been on an upward trajectory. He looks more and more confident every night and is starting to make thunderous hits along the boards part of his regular routine.

Romanov has all the tools to be a great top four defenceman for a long time. His skating, shot, physicality, ability to carry the puck up ice, join the rush, and make a great pass are enviable. His defensive awareness does need to be tightened up a bit but he’s just 22 and that is one area of the game that can definitely be coached.

The ability to perfectly time a hit at the blue line and ensure the opposition is a little hesitant every time the touch the puck in the Habs zone can not be taught.

New General Manager

It sort of moved to the back burner it seems, but at some point in 2022, and probably in January, the Canadiens are going to hire a new general manager to run the team.

Jeff Gorton was hired on November 28th to be the team’s Vice President of Hockey Operations which essentially puts him a step above the general manager. Whoever that will be.

Gorton is rumoured to be interviewing eight candidates in the coming days/weeks. Those include Patrick Roy, Mathieu Darche, Daniel Briere, Emilie Castonguay, Kent Hughes, Daniele Sauvageau, Stephane Quintal and Marc Denis.

While none of them have experience as a general manager in the National Hockey League, they bring a wide variety of skills and attributes to the table. Whoever is picked doesn’t need to be coming from a tenured general manager’s position within the league because they will be working under Jeff Gorton who was the general manager of the New York Rangers and Boston Bruins in the past and has been working in an NHL front office since 1994.

The list has been shortened in the past month, but there remains eight candidates. Habs fans will soon find out who the next general manager of the team will be.

Start of 2022-23 Season

The 2021-22 season has been a bit of a dud after a great 2021 postseason gave us reasons for optimism. Many fans, myself included, thought the playoff run would lead to some success this season and perhaps another trip to the 2022 postseason. That’s not happening.

The 2022-23 season certainly won’t come with high expectations, but there promises to be a lot of changes before next season begins which should lead to many new players and current players playing much bigger roles. While the postseason will not be expected in 2023, there will be some excitement about younger players taking on elevated roles in the organization.

Plus, without the weight of expectations like this year’s team, the 2022-23 team has the potential to be a pleasant surprise. After what should be a time of selling off veterans later this season, the Canadiens could look a lot different next season and new arrivals always lead to an exciting start to a new season.

End of Covid interruptions…..?

Right?

The Canadiens past three seasons have been severely interrupted by Covid-19. The 2019-20 season was shutdown early. The 2021 season started quite late and was very compacted, even mores after the Habs had a couple of cancelled games that needed to be squeezed into the latter weeks of the regular season.

This season, we have seen another handful of games postponed that need to be rescheduled later in the season. The Canadiens did take advantage by winning a round in the expanded 2020 postseason and snuck into the 2021 playoffs because of their weak Canadian Division.

They don’t appear to be getting any advantages this season.

But, 2022 should finally see an end to the disruptions. Yes, there are a handful of games to reschedule at the moment, and the Canadiens are taking a five day hiatus from the arena after their loss on New Year’s Day.

The Canadiens currently have 15 players in Covid protocol, so they aren’t starting 2022 off under normal circumstances. But things should get back to normal sometime in 2022.

2022 World Juniors

The Canadiens had three players head to the 2022 World Juniors.

Kaiden Guhle was named captain of Canada. Jan Mysak was the captain of Czechia and Oliver Kapanen was representing Finland. Canada and Finland got off to great starts, though Czechia was struggling through a pair of games.

And then the event was cancelled.

The IIHF President was immediately very hopeful that the tournament will be held at a later date. he mentioned June as a possibility though it will take weeks, if not months, to sort out the logistics. Though the details remain up in the air, the fact that the tournament would eventually be held seemed inevitable.

That means Guhle, Mysak and Kapanen will have another chance to represent their country on Junior hockey’s biggest stage.

The World Juniors are always a fun and unpredictable tournament. It was unfortunate when it was announced that it was cancelled, but Habs fans can be sure Guhle, Mysak and Kapanen will get their chance to represent their countries on the big stage.

Maple Leafs Inevitable First Round Loss

While nothing is better for a Canadiens fan than watching the Canadiens win a playoff series, seeing their oldest and biggest rival losing a playoff series is a nice consolation prize.

Of course, in 2021, we got to see the Canadiens beat the Toronto Maple Leafs in round one of the playoffs which was almost too sweet to believe. The Maple Leafs led the series 3-1 before blowing it and propelling the Canadiens on a run to the Stanley Cup Final.

Even down 3-1, we should have known the Canadiens were going to win the series. I mean, it was the fifth consecutive season the Maple Leafs made it to the playoffs and lost their first series. It has become something of a spring tradition in Toronto.

The days get longer. The temperature starts to warm up. Everything thaws out. And the Toronto Maple Leafs lose a playoff series.

It is inevitable and it happens every year. While the Canadiens won’t be around for another run to the Stanley Cup Final, their fans can at least take solace in the fact they get to watch the Maple Leafs lose another first round series for the sixth consecutive season.

Jeff Petry’s 1st of the Season

Okay, that was a bit of a shot, but it is true. Jeff Petry arrived in Montreal in 2015 at the trade deadline and he literally improved his point totals every season. Until this season.

Now, he just doesn’t score at all. He has played 27 games this season and has not scored a goal and only has two assists. It is pretty remarkable how quickly he went from 12 goals and 42 points in 55 games last season to two points in half as many games this season.

In the four seasons before this one, Petry scored 48 goals which is 7th most among defenders in that time. His 170 points over those four seasons ranked 12th among blue liners. So, he was one of the best offensive defencemen in hockey for the past four seasons and now he has half as many points as goaltender Frederik Andersen of the Carolina Hurricanes.

We will see Petry score his first goal of the season in 2022, and we should see the reliable, two-way defender re-emerge at some point in this calendar year as well. It just doesn’t make sense that he got better and better every year for six seasons and then completely fall apart.

Carey Price’s Return

The last time we saw Carey Price was in the Stanley Cup Final. Since then, his placement on the roster has been a bit of a roller coaster ride all of its own.

Price was no protected in the expansion draft which left him free for the taking to the Seattle Kraken. This seemed completely preposterous after he just helped the team reach the Stanley Cup Final with an incredible postseason performance.

Then, it was announced he would undergo surgery and could miss much of the 2021-22 season. This put his status in doubt and made it impossible for the Kraken to take him.

Shortly after the expansion draft, with Cale Fleury heading to Seattle from Montreal, it was announced Price had his surgery and it went great and he might be ready for the start of the upcoming regular season. This must have caught some Kraken brass by surprise, but it was great news for Canadiens fans.

Then, at the start of training camp, Price stepped away from the team and entered the NHL/NHLPA player assistance program. He was admitted to that program for the month of October, but it sounded like he would rejoin the team in early to mid November.

Well, it is now January and Price has skated a bit but hasn’t been a full participant at practice. He was supposed to be recovered from his surgery sometime in October, so what is the holdup?

We don’t know, but we do know his return will now happen some time in 2022! There are not a ton of positives to look to in the immediate future, so the return of a sure future Hall of Fame goaltender to the team is exciting news for Habs fans.

Ben Chiarot getting traded for a 1st round pick

The Canadiens are sure to be sellers heading into the 2022 NHL trade deadline. They don’t have a plethora of obvious trade candidates, and they already traded away a first round pick for Christian Dvorak, but they do have an opportunity to add another.

Ben Chiarot has been better than advertised after signing a three-year deal with the Canadiens in 2019. His $3.5 million cap hit seemed to be an overpayment on the day it was signed, but he has certainly provided the Habs with that much value.

The thing about Chiarot is he does nothing flashy. He skates slow and he doesn’t put up many points. Fans are smart enough to know he has value as a defensive defenceman, but fans also know that a player like Chiarot has far more trade value than he really should.

Chiarot played 25:15 per game in the playoffs for the Canadiens last season. He was partnered with Shea Weber and they played a ton of minutes at even strength and on the penalty kill together. While Chiarot was fine, his huge ice time and the Habs success in the playoffs will have other general managers chomping at the bit to acquire him for the 2022 playoffs.

The Canadiens are unlikely to re-sign him after this season anyway. They will trade him for sure and they are almost guaranteed to get a first round pick for him, even though he will be a free agent in July.

Transformation of Defence

While this ties into the aforementioned Chiarot trade, it has more to do with the team’s new front office fixtures. Jeff Gorton mentioned in his first press conference that he likes a team with speed and skill.

The previous general manager liked to build his defence without speed or skill but with size and toughness.

We are going to see a drastic change on the blue line in the near future. While Shea Weber is already done, Chiarot will be gone by season’s end, and Brett Kulak is likely gone as well since he is going to be an unrestricted free agent in the offseason.

That leaves Jeff Petry, Joel Edmundson, David Savard and Alexander Romanov for next season. Sami Niku and Kale Clague need contracts but are RFAs so retaining them would add to the offensive acumen of the blue line.

Even without further trades, we will likely see the addition of Mattias Norlinder into the lineup on a more permanent basis next season. Jordan Harris is likely going to step right into the NHL lineup as well. Kaiden Guhle won’t be far behind.

Norlinder is a terrific skater and offensive minded defenceman who can grab the puck and fly up the ice on a regular basis. He is exactly the type of transition defenceman that the Canadiens have been lacking for years.

Harris doesn’t skate quite like Norlinder but he is smart with the puck and can move it out of the defensive zone with possession and poise. He is not flashy but he does not give up the puck and helps create offence with smart pinching and good reads with the puck.

Guhle is a big, physical defender but he can also skate well and keep the offensive pressure on high in the offensive zone with a booming shot or a pinpoint cross ice pass.

While the Habs could start the 2022-23 season with Petry, Edmundson, Savard, Romanov, Clague and Niku, the internal pressure from Norlinder, Guhle and Harris would force the new general manager to consider moving a veteran or two to make room for a young blue liner. The most likely veteran to move at that point would be defensive, shutdown defender Edmundson which would just make the group of defenders that much faster and more offensive minded.

It won’t be long before the Canadiens very defensive blue line from the 2021 postseason is an entire group of smooth skating, offensive defencemen with the lone exception of Savard who is here to kill penalties and play good defence for three more seasons.

Trade Deadline Deals

The trade deadline is always a fun time of the season. This year it isn’t scheduled until March 21st, and the spring deadline is sure to result in many deals blooming.

The Canadiens sit second last in the NHL standings today so the question isn’t whether they will be sellers or not, but how much selling will they do?

Pending free agents like Ben Chiarot, Brett Kulak, Chris Wideman, Mathieu Perreault, and Cedric Paquette are sure to go to the highest bidder. But that’s the easy decision. Trading away a player who is going to walk as a free agent in a couple of months is not a difficult decision. Even if the offer is a late draft pick, it is better than having nothing at season’s end.

But will the team cut much deeper? Is Tyler Toffoli going to get traded? He has two more years on a great contract with a $4.25 million cap hit. But are the Habs going to be any good in the next two years? If not, shouldn’t they trade a cost controlled play now? Same could be said for Joel Edmundson, Jake Allen, or Jonathan Drouin. If the offer is great, why not trade a player with two more years on his contract?

What about a seismic trade like Carey Price? Will the Canadiens entertain that offer if he comes back and plays well in the next three months? He is 34 years old and deserves a chance to win a Stanley Cup. If it isn’t going to happen in Montreal in the next couple years, why not try to accommodate him and find a trade?

The rumours around this team in March are going to be ridiculous. The possibilities will be endless if the new management team decides to do a full and proper teardown and rebuild.

The trade deadline is going to be a very time of year for Canadiens fans.

Top Prospects Try to Lead Team’s to Memorial Cup

The last time the Memorial Cup was awarded was in 2019. The Rouyn-Noranda Huskies won it that year and Canadiens prospect Joel Teasdale was a big reason why. So was Rafael Harvey-Pinard and he would be drafted in the 7th round by the Canadiens a few weeks after winning the title.

There are no guarantees that the tournament will return this season, but if it does, there are several Canadiens prospects who are going to be carrying their teams in an effort to win the event.

Start with the Edmonton Oil Kings who picked up Habs first round pick Kaiden Guhle in a big trade last month. They are ranked 2nd in all of Canada and are sure to have a lengthy playoff run in the WHL this spring, propelled by Guhle’s presence on their blue line.

The Charlottetown Islanders are bound for another deep postseason run in the QMJHL and have a couple of Habs prospects helping on the journey. Xavier Simoneau was a 6th round pick of the Habs in 2021 and has 46 points in 24 games for the Islanders this season. William Trudeau was taken in the 4th round of that draft and is playing a top four role on the team’s blue line. He has 25 points in 31 games.

Also in the QMJHL, Joshua Roy is carrying the Sherbrooke Phoenix into title contention. The Habs 5th round pick from 2021 has 47 points in 27 games this season and his team has the second best points percentage in the league, trailing only Simoneau and Trudeau’s Islanders.

In the OHL, Logan Mailloux, the Habs first round pick in 2021 is set to make his debut. He will step into a London Knights lineup that is already sitting near the top of the league standings and are poised for another deep playoff run this spring.

It will be interesting to see how many of these Canadiens prospects end up making it all the way to the Memorial Cup this June.

New Head Coach

The Montreal Canadiens are currently on the hunt for a new general manager but that won’t be the only big hire made off the ice in 2022.

The new general manager is going to want to choose their own head coach for this team. Dominique Ducharme is in that role right now, but he does not appear long for the position behind the bench.

The Canadiens fired Claude Julien last season and brought in Ducharme as the team’s head coach. They finished the regular season 15-16-7 under Ducharme and are 7-23-4 this season. That means Ducharme is 22-39-11 as the team’s head coach. That’s a terrible record and though there has been some off ice stuff that hasn’t helped, like injuries and Covid illnesses, that isn’t enough to explain away a 22-39-11 record.

Ducharme’s system seemed to work in the postseason, when the team went on a run to the Stanley Cup Final. But the team looked lost defensively to begin this season and have not been able to figure things out at all.

Who knows who will be coaching this team next season but Jeff Gorton has claimed he values a fast, skilled team and he will surely look for a head coach that runs a system that values speed and skill.

Fans love to watch a team that is fast and skilled and Habs fans are going to see the team transition to that system in 2022.

2022 NHL Draft Lottery

The NHL Draft Lottery rules have changes recently, but there is still a great thrill in watching Bill Daly flip over those giant cards and with the dullest, flattest voice ever heard on TV, announce who will select first overall in the upcoming NHL Draft.

The Canadiens, and their fans, will surely be watching closely this year. The Canadiens are not going to make the playoffs and will surely be in the draft lottery. There is a draw done for each of the top two selections, with the worst 11 teams in the standings having a chance of landing the first overall pick. The worse the team is in the regular season, the better their chance of landing that top pick.

And boy are the Canadiens bad. Right now they are second worst in the NHL standings, only ahead of the Arizona Coyotes. If they are to stay in this position, the results of the draft lottery would determine if they move up to first overall, stay where they are at second overall or drop down one or two spots and possibly pick fourth overall.

The difference between picking first and fourth overall is enormous on draft day. This upcoming season it is the difference between getting Shane Wright, or not getting Shane Wright as he is the top prospect by a wide margin.

Drafting Wright would add a new franchise player to town and the Canadiens fans will find out if it is going to happen not on the night of the draft, but on the night of the draft lottery.

Cole Caufield’s Breakout

Cole Caufield was one of the best prospects in all of hockey at this time last year.

The 2019 first round pick of the Canadiens was lighting up college hockey for the Wisconsin Badgers. He would finish the season with 30 goals and 52 points in 31 games which led to him winning the Hobey Baker Award as the best player in NCAA Hockey.

He made his AHL debut and scored three goals and four points in just two games before being called up to the NHL. He had four goals and five points in ten regular season games and became a first line fixture in the postseason, scoring 12 points in 20 playoff games.

This regular season hasn’t gone as well as we would have expected for the right winger who turns 21 years old today. Caufield has just one goal and seven points in 26 games and was sent down to the AHL for a stint, where he scored five points in six games.

But he is just too skilled and too good to continue not scoring. His shot is unbelievably accurate and hard and he can score from just about anywhere in the offensive zone. He has done it at every level, including the NHL and he did that in the playoffs.

It is just a matter of time before Caufield breaks out offensively and starts scoring regularly for the Canadiens. It won’t take much longer and is sure to happen in 2022 and when it does it will be a lot of fun to watch.

Young Kids Take Over Lineup

The Canadiens are dealing with a ridiculous number of players being unavailable due to injuries and a massive Covid outbreak on the team. So, we are seeing some players play games with the Canadiens that have played games in the ECHL this season.

Eventually the injuries and players out due to Covid will start to settle down and the team will start to resemble an NHL lineup again. But, as the trade deadline approaches, the Canadiens will start to move out veterans and add more draft picks and prospects for the future of the organization.

When that happens, young players are going to be asked to take on bigger roles. This is something every fan loves to see. We all want to see the young players playing big minutes to help them grow and really see what they can do against the league’s best on a nightly basis.

Nick Suzuki has already taken on a huge role on a permanent basis but others are soon to join him. Cole Caufield has been moved down the lineup but when the games mean less, he should play more.

The same can be said for Ryan Poehling who is trying to prove he belongs at the NHL level full time. Move him up the lineup a bit and get him on the power play and penalty kill to see if he can be that two-way centre we all hoped for.

Alexander Romanov should be playing top pairing minutes by season’s end. Ben Chiarot and Brett Kulak will be gone so the left side of the blue line will be thin. Thrown Romanov out on the top pairing with Jeff Petry to see if he can handle the role. He has been playing better lately and should be rewarded for that with more minutes in every situation.

Jesse Ylonen and Kale Clague probably wouldn’t get much ice time if the team was fully healthy and in a playoff spot. But since they are far from a postseason position, they should play a ton to see if they can handle regular duty at the NHL level.

The Canadiens were a veteran team in the 2021 postseason and kept that status heading into this season. That was the start of the year though. Soon, the youth are going to take over this lineup and it will be fun to watch.

2022 NHL Draft

The most exciting time in 2022 to be a fan of the Montreal Canadiens will be the 2022 NHL Draft.

Not only will the draft be held in Montreal at the Bell Centre this year, but the Canadiens are sure to hold an early pick. They still have 48 games to play this season, so there are no guarantees, but you would have to be shocked to see them picking any later than 5th overall in the upcoming draft.

Thankfully, when Marc Bergevin traded a first round pick to the Arizona Coyotes for Christian Dvorak he added the stipulation that the pick was top ten protected. So, the Habs don’t have to hadn’t over a top ten pick and will be able to select a terrific player instead.

If they get the first overall pick they will surely take Shane Wright who is a franchise player. The Canadiens suffered for years without centre depth and are quite close to the reality of having Wright and Nick Suzuki down the middle. The possibility is goosebump-inducing if that is a word.

Even if the Habs don’t select Wright, they could add another amazing future top six centre in Logan Cooley from the United States Development Program. Joakim Kemell is scoring in Finland’s top league at about the same rate as Sasha Barkov in his draft year. Kemell’s goal scoring is higher than Patrik Laine’s in the same league at the same age.

The Canadiens could use a big top pairing right shot defender for the future and two of them are available with Simon Nemec from Slovakia and David Jiricek from Czechia. Matthew Savoie is putting up video game numbers in the WHL this season.

Any of those players would be a franchise cornerstone to build the future of the Canadiens around. The Habs will get one of them, and it will be the biggest moment of 2022 for this organization.