The Montreal Canadiens are considered to have one of the brightest futures of any NHL team, according to some, like Paul Pidutti with Sportsnet, who had the Canadiens atop the 2030 power rankings. The Athletic's Cory Pronman ranked them third in the prospect pipeline, but recently he made it clear that he doesn't have a very high opinion of the Canadiens right now.
Recently, Pronman was talking about his rankings and specifically where he ranked Buffalo Sabres' Zach Benson all the way down at 124th. In defending where he ranked Benson, he decided to take a shot at the Montreal Canadiens.
"He played against two s***** playoff-caliber teams," Pronman said. "The Bruins were not a good playoff team. The Habs were not a good playoff team."
Montreal Canadiens struggled against the Hurricanes but are far from being a bad playoff team
It is tough to justify ranking Benson 124th for prospects, but it is a bold strategy to try to do so by saying the Montreal Canadiens were not a good playoff team. They lost to the Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference Final in five games, but they made the case that they were the second-best team in the conference.
The Canadiens beat the Tampa Bay Lightning in seven games, winning Game 7 on the road against Tampa Bay. They would then go on to play the Sabres, once again go to a Game 7, and win that game as the road team.
They were clearly more battle-tested than the Hurricanes, who played the Senators and Flyers, or any team in the playoffs. It wouldn't have at all been surprising to see the Sabres or Lightning reach the Stanley Cup, and the Canadiens won those series as the underdogs.
For Pronman, he probably is only remembering that final series against the Carolina Hurricanes. There is no denying that the Canadiens were not on the same level as the Hurricanes, who really out-muscled Montreal across five games.
The Hurricanes didn't dominate the entire series, though, and Montreal won Game 1 by a final score of 6-2. They would lose Game 2 and Game 3, but both were close, as they would go to overtime. It felt like after losing both, the Canadiens lost all momentum and were beaten pretty easily in Game 4 and Game 5 by a combined score of 10-1.
Just because those final games weren't relatively close doesn't mean that the Canadiens were a bad playoff team. It is something that misses the mark but isn't surprising for a writer who views a player like Zach Benson as the 124th-best prospect under 23 currently in the NHL.
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