The Montreal Canadiens find themselves, once again near the bottom of the NHL standings. Right now, the Canadiens, Blackhawks, Predators and Sharks are all deep in the battle for the best odds at the draft lottery, and three of those teams are right where they want to be. Nashville is just imploding after "winning" the offseason.
This is because the rebuild isn't finished yet. And even if the Canadiens have most of the pieces they need, those pieces still need to develop. The Canadiens were deemed to have the best core under 24The thing about players under 24 is that they are not at their best.
Depending on how young they are, they aren't even in the league. Logan Mailloux got a look in the NHL, but proved he needs a lot of work in his own zone to be an NHLer. Ivan Demidov will be in Russia all year. David Reinbacher is injured, and when he comes back he should be back in Laval for another year, long injury rehabilitation or not.
Then there are players so young we don't really know what they are yet, like Owen Beck, Riley Kidney, Sean Farrell and Jared Davidson. There can be depth on the back end as well with Adam Engstrom and William Trudeau. But we won't know for a few years if any of those guys pan out, and the Habs are banking on that depth.
And even the players in the NHL are not hitting their stride. It can be hard to determine where the peak of any given NHL player is, and it is not an exact science. Generally, you can find that players peak in the NHL around the ages of 25-29 with forwards generally peaking younger and defenders generally peaking older.
Using that metric, Nick Suzuki is just starting his prime years, and the biggest name forwards Cole Caufield, Juraj Slafkovsky and Kirby Dach not yet entering their prime. That's saying nothing of the defense, with only two players over 23: Mike Matheson and David Savard.
So, the pieces are in place, we just have to wait for them to grow into their positions. And if we get a few more high-end pieces in the mean-time, the team is all the best for it. Not every prospect is going to work out exactly as you would wish.
Therefor, you can't be too mad that the Montreal Canadiens are losing. What you can be mad about is the way that the Canadiens are losing.
At this time in the rebuild, you are still looking at losing a lot of games, but you also want to see competitiveness in those games, and development of those young players. This season shouldn't be about progress in the standings, but progress on the scoresheet and in development.
That, unfortunately has not been the case.
Juraj Slafkovsky has taken a step back in his development after a good start to the year. While he has played well and put up numbers when next to Suzuki and Caufield, he has deeply struggled when separated from them. As a 1st overall pick, it would be expected that Slafkovsky could provide offence regardless of teammates, but that has not been the case.
Kirby Dach on the other hand, has not been able to produce anywhere on the ice. While he has a good excuse, coming off a serious injury and a whole lost season, it is still disheartening. He has shown some more of the speed and power that made him such a force in his first season in Montreal, so hopefully it is just a case of recovery.
Joshua Roy has been unable to make the NHL full time. Nick Suzuki isn't putting the numbers and performance you would want for a top tier 1st line forward.
The defense is harder to quantify, since mathematically they are further behind in their development and are universally so young, but you only need to watch some of their games (like the Vegas one, ugh), to see that there are some major issues.
The problem isn't that the team is losing, it's that there is little progression in the player's the Canadiens need to become impact players if they want to be Cup contenders in the next few years. The onus is now on Martin St. Louis, the coaching staff and the players themselves to show growth and prove the team is on the right track.