The Montreal Canadiens have been rebuilding for a few years now, and we are starting to turn the corner into actual contention. The team made the playoffs last season and will be looking to make another big step this coming season.
And with that, everything is slowly changing. While the team is rebuilding, it is okay if players don't develop on a smooth curve or how they are expected, because after all, the team is expected to still be bad and get draft picks.
But when the team wants to make the playoffs, and players are starting to age, the amount of years remaining becomes less and less. There is always another year, until there isn't. And to prove it, we just have to look at one of the Habs' biggest rivals.
The kings of one more year
The Toronto Maple Leafs will go down in history as wasting possibly one of the greatest offensive cores of our time. Auston Matthews is a generational goal scorer, along with generational puck slinger Mitch Marner, and they are backed up with the one-two punch of William Nylander and John Tavares.
Now, every Toronto Maple Leafs team in the past has had their issues, be it defenders or goalies or depth scoring. I mean, obviously, they have hardly made it past the second round.
But they all had fantastic regular seasons every year. But progression stagnated in the postseason. One year became two, became three, four, five and so on. Now, Tavares is at the end of his career, and Marner is gone for pennies on the dollar.
Time will tell if Matthews, Nylander and co. can make any sort of noise in the playoffs, but it's hard not to feel like something was wasted. It always felt like one more season. Something would be different this year. The young players will develop and start to produce in the post-season. There will always be another season, until there isn't.
And while the Canadiens haven't quite reached that point yet, there have to be some serious conversations on certain players, and soon.
Kirby Dach
The acquisition of Kirby Dach was one of the earlier moves by Jeff Gorton and Kent Hughes, and was shaping up to be a great one. It was the traditional buy low move, as Dach had struggled to establish himself on the Chicago Blackhawks.
And in his first year, Dach put up his best numbers in Montreal, and everyone was looking forward to the elite one-two punch down the middle of Nick Suzuki and Dach for years to come.
And then his second season with the Habs started. The second game, Dach falls awkwardly into the bench and tears his ACL and MCL. He wouldn't play the rest of the season.
Next season, Dach started slow and wouldn't finish the season either as he injured his ACL again.
By all accounts, Dach seems ready to go for this season, but what if he isn't? What if he misses extended periods of time with injury again? Or what if he starts extremely slow, like he did last season?
It was a bit more tolerable last year, as Dach was younger and the team was still rebuilding. But there are fewer and fewer seasons for Dach to put it together. The team can't hold that second-line centre space for Dach forever. This year might be the last chance for Dach.
Juraj Slafkovsky
While Dach has an excuse of major injuries for derailing his career so far, Juraj Slafkovsky does not have that excuse.
The start of last season was a bit of a nightmare for Slafkovsky. He scored just one goal in each October and November, and two goals in December. It was so bad that the Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis has commented on it, and said that it won't happen again without consequences.
Slafkovsky did finish with 18 goals and 51 points, which is good, but nowhere near where he is expected to be, especially when compared with his most common linemates. Suzuki broke the point-per-game plateau and almost finished with 90 points while scoring 30 goals for the second straight season. And Cole Caufield scored a team high 37 goals and broke 70 points.
When compared to those, last season was a bit of a stagnation for Slafkovsky. He scored two less goals and one more point. Slafkovsky is still one of the youngest players on the team, but there needs to be a bigger step forward as the rebuild marches on.
Both Dach and Slafkovsky are still young, but they won't stay young forever. What year do we need to demand results before starting to look elsewhere? There's always another year until it isn't. The window comes and goes faster than you think. You don't want to end up like the Toronto Maple Leafs.