The Montreal Canadiens Roster is Still In Rebuild Mode
TSN: Hockey Analyst Frankie Corrado joined Jay Onrait last week on SportsCenter, and he broke down the biggest question facing the seven Canadian teams. Outside of the Kirby Dach question, Corrado believes the Montreal Canadiens are still in rebuild mode.
** NHLRumors.com Transcriptions
Jay Onrait: What about the defense? As a former defenseman yourself, you have so many young defensemen, you know, David Savard, notwithstanding, they’ve got so many young defensemen in this group. Is this defense, in your opinion, able to allow this Montreal Canadiens team to potentially compete this year or are we still one or two years away Marty and is this still very in a rebuilt mode?
NHL Rumors: When Will Sidney Crosby’s Extension in Pittsburgh Get Done?
Frankie Corrado: “It still is rebuild mode because I would say that the roster hasn’t been deconstructed yet. There’s still some money on the books, and some contracts that have kind of lingered on and were probably a little too long to begin with. So until you move on from that it still is rebuild mode but that doesn’t mean that the back end can’t progress and you know I give these guys a lot of credit because two years ago when they had five rookies in the lineup playing at any given night, those kids did an unbelievable job.
And last year, a lot of them took steps in the right direction. And then towards the end of the season. We got to see Logan Mailloux, who’s a first-round pick. We got to see Lane Hutson. So you know this, young defence core Jay that had been so promising actually added two more pieces towards the end of the year to that promising group. So it was already crowded with young players. It’s seemingly going to be even more crowded.
But those are pretty good problems to have when you’re a team that’s trying to get back to where they want to be. But I would say they’re, they’re kind of right where they should be right now. Now’s not the time for Montreal to make a big splash. Now is the time for them to improve internally and remain competitive on a night-to-night basis. But that doesn’t mean the playoffs just quite yet.”
NHL Rumors: Edmonton Oilers, Seattle Kraken, and the Columbus Blue Jackets
Onrait: “Fair Enough. We’ll see if we can use the sides to make Kaiden Guhle the next long-term contract for the Montreal Canadiens.”