The Fourth Period: David Pagnotta on the continuing rebuild with Montreal Canadiens, who have some players to move out again. Their accumulation of assets could lead to some deal in the offseason to acquire more NHL-calibre/ready players.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Kate Pettersen: “Continuing on the theme of retool, rebuild, there seems to be a lot of that going around the league this season, in particular. Over in Montreal, I think expectations were, they be a little bit better than where they are now sitting at the bottom of the East.
What’s going on there? Is Marty St Louis in trouble or is this just a young team, and they’ve got to keep on going and and figure it out? What do you think is going on there and what do you think we could see from them?
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Pagnottaa: “Yeah, it’s an interesting situation in Montreal, because they’re smack in the riddle, middle still, excuse me, of their rebuild. But when the season started, the expectations were higher, not that they would be a playoff contender, but that they would improve upon their success, lack of success, excuse me, last season. Hasn’t been the case.
I don’t get the sense Marty’s in any danger right now because of the roster construction. They’re going to make changes later on this season. They’re going to move out the rental type of players. (Christian) Dvorak and Jake Evans is going to draw interest. And David Savard. We’ve talked about these pieces. Mike Matheson, with another year in his deal. He’s going to continue to draw interest as well.
But this is, for the most part, a young team. In their 9-2 loss to Pittsburgh on Thursday, it was a very young defense on that team. Other than Mike Matheson, everybody else very young, very still raw in the National Hockey League.
So they’re going to be growing things, but the Habs are going to be focused on continuing to deal with this core and build up this young roster and give their younger guys more of an opportunity to play consistent minutes.
If we do see anything big out of Montreal, it’s likely to be from trading guys out and getting additional assets in. That doesn’t mean they want to continue to stockpile the cover with draft picks and prospects. What they may do in the summer, and we’ve seen this before, utilize those assets, take the picks, package them up, and get NHL-caliber players now.
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That’s probably a part of the plan, move out pieces now, insulate the roster in the summer. It’ll be interesting to see what happens with the Habs, but they’re in their rebuild Kate, and they’re not shying away from it. They understand where they’re at. I think fans are frustrated, but fans just want to win. They’re very passionate
over there.
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