Respect and robustness | Radio-Canada

Since the Canadian has played under the orders of Martin St-Louis, the team has shaped a bit like its image. The head coach has already mentioned that his greatest quality as a player had been to have an “elite” capacity to improve. From year to year, he added strings to his bow and was constantly improved.

That’s a bit what we saw in the progress of CH Since he directed it. The upward trend is undeniable, as is the constant improvement of key players like Nick Suzuki and Samuel Montembeault.

St-Louis was also an extremely competitive player, and he is still so much as a coach. Now, if the Canadiens’ management hopes to shape the team even more in its image, it will have to concoct a group with a slightly more raised competitive spirit.

It is the most striking constant that came out of the end of season assessment of Jeff Gorton and Kent Hughes, Monday morning at the Bell Center.

Gorton saw his team in playoffs and the diagnosis to survive it longer the next time appears clear to him.

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Everyone talks about big size, Washington and how they play. We are aware of it and, as we advance, Kent and I have a lot of discussions on this subjecta dit Gorton.

But the most important thing is to be competitive. You have to make sure you have players who are comfortable in an environment of qualifying series and who can play in all situations.

The moment was perhaps a bit big for the many young people who had never played in series before. The fact remains that the observation is astonishing when it is put in parallel with this resilience that St-Louis has often spoken in the last straight line of the season. But the vice-president of hockey operations made it too often referred to it for it to be involuntary.

When supporting the fact that the Canadian was far from being a finished product, Gorton noted that his team could defend better, that he had to score more goals, that he had to add size … and that he wanted it more competitive.

And when Kirby Dach was told, whose status may have been jeopardized by two serious knee injuries, Gorton said that there was certainly a place for him in his team.

He has the size, he is competitive, he has skills, he is a very talented player , recalled the leader.

If management decides to analyze things by this Lorgnette, and it starts to look at-as much in the Canadian as in the Rocket de Laval-which players display the most competition instinct and those whose desire to win is not as convincing, it may make choices that we do not necessarily expect right now.

How to add talent

Gorton and Hughes have been careful not to say anything that could give other teams any intention compared to their future plans. They admitted almost backwards that the Canadian would have an interest in finding a center for the second trio.

That said, Gorton said something interesting by suggesting that in some teams are wingers and not centers that are the offensive engines of their trio. We could submit the names of Nikita Kucherov, Kirill Kaprizov, David Pastrnak and Artemi Panarin among the exceptional wingers who correspond to this profile.

Is it to believe that the Canadian keeps the door open to go fishing for this kind of fish? He would certainly enhance his nets by considering the addition of a winger rather than a center, but we still speak here of a very special range of players.

Unless of course that this commentary simply testifies to the ambitions that the management for Ivan Demidov from next season …

The Canadian could also add talent using the hostile tenders.

He has ample space under the salary ceiling, he has all the choices to the recovery he needs to pay the necessary compensation, and Gorton himself believes that this kind of tactic may be used more often this summer.

I think there will be more and more in the League, he said. I do not know where we are going to be in relation to that, but I think that with the increase in the salary ceiling, it will not be surprising to see this path being used more often.

The success of the Blues of Saint Louis by subjecting offers hostile to Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway certainly brought them fruit, but the financial framework of the NHL has already changed compared to last year.

The salary ceiling will increase substantially in the coming years, and with it, the ability of the teams to match a hostile offer.

And yet …

In the League, if the process is successfully used by some people, I think it can become a trend, said Gorton. The teams will start to study this and consider this option a little more.

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Between youth and experience

There are areas where the Canadian intends to improve and he has different ways to get there. But at the heart of these issues, he must determine how much he wants to strengthen himself by finding established players, and how much he wants to make room for his hopes.

Friday, during the end -of -season meetings, Captain Nick Suzuki positioned himself in a fairly clear way on this subject.

As one of the leaders of the team, you don’t want to see it regress in any way, said Suzuki. It is obvious that we have a lot of high choices, a lot of talent, many young people who try to deserve their place in the team. We were the youngest team to participate in the series and, technically, we could be even younger next year, so we’ll see.

No matter what Gorts do [Jeff Gorton, NDLR] And Kent this summer, I think we have given them the task much more difficult to convince them not to rejuvenate the team next year.

In the eyes of Suzuki, improving the workforce with established players would allow them to integrate more quickly into the Canadian game system than young people who must first adjust to the national league.

We feel that Hughes does not have the same opinion.

The DGfor example, fears that hiring veterans to provide positions for a year or two years would demotivate certain young people who are entitled to covet these positions. It fears the effect of these temporary solutions on the culture of the entire organization.

Of course we still want to add talent to our team, but we have to determine how much we add experience and how much we take experience summed up Hughes.

In sight, this could mean that David Reinbacher and Logan Mailloux will have a chance to replace David Savard on the right flank of defense.

This could mean that Oliver Kapanen and Owen Beck will have a chance to deserve the position of fourth center.

Obviously, all these decisions are dependent on players who will become available on the market and that the Canadian will have a chance to acquire. Nothing is sunk in concrete for the moment.

But the Canadiens’ youth cure is not yet over.

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In short

• Kent Hughes is a fine negotiator and he will not paint himself in the area. He may well say publicly that the next Lane Hutson contract, a finalist for the recruit of the year, is not a priority for him at the moment, it is clear that he will not take long to launch the process with the agent of the young defender.

  I saw that Lane had mentioned that he would like to agree on a contract earlier than late, so we’re going to call her agent, then we’re going to seesaid Hughes.

  The most important thing for Hughes is to first have a good idea of ​​what is important in the eyes of Hutson. But if the opening manifested by the latter is very real, the DG must jump on the occasion.

  Faced with Hutson’s ability to self -downturn over the season, to maintain its level until the very end of the season, not to collapse under the pressure of the series, all by playing a good part of the season on its opposite side, what are the chances that Hutson regresses significantly next year?

  It is not impossible, but it would be a big bet to take. The most likely is that at the end of the 2025-26 season, Hutson will have demonstrated even more than it is part of the fine elite.

  In other words, the more Canadian is waiting, the more it may cost him dearly.

• The Rocket de Laval finished with the best file in the American League even if it has one of the youngest training in the circuit. The level of consistency of the school club amazed Kent Hughes, so that the latter would not be surprised that the head coach Pascal Vincent was offered to return to the NHL.

  Pascal was appointed coach of the year in the American League and there are eight or nine positions open at the time, noted Hughes. So if it happens, it happens, but it is certain that we would not want to lose it.

  If Vincent is capable of directing the Rocket in series while exploring its possibilities from the future in parallel, so much the better, but Hughes will not put sticks in the wheels during these delicate moments.

  I wouldn’t want to lose that there would be a chance because the team is moving forward and that it is playing. It is not fair for him or for his profession.