The consistency in the noise surrounding the Canadian since the start of the season is clear: the team lacks pure talent in attack. The CH certainly has an excellent duo at the front in Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield, both from the Bergevin administration.
The very first pick of the Gorton, Hughes & associates era, Juraj Slafkovsky, surprised many when he was selected at the very first level in 2022 here in Montreal. This choice is difficult to dispute. Though…
Obviously, this selection was motivated by a few specific factors: adding size and size to an attack that was not overflowing with it and providing the Suzuki-Caufield pair with a large winger. By claiming Slafkovsky, the CH ignored a natural center full of talent in Logan Cooley, claimed third overall by the Arizona Coyotes.
Did the CH prefer Slafkovsky to Cooley, believing they had solved their problem at center during the same auction while Hughes gave up Alexander Romanov and then got their hands on Kirby Dach? Dach was only 21 years old and remained full of promise, although he was slow to get going. He was presented to us and sold well as a large right-handed center perfect for the team’s second line.
In other words, Gorton & Hughes’ plan on paper in 2022 was perfect! In fact, two and a half years later, Dach looks much more like the kid on whom the Blackhawks resigned than the marvel that the Canadian presented us.
It therefore becomes legitimate to note that Logan Cooley obtained only six points less than “Slaf” last season while maintaining a much better differential and also scoring 20 goals. That this season, he has 10 points in 13 games, including four goals, while Slaf has eight in 10 with only one small goal.
But above all, that Cooley pilots the center of the first line in Utah, while here, the big Juraj that we all love is making life difficult because the organization seems to protect the acquisition of Kirby Dach by offering him all the chances of now producing on the wing.
It is true that the road is long when coming back from a terrible injury like the one suffered by Dach. We have to hope that he stays healthy for a few seasons so that we can really take advantage of what Gorton & Hughes saw in him.
A year after acquiring Dach, Gorton & Hughes struck what they believed was another big move by obtaining Alex Newhook.
It was said that Newhook didn’t get a real chance to stand out on a talent-laden club in Colorado. The CH offers him every chance, obtaining very little in return.
I bring all these points because I find it unfair that all of the responsibility for the Canadian’s poor start to the season falls solely on Martin St-Louis. The coach is not perfect, but we cannot say that his two “bosses” are either. Even more so, the balance sheet of the Gorton & Hughes firm, apparently eloquent, contains errors which, although fewer in number than its good moves, weigh more heavily in the balance of the organization’s results. We like to fall in the rankings by getting excited about high draft picks. A whole season of misery to waste evening after evening to finally salivate for a small time, during the annual auction. CH’s new Stanley Cup is decided in the draft.
I don’t mind. But when we get there, can we win it? The selection of another defender, David Reinbacher, at the fifth level overall in 2023 left the formidable attacker Matvei Michkov on the table.
If Michkov were here, he would play top 6 and produce, he would be in the first wave of the power play and we would salivate to see him be joined by Ivan Demidov next season.
Except that, obviously, it would be to the detriment of Dach and Newhook, who, at the heart of their grand plan, force Gorton & Hughes to direct their other decisions. Time will tell whether the smokescreen of repeated defeats leading to constant domination will have worked.
