Lessons from the Sabers in rebuilding the Canadiens

There is no formula that guarantees the success of a rebuild, but the Canadian receives a visit on Tuesday from a team that is a case study in rebuilds gone wrong.

The Buffalo Sabres, who have not won any of their last ten games, could miss the playoffs for a 14^e year in a row, they who already hold the record for the longest streak without participating in the playoffs.

While some Canadian fans complain about the time it takes the CH to deploy a competitive team, we dare not imagine where things would be in Montreal if the Canadian were mired in a reconstruction from which they cannot escape.

However, on November 24, the Sabers were in the playoff picture due to an 11-9-1 record. However, even glimmers of hope are greeted with cynicism, and the rout that followed reminded Sabers fans that, until proven otherwise, improvements are decoys.

Let’s try to see some main traits that define the Sabres’ perpetual rebuild and the lessons the Canadiens should learn from it.

Scuttling and recovery

It was really during the 2013-14 season that a change in philosophy took place. Longtime general manager Darcy Regier was fired in November 2013, days after trading forward Thomas Vanek, and was replaced by Tim Murray.

The previous season, Regier had fired Lindy Ruff, the team’s longest-serving head coach behind a bench. NHLand got rid of Jason Pominville. A movement was beginning, but after years of cultivating the status quo, a change seemed necessary.

However, the disaster that was the 2013-14 season not only allowed the Sabers to draft Sam Reinhart second overall in the draft, but convinced Murray that they had to do everything they could to scuttle themselves the following year in the hope to draft Connor McDavid.

Even though they finished last in the overall standings, the draw did not favor them as hoped, and the Sabers had to fall back on Jack Eichel with the second selection.

It was believed that the Sabres’ fortunes would change at that time, but their good core of forwards was weighed down by a deficient defensive brigade.

The choice of winger Alex Nylander at 8^e Rank in the 2016 draft hurt, as a defenseman among Mikhail Sergachev, Charlie McAvoy or Jakob Chychrun would have made a big difference.

Teams often say they choose the best player available, but the criteria by which they identify the best are often subjective, and can be colored by the context in which they work.

When not drafting in the top four or five, drafting based on need may be justified. In any case, it is an idea that the current Canadiens staff is favorable to in the way they build their team, and there is no doubt that this approach would have served the Sabers in 2016.

Nylander was Murray’s last first-round pick before Jason Botterill replaced him as Sabers manager in 2017.

Instability behind the bench

A recent press conference by current GM Kevyn Adams showed him a little short of solutions regarding the Sabres’ situation. If owner Terry Pegula – whose acquisition of the Sabers in 2011 coincided with the start of the setbacks – were to decide to make a change, the Sabers would be on their fourth GM in the space of 11 years.

Ruff returned behind the bench after being fired in February 2013. Between his first start and his return, six head coaches followed one another and none of them posted a .500 record.

Failures have led to many changes, of course, but instability itself is no guarantee of success.

In Montreal, Martin St-Louis has his faults, but his bosses have no intention of abandoning him at the first pitfall. They chose to bet on a man who had a chance of becoming an excellent coach, but who was going to need to become excellent at the same time as his team.

The Canadian intends to let the process take its course and rely on a certain continuity.

Take care of your culture

Wanting to lose as badly as the Sabers wanted to in 2014 probably hasn’t been seen since the Pittsburgh Penguins targeted Mario Lemieux in 1984. And one has to wonder what such a radical scuttling could have done to the team culture, which seems to have been corrupted since that time.

On April 9, 2018, when emptying his locker after another disappointing season, forward Ryan O’Reilly made a final judgment.

We’re stuck in a mindset where we accept losing, O’Reilly said. And I feel it too. It seeped into me and over the course of the year I often got lost. We move forward by being comfortable with the idea of ​​just not making mistakes.

It seeped into all our matches and it’s disappointing. It’s sad. I feel like throughout the year I lost my love for the sport multiple times.

O’Reilly would never play for the Sabers again.

By the summer of 2020, when Adams took over from Botterill, Eichel had had enough. He had gotten wind that the Sabers were headed for another rebuild and he didn’t like the idea at all.

I told them that if this was the path they wanted to take, maybe it was best to trade me and use me as a sort of springboard to get picks and hopes to begin their rebuild.Eichel told Sportsnet, just after being traded to the Vegas Golden Knights.

It didn’t go well.

Eichel stayed another year in Buffalo before leaving, not without having had a long standoff with Adams over neck surgery that he absolutely had to undergo to continue his career.

Eichel and O’Reilly were premier players who wanted to make it work in Buffalo. The gloom got the better of them.

Over the last seven seasons, the Sabers have seen the departure of several players who went on to play leading roles in a Stanley Cup championship, whether it was Eichel, O’Reilly, Reinhart or again from Brandon Montour, not to mention supporting players like Kyle Okposo, Evan Rodrigues and Zach Bogosian.

Along with this list, let’s add that goaltender Linus Ullmark won the Vezina Trophy with the Boston Bruins after leaving the Sabres.

Several players were promoted to winning teams when they failed to reach their full potential in Buffalo. Adams and the Sabers need to understand why.

It’s unclear whether the Canadiens’ rebuild will be successful, but everyone seems eager to establish a positive culture in Montreal that won’t swallow up players like in Buffalo.

Despite the setbacks at the start of the season, Gallagher continues to see in those who form the new core of the Canadiens the same motivation to nourish this competitive culture.

This is the attitude of young people. They are motivated, they are competitive, they work hard even when the cameras are not there. It’s encouraging.

There’s a desire and a work ethic, you can see they put in the time. This is what makes us confident.

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A sufficient presence of veterans

Some familiar faces in Montreal like Brian Gionta and Josh Gorges had helped the Sabers during the troubled Tim Murray era, in addition to Matt Moulson and Kyle Okposo who then joined the team.

What is striking about the current version of the Sabers is that there are very few veterans to coach the youngest team in the league. NHL.

Certainly, a team can go to the opposite extreme and drown its young talent among players in decline – as we see in Detroit – but letting the young people get by without the guidance of veterans is a dangerous game. This phenomenon had caused a lot of damage to the Edmonton Oilers before the arrival of McDavid.

This issue is a slippery slope for the Canadian, who may have underestimated the departures of Sean Monahan and Jake Allen in the balance of his group. Gallagher is still there, David Savard, Mike Matheson and Josh Anderson too, but ensuring the presence of veterans who can contribute without harming the development of young people risks being a project for 2025.

Gallagher understands his role well, but he suspects the value of veterans on a team is sometimes underestimated. They help, according to him, to maintain a good level of accountability.

Having veterans who have been through it and who they understand, it helps to be able to have these experiences before the players live them themselves, to be able to talk about it, to understand the work that it involves, to share a little of these experiences, all that helps you a little more to reach the next level.

Dollars to young people

The young players on whom an organization is banking, as long as they have been well identified, will not become more approachable over the years. When we have the chance, we make them sign long-term agreements which ensure their presence for several years and we hope that along the way, these contracts will become godsends.

The downside of this strategy is the risk of granting long-term contracts to players who may not yet have earned them.

Dylan Cozens signed a seven-year contract in February 2023 guaranteeing him an average of $7.1 million per year. The 23-year-old center is having an extremely difficult season with 13 points in 32 games. And in October 2023, defenseman Owen Power also agreed to a seven-year contract, but at $8.35 million per year, and he is far from worth his price at the moment.

The Canadian must hope the same thing doesn’t happen next year with Juraj Slafkovsky, when his eight-year contract at $7.6 million per year comes into effect.

But even when it comes to a top overall pick, whether it’s Power or Slafkovsky, you have to be willing to be patient before they mature.

A reconstruction involves banking on young people, and banking on the good ones. It is hardly surprising to see those identified as future key players being committed for the long term. But in an environment of chronic defeat like in Buffalo, the development framework is not optimal.

The Canadian will have to make sure to keep his level of enthusiasm high, even if the results are not really there.