This is the chance they've been waiting for...

Trade discourse around the Habs has centered on a few key players, but one we haven't brought up in a while is Sam Maltombo. But Kent Hughes is faced with a golden opportunity with an unfortunate injury in Columbus. It opens up a door. Plus, we have some big updates on Alexander Zhirovsky as he had a bit of a position change in his second most recent game as he continues to fire on all cylinders in the preseason. And finally, we're looking at the top fantasy breakout players as voted on by NHL.com. And while Montreal has a certain name right there near the very top, we're going to break all of it down coming up on this episode. I'm excited about this because the trade talk, we talked about Engstrom, talked about David yesterday, pretty crazy. You guys seem to love that, but we're going to circle back on the Maltombo agenda today. That's going to come up a little bit later because it's a little wrinkle in Columbus. But first things first, Jesse, just want to do our little due diligence and talk about Mr. Brickwall himself, Jakob Dobesch, because NHL.com was ranking their top fantasy breakout picks this year, and Jakob Dobesch made a fantastic appearance coming in at number 10. He comes in at number 91 in the overall fantasy ranking. Maybe I could have cropped his face a little better. He's sniffing the ranking there, coming in at 91 overall, but top 10 in breakout candidates. Some other pretty big names there, Jesse. I mean, again, it just goes to show, like, the respect is coming every single day for Mr. Mattress King himself. And actually, maybe it's not Mattress King, so it's a different one. But look, regardless, I love to see that even despite the fantastic year last year, people still think he has that other level to his game. He definitely does, and that's what's really exciting about him. It's like, you got to feel like he's just getting started, and the respect is starting to really grow, and the reputation as well, which is always part of it. The mythos of Jakob Dobesch is really growing every single day. And really, you have to feel like this is a player that just gained so much confidence from last year, from the playoffs, and you have to feel the Montreal Canadiens did very much as well. They learned so much, and that's just really going to benefit them so much this year. And I love to see him being ranked a top 10 in terms of breakout players in the NHL, because we've been talking about this. Like, just again, the way that he plays, the way that he's so big, but it's also that attitude, and it's that confidence, which I think is just kind of that perfect combination, because we see players like Nick Suzuki on this team, cool, calm, collected. But then we saw how, like, in the playoffs, having a guy like Jakob Dobesch, on the other hand, who brings a little bit more fire to the table, is often that perfect connection that you need. So, Josh, can we just say at this point that Jakob Dobesch was a draft steal as a 5th round pick? Here, he's just up here with, like, you look at the other breakout candidates, a lot of them make sense, but these are all, like, often highly drafted players, and it's like their time. Sometimes, like, top 5 overall picks, and there's Jakob Dobesch just hanging with them. So, again, we really believe in this player, but it just gives us so much more confidence ourselves when we see him on these type of lists as well. Yeah, not just the top 10 fantasy breakout players, the NHL Network's top 10 goalies in the NHL, he snuck in there at number 10, and like, yeah, I just, I find it crazy that he was, again, arguably, if you look at some stats, the best goalie in the playoffs, and, you know, maybe that's what's, like, helping him shoot up this ranking, right? Yeah, let's keep going. You might notice that in their second preseason game, which was a few days ago, they played their third just yesterday, where he didn't do as good, but still, he was playing center, he was still in the second line, I don't believe Shibachov was playing this game, but he was, Shibachov was not on his wing, it was Zhuravsky with Kuznetsov and Gorshkov, which is very interesting, getting some center reps in the preseason, but not just that, he played center, he also notched his first goal, and Grant McCagg, by the way, has been a friend of the show, great friend of the show, has been doing a ton of great prospect breakdowns, he has some paid-only stuff, you can go check out his stuff if you want more in-depth stuff on prospects, but here's Zhuravsky's goal, really nice, just a little snipe off the rush right under the goalie's glove, yeah, in his third game today, as you mentioned, it maybe didn't go quite as well, he was a minus two, but he was still playing on the second line, that's been consistent, second line in every single game, Jesse, but also playing a bit of center, which is really what I want to focus on, because, you know, as much as we project him as a winger at the NHL level, the fact that he's even getting these reps, I know, even just in the preseason, to me, is a pretty interesting and fairly important step in his development. And really a dream situation for his development as well, what we're seeing early on, just two games into the KHL season, what is he doing, Josh, like, we're not going to get the list going again, but he's scoring goals, he's playing center early, like, he's clearly making an impact visibly on his team, like, I just can't wait to see, like, is this going to be highlight reel after highlight reel, like, he is wasting no time, and we saw him, like, in the offseason, was just a couple weeks ago, Josh, he's here in Montreal, putting in time with Ivan Demidov, training, putting in that work, and, like, as I'm seeing, like, clips early on, like, let me know in the comments, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on this as well, Josh, like, like, from Zurovsky, what we're seeing right now, like, do you feel skill-wise that this is a guy that could play with Demidov when he comes over in the spring, like, will he be ready right away, or do you think Marty's going to, like, ask for a little bit more defensively, and then he needs to work there, because we need to think about that, that's real, like, to play on the second line, like with Demidov, there's certain other aspects that are required, and there was a learning process, even with Demidov, he was able to learn really quickly, do you think Zurovsky will get there, because, like, the more I'm watching this, it's, like, skill-wise, just get a little bit more muscle, just kind of develop, like, hockey player-wise, this is a guy, not only, like, with Demidov, would be, like, extremely, like, electric, and exciting, and creative, like, I, like, for one, like, even though I want the big trades to happen, the more that I see this player playing, like, okay, this isn't the worst thing in the world holding on to this player, because now with him playing center, imagine, Josh, like, we have Michael Hage, we have Alexander Zurovsky, we're just holding on to all our good prospects, at the end of the day, like, that's not the worst situation, now you have a guy that could play center, or wing, in Hage and Zurovsky, depending on the situation, if things pan out, I'm just hoping that Alexander gets more run at this position, because if he does, and he proves capable, that's just gonna increase his value to the Montreal Canadiens. Yeah, exactly, and look, I'm not expecting him to come in and be a 2C right away, he needs a lot more reps at center if he's gonna do it, and he projects to be a full-time winger. 2C! 2C, why not, hey, pump the agenda, him or Hage, right, like, but as long as he can even be, you know, just a guy who can step in and take some face-offs, like, that's valuable, in and of itself, we're even seeing Slav do this a lot, right, So, yeah, I mean, I think, to answer your question, there absolutely is a world where he could play opposite Ivan Dimitrov, like, as soon as he comes over. Now, again, still a lot to be seen, we'll wait for the regular season to start in the KHL, we'll see how he does throughout the whole year, but, yeah, I mean, when I'm watching these clips, even if today was maybe not as strong, whatever, there's a lot left in the tank, I think, for him this year, and I think we're gonna see him, especially with his new linemates, really explode offensively and just show to everyone, and, again, remember what Mishkov said, and, like, a lot of people were saying, this dude, straight up, is one of the best, most talented prospects in the world, and people think he could play in the NHL today. Second line, I think, Marty has kind of tended to let guys earn their keep a little bit first, but, also, if you're good enough, you might just get that shot, so leave your thoughts on all that down below. Final thing today, though, we want to talk about some potential moves, and I want to touch on the Samuel Montebello situation. Of course, only 25 games last year, we're all very familiar with the situation, but, if you're not, he is on a one-year expiring contract now, he was surpassed by both Dobesh and Jacob Fowler in the goalie rotation, Monte was the third goalie, you know, some people wonder if he's still happy with that role or not, he was a fantastic sport last year, I mean, doing everything he could, but 3.15 million on an expiring contract, there are a lot of questions about, will he be traded, right, just to open up that roster spot, see what happens for Montreal, and there's been an interesting development out of Columbus, because Elvis Merzlikens underwent successful shoulder surgery on Monday, and no timetable has been set for his return, now, look, Columbus still has Jet Greaves, who signed that contract, of course, after the arbitration, all this stuff, he seems to be their starter going forward, but Merzlikens, of course, long-time starter in the NHL, very solid goaltender in his own right, didn't have a fantastic year this year, but, Jesse, I mean, there have been multiple articles, people throwing this out there, Montreal-Columbus together, if we've already had these Marchenko discussions, you know, Kent Hughes and Don Waddell have spoken, Montreal has submitted an offer before, do you think there's any world where, like, these two teams could be a nice fit together for a goaltender trade here? I certainly hope so, more fuel to the fire, and I would hope that that would be part of a larger package, obviously, involving a certain Kirill Marchenko, like we've mentioned here on the channel, that would be absolutely amazing, but at the same time, like, you really have to feel like, this trade is really going to happen for Samuel Monteboh, whether it's in-season, very soon there, or before, and really, Josh, like, this is just a clear example of why it's so good to be patient. For Kent Hughes, like, what he's doing, it's kind of like a micro-example of, like, what's going to happen with the 2C of him being patient, with, obviously, Samuel Monteboh, and allowing his value to go up, where a situation arrives like this, is clearly Kent Hughes' management style 101, asset management to a T here, because there's a world here where you have to figure, again, with Samuel Monteboh, it's normal for it to vary from year to year, but he has put together several years back-to-back of above 900 save percentage, and that has to count for something, like, if you kind of view the stats, Josh, like, you got to feel in the right environment, you probably just need to change the situation, Samuel Monteboh would be more than serviceable, and again, with Columbus, it's one of those exact situations where all they need is a backup. All they need right now is somebody to be the replacement to Greaves here, so it would kind of be a little bit less pressure, which I think is just exactly what Samuel Monteboh needs, so again, I love just the patience here by Kent Hughes, it's going to serve him well in this situation, and I believe in other ones as well. Yeah, I think it's just, it feels like a good match stylistically, and, you know, these teams have talked about trades before, and, or maybe Don Waddell is like, if you can't, I'm not doing this because you tried to lowball me, or, no, apparently Montreux gave a high offer from our team, so it's really interesting, but I completely agree, right? It's this type of environment, whether it's Columbus or not, teams need goalies, they will need goalies throughout the year, teams are going to have backups that underperform, and I love the point you had about, like, you know, he's on just a small contract, 3.15 million dollars, but he is one year removed from a 62 games played season, he played all but 20 games just a year ago, and he had an above 900 save percentage with a sub-3 goals against average, and, like, I know the advanced analytics didn't paint him as this, you know, best-by-caliber goalie or anything, but he won us a lot of games, did he lose some, too? Sure, but at this point, like, I still think he has value, and I think you're right, letting his value increase when other teams are kind of losing their goalies, you know, looking at his resume, it could be tempting. So what do you guys think down below? Is this a good trade opportunity for Montreal? Would you do it? Do you still want to trade Samuel Montembeu before the season? We'd love to hear from you. That will do it for this episode. Thank you for watching literally every single day. Season's coming soon, can't wait. I'm Josh Goss, my co-host, Jesse Poirier. We'll catch you in the next one.