The Habs have the opportunity to do something CRAZY...

The Habs have the opportunity to do something absolutely crazy as new reports out of New York, the Rangers in particular, indicate that a prime 2C target is available. A former 39 goal scorer just two years ago is on the market as the Rangers are looking for cap relief. We have to dive into the Mika Zibanejad situation and how that could very well affect the Montreal Canadiens. But it's not just that we got to talk about today. The cap has projected to rise even more than anyone would have anticipated per Chris Johnson and that has a huge ripple effect on the Montreal Canadiens going forward in the best way possible and a final mock draft from the athletic Corey Promen who tends to get a lot of picks right as Montreal picking two of the names that we would love to see the most a bunch of great stuff coming up on this episode of Habs Digest and let's start there with the athletic Jesse in this mock draft just showing it right away Corey Promen now look 2024 we know he didn't have it bang on he had us taking Z Boyum at five I believe so you know he's not always right but 21 22 and 23 he was pretty bang on and as much as some people don't like the lane hudson takes it's pretty good with these draft predictions he has the Habs taking carter Verlinden Lackovich listen jesse we've talked a lot about these two players of course carter Verlinden being a kind of do-it-all type of guy but recovering from an achilles tear linden lakovich some questions about his effort but he's a huge player 6-4 and has incredible upside to me i love this combo it's a safer pick and a swing for the fences back to back and if montreal is ready to do something i really like the idea of this how about you i completely agree with that assessment again just to clarify Carter Barry is that type of guy that's got like a really high floor where it's like he looks like a bottom six guy for all day in the NHL but like with a lot of upside i love how this guy is just like tenacious though and just goes hard to the net with the puck but also like pretty smart guy can be like sneaky clever around the net with some kind of deft backhands that you're not quite expecting some clever angles there so i mean a lot to like from his game of course these are two players that we've talked about the most we even put Justin Carpenelas is like that maybe the third player along with these two that we suggested just last night as being the most likely for the Montreal Canadiens going forward Linden Lackovich as you mentioned too is more of like you know swing high for the fences because there's a lot of various variations in where he's projected and you could look at the way that being like worrisome a little bit that there's such like a variation among scouts of where he should be picked but that's also kind of a call out to the high upside that he has if this all kind of pans out at 6-4 190 you know he's going to fill out even more and with the bigger guys they often take a little bit more time to kind of find their game then so i feel like we have not seen the best from Linden Lackovich Lacko as he's affectionately known um so i think you know it's very interesting to kind of if we are picking with both those picks to have that type of strategy we're playing it safe but with another pick where you really want to go for it at that point in time yeah it's just such a cool idea and again you know there are some downsides like you said with Lackovich where it's like if the effort is the main concern with him well one of the main concerns and the Habs are picking are they really going to pick him but again i think Ken Hughes and Jeff Gorton they know what they want to pick for the future of this organization but leave your thoughts down below on this being the outcome for pick 16 and 17 we'd love to hear from you because this draft it's going to change a lot for Montreal whether these picks are traded or not so just trying to stay a bit ahead of it but look if we're looking towards the future of Montreal Jesse we know we're in a fantastic position cap wise and we can just look at the roster here again Suzuki Caufield Slafkovsky all under eight million dollars Suzuki is already playing like a 10 11 12 million dollar player now true right and Cole Caufield you could argue very much he's approaching that you know if he was on the open market he'd probably get 10 ish million dollars a year now nine or ten and again your Slafkovsky still yet to fully prove himself but he has two back-to-back 50 point seasons at the age of 21 and he's a big physical guy who stepped up in the playoffs so there's a lot of great contracts here but the defense too and this is the last year of Price's contract we have a lot of flexibility is the point but Chris Johnston said that the NHL salary cap could go even higher than the current projections could be something like 118 million in a few years that's for the Chris Johnston show and Jesse when you look at how this affects Montreal and it affects moves for you know very good players on the roster that we will talk about in a minute oh don't you, we will talk about Mika Zibanejad, I know some of you have probably already typed your comments but look with Montreal's positioning right now Jesse this jump in cap space is going to hurt a lot of teams who are trying to sign long-term free agents this year and next year because they're going to see this incredible spike they're going to sign for massive deals and look if the cap keeps going up great but that new baseline has been set whereas Montreal a lot of their stars minus Lane Hudson who might extend this year will extend within the next calendar year at least and Ivan Demidov who can extend next year these guys are going to command big numbers but Montreal's in such a great position financially Jesse I feel like we don't even realize how good this is with this new update and I know you're a big numbers guy Josh and and so is Kent Hughes and this is really music to his ears and it's just so nice knowing that with this you really need a general manager that can really kind of kind of negotiate and obviously be able to take care of a very evolving situation very quickly going up from the 88 million that we have obviously growing exponentially so quickly right now and obviously it's so nice to see the game growing the revenue growing across the league right now and that the players are getting their part of it as a result but that ability i think to make those strong financial moves and set that benchmark as he did and what that kind of allows is going forward like josh i think like the way this is shaping up the big implications this mean like we can have like a beast of a second line going forward like we're gonna have like a 1a 1b like we're not gonna go this is the first line like we can really get Demidov some amazing teammates to kind of go with them considering we're gonna have so much money to to spare there of course you want to be still frugal in these type of situations you don't want to just be kind of selling the farm right away but I mean I just think we got the right guy for the for the job really with Kent Hughes and how this really kind of positions us in the future to be able to take advantage because of the good homework and foundation that he's laid for this team you're absolutely absolutely right josh like this is going to be a competitive advantage for the Montreal Canadiens going forward a huge one and again everything Kent Hughes and Jeff Gordon say like doesn't come like it comes across as if they're treating this like a league with a pretty much static salary cap like look i love that right we're not willing to just go out and spend money willy-nilly like look they'd rather overpay in a trade that fits the team better long term which again makes sense again with the cap going up you can afford maybe bigger deals than you once thought a deal signed for eight million dollars three or four years ago is now going to age way better than that because that same person would probably be worth 10 or 11 million on the cap in a few years so it's like there's so many different aspects to this I mean I've said it before I'll say it again Hayden Gourley is straight up going to be one of the most underpaid players in the NHL very soon I'm sticking to that like genuinely this guy I think he could be like a 1D type of level of guy you know Lane Hudson obviously too it's hard to say but you know what i mean like one of the solid presences anyway but just the whole hab situation right now looks amazing with that but you know with the cap going up jesse again not only are Kent Hughes and Jeff Gorton really smart with the moves that they've been making this opens a lot more flexibility than maybe we even anticipated we're already pretty much in cap heaven again we'll see what the extensions look like but making a move for a 2C and just some other high-end talent is something we talked about and there was an article from the athletic recently coming from Arthur Staple out of new york for the new york Rangers and in that article they talked about Mika Zibanejad and I know a lot of you like Mika Zibanejad a lot of you probably don't like Mika Zibanejad we're about to make a little case here so they basically say Arthur Staples said there's a chance that Drury has already worked it out with Zibanejad that moving on would be best of course five years left eight and a half million per year full no move and look it is a lot of money and Mika Zibanejad the big thing with him 6-2-2-0-3 he's always been a good producer but in the last few years he's fallen off a bit from 39 goals 91 points to 26 72 to 20 goals 62 points in 82 games this past year but again jesse team step in and retain cap a lot of the time in terms of talent he's a 2C level guy he's 52 on the face-off dot with about a thousand face-offs taken this year do you think there's any world where Mika Zibanejad could be a fit for the Montreal Canadiens i'll say yes if there's some significant retention uh and we beef up defensively he's gotten selkie votes and i wish sorry if we beef up physically because he doesn't really hit anymore like he did in his younger years but honestly like making a move this would be bold this would be spicy i don't think it's super likely but it's a very interesting option i think he could be a fit for the Montreal Canadiens this is a guy that's gonna get over 70 points next year and by all standards that is a very good production for a 2C like adding Mika Zibanejad getting a Carlson from Vegas like you know that something that i can get behind standing pat this year and just not improving the 2C is something like i can't get behind like of course would a Mason McTavish uh a Bo Horvat maybe be the more preferred um candidate here yes absolutely but i think that that production that we kind of need for a team that has been missing on goal scoring for a lot of time is get players to do that that physical side of the game get other players to take care of that but we need goal scoring in today's NHL it's really just a part of it but like the reason why it's not ideal is because with the current makeup anyway it's for sure you're having to bring like line a down to the third line like there's no way for me to make sense of Zabinajad Demidov and line a like you need yeah to forecheck and to go get that puck so that's that's kind of a big thing and when you're paying line a a fair amount of money already you know you can consider almost a little bit of a lateral move but it's almost to get a little bit more of like a longer term sort of fit at least in the meantime while we have cap is going up we can kind of go from there i think like even getting like an Evans type on like that second line even though you're taking them away from center somebody who can play physically go get the puck like because you have so much talent on that line with Demidov and with the Zabinajad i'd be okay putting in Evans i just think you want a player like that on that type of line it's really the only way it makes sense um at the same time though it's like for the positive for this player like he's won the last four seasons barely missing any time for injury we're talking about 81 91 72 and 62 points over his like just and that was on a bad rangers team that's what i'm saying next year he's getting over 70 points he's gonna have that bounce back year wherever he is going forward probably if he's on the Montreal Canadians even kind of more going forward um so you know and i think there's even like a world Josh where it's like and i know this is this is bold here but like he can battle it out with Nick Suzuki for you know probably you know for that point like Nick will win but you want that 2C that could kind of push him because we're talking about getting a 2C like oh we're happy if he gets maybe around 50 points but we're talking about a guy like he's gonna get 65 to 75 points next year like that's some very good production for your 2C you definitely need a little bit of that grit on that line there i think to kind of make everything work but i think if you're able to get that type of composition like Josh i just want us to stand pat i know that right now it's a little bit of a seller's market because there's just so many buyers out there and for me i'm just behind us getting a move is this the ideal one probably not but i just don't want other teams like Detroit um you know even Ottawa still you know kind of like jumping over it's getting getting like i think it's up exactly it's time for Montreal to really kind of stake their claim we got in the playoffs yeah maybe things went ahead of time and it's forcing us to make these type of moves maybe before we thought we were going to but need to go with the flow this young team's ready and I think we got to do something to really improve that position and I believe under the right circumstances he can do that it's very interesting too because look I we spoke to Darius at Rangers Digest that also hosts Leafs Digest he's a Rangers fan as well it's like the big thing is New York from what we're hearing from the New York side they kind of just want to get off this contract they value the cap flexibility and they wouldn't be looking for much in return if a team is willing to take on that full contract you have to pay almost nothing except for maybe some low-key futures that's what he said so like again it'd be a risky move in terms of his decline because he seems to physically be declining now 32 years old but the skill is there and again hey his best years were alongside someone like an Artemi Panarin who has like multiple hundred point seasons we got Ivan Demidov right there and again you know Jesse you said someone like Evans on that second line I mean call me crazy but like you know what if Emil Heinemann takes a leap wouldn't that be a decent fit you know someone like that so again I think that's again bold to assume that Heinemann would just be like all right second line now buddy go ahead like that's crazy but sheltering someone like Zibanejad with Suzuki's one seam minutes um I think it could work but again I think it's risky for Zibanejad again doesn't really add that physicality that we're looking for but you can fill that in in other places but I'm on board with you Jesse where it's like I think a move like a solid move whether it's him like I think William Carlson might make a little more sense but it's more short term something to improve this team is going to happen it is needed to reward our guys for playing well but we need to hear what you guys have to say let us know your thoughts on Zibanejad and a move for a 2C all this is coming out pretty quick and look as we're approaching the draft something will probably happen sooner than later but that'll do it for this episode of Habs Digest if you enjoyed leave a like comment subscribe to the channel thank you all for tuning in every single day I'm Josh Goss my co-host Jesse We'll catch you in the next one.