I like where this is going...

The Habs are set up beautifully with this. Things just feel like they keep getting better as the offseason goes on. There's been a lot of talk about the coaching staff, specifically Derek Lalonde, who is now stepping in next to Martin St-Louis. But more importantly, the specific strength that he brings that can propel Montreal to an even better position than they were before. And it may just involve this guy here in Oliver Kapanen, but there are some major questions coming up about him as well and his deployment under Martin St-Louis that we have to explore. But finally, on a team-building perspective, from Kent Hughes' side of things, Montreal continues to climb up the rankings not only in the NHL, but also across power rankings and rankings in general from authors and journalists across the board. And one recent place has Montreal ranked the highest I think I've ever really seen them in terms of an actual on-paper ranking. There is a whole lot we got to dive into coming up on this episode. Look, I know we still haven't had that huge trade we've wanted yet. We still haven't had a big signing. All these players are going everywhere else, but it's the little things, Jesse. The stuff we talk about a lot. We've been talking a lot about prospects. Some more of that is definitely going to come, but even things like this, the coaching staff and specific roles for players. They're serious questions that kind of demand answers before we end the offseason coming up in a month or two. And Josh, I'm convinced at this point that the reason that the move hasn't happened yet for the Montreal Canadiens is just because of how big it's going to be. Kent Hughes, it's going to be the big one. He's got the assets. He wants to get it right. So I think we're going to be happy. He takes his time. We're not, the puck hasn't dropped yet, as much as we're excited for it. So I think that that's why he's taking his time, but we know it's coming. Yeah, calm, cool, collected, but still despite not making that big move, Montreal is getting well-respected around the league. Now we saw them, I think, third in a certain power ranking recently, but there was a list that just came out talking about, and it'll be linked down below, the top five teams in the NHL on paper. So not just power rankings of how teams are, you know, performing now relative to where they were, just straight up top five teams in the NHL on paper. And well, where did Montreal come, but in a tie for fifth with the Dallas Stars? Honestly, it's pretty crazy. Pretty good. As they say here, the Montreal Canadiens didn't make many high-profile moves yet. Yet. I think that's very important. Still, Montreal didn't lose much. I have seen the finish tied for fifth in the league in 25-26. It's still going to be one of the fastest, most skilled teams in the league, and they have 13.3 mil in salary cap space, meaning they're likely to improve with trades. Now, this number slightly differs from cap wages for different reasons. There's, again, there's cap holes. There's all kinds of other stuff going on. There's still restrictive free agency things to deal with on the Kirby Dock, Zachary Bolduc, and Arbor Jackeye fronts, but we have so many of our picks, Jesse, like all of them, except for our own third-round pick next year. We have the cap space. We have a roster that was already top five in the NHL. The fact that people are saying, yeah, this is straight-up a top-five team on paper almost feels surreal to me at this point. If 106 was the amount of points that we got last year, you got to feel like 110, 112 has to be the baseline for this young Canadian team because, again, they're just going to get better with time and with experience here. So that's what's giving, again, Ted Hughes that liberty to be patient and slow-roll this entire season, which he loves to do, right? Like, you know, like, quietly, like, he's not in a rush. Like, he just loves the amount of leverage that he has. Players like Oliver Kapanen that we're going to get into very much factor in, which gives him the opportunity just to take his time in all these situations, right? We love what that means. Again, here, why are they factored inside the top five? Again, I don't want to give a dig at the Carolina Hurricanes, but losing, like, Frederick Anderson, that might hurt them. Just want to say that's an important one. Getting back to the half, though, which I think is really important. It's like, you're not going to see the combo of a 100-point guy in Nick Suzuki and a 50-goal score in Cole Caulfield. That's not a guarantee in the NHL. That doesn't happen by virtue of that. You then factor in your star D-man, which, you know, you need that combo to really win a cup, and then just, like, some solid, you know, goaltending, which, you know, we have one of the best up-and-coming duos in the NHL right now. It's like, you have all the bases. You then throw in one of the best up-and-coming power-forwards in the league, in Yuriy Slavkovsky. We then, obviously, like, Demidov is still yet to hit that next level. It's going to be absolutely, like, incredible what this team is capable of. I love to see that respect, again, of what we've done, because we haven't lost much either, right? And this team is just, they're very young. They've proven that they've gotten better every single year. And just because of that, obviously, like, what Nick Suzuki, like, Cole Caulfield, how they've improved every single year. Obviously, like, with the halves, there's just, like, a mere reflection of how they've been able to improve as well. So, absolutely, I think that many analysts are completely justified in feeling this way. Yeah, as they should be. And, yeah, there's so much good stuff going on. And a lot of even the uncertainty just simply comes from not if players will fall off, but it's how much they will develop. And I think there are a number of players that we're pointing at, like Ivan Demidov. He just signed for 9 million. He scored 62 points in his rookie year. We're hoping to get him up near a point per game. We'll see. Lane Hudson's already a Norris-caliber guy. Suzuki's getting, like, heart votes. Caulfield winning the Rocket. Like, all this kind of stuff. But it's the other guys, like Slav. Obviously, an amazing season. Can he get to a point per game? If he can, that's insane. What about development of Reimbach or stuff like that? But one of the biggest question marks is a guy you mentioned, and we'll just get into him now. That's Oliver Kapanen, because despite having a great year, he only played seven playoff games where he was held scoreless in those seven playoff games. He played all 82 regular season games. We've talked about him at length before, but now as the offseason is going on, that pressure to have a decision on him, well, it's mounting. Because, look, you can look at his career numbers here, and they're pretty solid, right, across the board. You go back to the SHL, 35 points in 36 games with Timur, then three points in six playoff games, 14 points in 13 playoff games when he was, like, 20, 21 years old, right? Like, it was really incredible stuff for him. We all remember the six goals at the World Hockey Championships, 22 goals this year. But in another article recently from Massimo Baruffa, they make a great point that Kapanen took a huge step forward in his progression last season after a disappointing debut with the Habs in 24-25, not disappointing maybe, but they will still need him to take another step forward if he's going to be a real option for them on the second line. Now, yes, I think if you want him to be a second-line player, he will need to take another big jump, but he still remains one of the big question marks, Jesse, and I just ask to the audience, too, like, at what point are you okay with just saying this, this is, it's just worth cutting ties now while he has that 20-goal season because maybe this is the highest they'll get? We saw even in the intro video, Demi setting him up for a beautiful goal. I don't think that that is the be-all end-all. I don't think it's only because of Demi that he was a 20-goal scorer, but ultimately, looking at this team, we talk so often about how if we make a big trade, one, two, maybe three of these forwards will have to go to, like, really make room for the next generation of Zhirovsky, Page, plus a 2C, plus maybe another winger, and I just can't help but feel that Kapanen, if a trade ends up coming up, could very well be one of those pieces. A couple more well-placed moves, and the Montreal Canadiens are very hard to beat. Yeah, that being said, like, and Kapanen has been kind of involved in trade talks going the other way. If we're able to keep him, I think it's like a valuable asset, Josh, and I'm like, I'm really not taking for granted what he was able to do, scoring 22 goals last year, just combined also with the defensive play. Like, just from the eye test for me, I saw a guy that was coming down low, as a good sentiment showed, supporting his D-man, creating great outlets, and his team was able to transition, and he's just really good in front of the net. Like, a lot of them, again, when you're in front of the net, and some of like, those garbage goals, like, obviously like, that's just translatable. Like, that's, you're gonna get a lot of goals in that proximity to the front of the net. What's like, having Slough there for a period, is that helping him? Is Demerol being Ivan, you know, and doing those type of things, is that helpful? Of course it is, you know, but as this team gets better, I think it's only right that Kapanen should be able to benefit. This is a guy that's just been good, like, at every single level that he's played at. Where does that mean, again, like, long-term? Like, like yourself, Josh, like, I do feel like he should be, like, on that third line, like, just completely owning it on that third line. Like, that's, if we're looking like a very strong Montreal Canadiens team, like, again, just getting, just improving, like, throughout the lineup, and that depth just continues to grow from that first, second line, at some point, onwards there. Again, once it does, like, once we solidify that second line, because of the depth we have, just by virtue of that, like, the effect on now, on our bottom six, and how that becomes so much more solid, and how Kapanen gets in a better, like, position now, I'm really excited to see, because, like, again, at 6'2", 194, like, it's not like he can't play a physical game, right? Like, he's big enough. He has above-average size as a centerman, right? I think that's the one thing that we need to see, like, for him staying a part of this over the season. I don't think it's just because, like, he couldn't play, like, playoff hockey. I think it's just, as the regular season went on, those last ten regular season games, he wasn't able, he was held off the score sheet a lot more, that carried on the playoffs. I just think that's a little bit of, like, the stamina, just playing those shorter seasons out in Sweden, and over here, just, he's going to get a little bit more experience as it goes on, and I just continue, expect him to build on what was already a very strong rookie career with those 37 points. And I think that really mirrors what Marty, what Kanku, Jeff Gorton have all kind of said, like, they saw that stamina just kind of catch up to him, and, like, you know, I like the point of the third lines. I mean, if we look at the lines now, Phil Deneau is, you know, whether it's third or fourth, it doesn't matter, but there's no doubt in my mind that even today, Oliver Kapanen has much more offensive upside than Phil Deneau. Yes, Deneau is better on the faceoff dot, much better, and he's a much better defensive player, I would say. I mean, there are almost no better defensive forwards in the league than Phil Deneau, you know, like, he's right up there in the upper echelon. While Kapanen isn't bad, he has his moments, right, but still, like, I think a third line role, where he can score a little bit, have some good scoring wingers, is what he needs, but we also saw that when you separated him from Ivan Dimitrov, he did struggle to create his own offense, which might need to be that next step as an NHL centerman, but regardless, the numbers are there, like, you know, you don't just fluke in the 20 goals, not at his age, not with his experience, not after being a point per game as a 20-year-old-ish in the SHL, like, there's some good stuff coming, so we'd love to hear your guys' thoughts on him down below, and one of the things that maybe could come is some better PK time. He maybe got a little bit at one point, but he kind of he didn't have as much defensive responsibility as the season went on, as we take a look at the Habs' PK units, you can see the second unit, Newhook with Danoah as the forwards, Evans with Anderson on the first unit, I think it's hard to crack those four, to be honest, I mean, like, they were pretty good this year, Anderson and Newhook kind of finding themselves in the PK this year was really, really nice, but the reason we're talking about this is because of new assistant coach Derek Lalonde, who's taking over for Trevor Litowski, aka Mike Matheson 2.0, who is stepping aside for a little bit, and there was a great article written by Corinne Haynes, which is linked down below, there's a lot more than just this, I really suggest you go read it, because there's a lot of great information about Derek Lalonde, but I wanted to just show this particular part, last season, despite the Maple Leaf struggles, they ranked 8th on PK efficiency at 81%, in 2017-18 that should say, the Bolts had a 76% success rate, they were 28th in the league, but then the following year with Lalonde's input, they went up to 1st in the league, at an 85% success rate, this is one of the calling cards of Derek Lalonde, he really improves teams' penalty kills, in Montreal, they ranked 18th in the NHL, pretty central, right, right around Utah, right around Edmonton, but this is the kind of thing, Jesse, where if you can jump from middle of the pack, up into top 10, in something like penalty kill, while your power play is looking like, hopefully with the PP2 this year, it'll step up a bit, but still, the PP1 was still really good, if your power play can be top 10, and your PK can be top 10, those are the kind of teams, you see these stats all the time, that statistically often finish high in the standings, and make it far in the playoffs, so, if you weren't already excited about this Lalonde signing, if you haven't seen the impact he's had on other teams' defense, like, this is one area where I really think Montreal, like, as subtle of a change as it might be, and we might not see these changes, like, in year one, it might take another year or so, but I don't know, with the personnel we have, with a coach that seems to specialize in this, I really think this is a very smart move by Montreal to grab him when they do. Oh, and it's going to have an impact right away, this is a young Canadian team that is excited to learn, and you're bringing up those exact numbers, like, I'm so happy that you're pointing it out, Josh, like, you're not just talking about the power play, and how that side is important for special teams, and shout out to Kareem Haynes, an amazing article, once again, also, but, like, the PK, and that's so important, and you're right to draw that correlation, because we see direct examples of that in the past, with Tampa, where Derek Lalonde is able to come in, he's able to improve them by nine percentage points in terms of their PK, and that that alone directly relates in them winning the Stanley Cup that year. So again, this, what does this all mean for the Montreal Canadiens? It means that the Montreal Canadiens have made a very targeted acquisition here of a guy that's not only going to help on the special teams, on a little bit of a weakness there, because the PP was good last year, the power play, very important too, for power play success, that's the reason why we got in there, and why we went as far as we did, in fact, there's a correlation, like, I don't consider the Habs running a fluke at all, like, I see how well our power play was, and I just look year after year, teams that perform that well, on the power play, go that further. Now, what was a weakness we need to improve on? It was the PK. What was another thing? Getting more experience. So we bring a two-time Stanley Cup winner in Lalonde as well. And again, like, I'm, like, I believe in Martin Saint-Louis, and I heard, like, some crazy takes, and I just want to out this right away. It's just like, Josh, I know you have no, like, preference at all. I was meaning to talk with you about it, because again, like, I heard some people talking about, like, the addition of Lalonde, like, the take right away was, that, like, oh, if Martin Saint-Louis has a bad start to his year, Yeah, I've seen that. Jericho Lalonde is going to come in, and they're going to fire Marty, and they're going to hire Lalonde. It's like, okay, these prominent YouTube commentators on hockey, why the classic, like, jab on the Montreal Canadiens, like, just for absolute, the classic jab out of nowhere, completely uncalled for, right? Like, do we not know what they did last year, getting 106 points? Not just that, it's not like they just rested on their laurels, oh, we got a great year, boys. No, they then went to the Eastern Conference Finals, and now we bring something to strengthen the team, and the only thing that we can say is, oh, if we fire Marty, that we got his back. That's not the take, where this is a good team already. We're improving on it. He's going to take something great, improve on it, and I just love the addition of this team. Rant over. Yeah, no, I mean, it's fair enough, right? Like, the thing is, Marty, too, is a bit like a sponge. As much as we say he's helping the team out, he is absorbing all this information as well, because as a first-time NHL head coach, you have no choice but to do that, and we've seen the adjustments he's made, likely in large part due to the people he's surrounded himself with, to help build this team up, to get to where they are today. And Derek Alon's just another guy that can hopefully help with, again, like you said, an area of relative, still not like the worst in the league by any means, but an area of relative weakness, and that's the penalty kill, right? Middle of the pack PK, it's similar to like, weird Colorado had a horrible power play, which made no sense, right? Like, there's some stuff that's just like, okay, you got to fix something. But yeah, I don't foresee anything going on with Marty Sandoval, and I know there's still going to be a subset, probably some comments on this video saying, yeah, it's not a bad idea, have a backup plan in case Marty does go by the wayside. But no, this team just finished, again, tied for top 5 in the NHL last year. We're top 3 on power rankings. We're top 5 teams on paper. Like, even if Montreal has a slow-ish start to the year, Jesse, there's time. There's time in the year to figure things out. So to me, I don't like those takes at all, personally. I mean, you guys know we're all about positivity here. We love Marty Sandoval. We love this hire of Derek Dunlop, and we love the little subtle implications that it has on the bigger picture of this team. We're talking 5-10 years from now. This kind of thing can really affect it if we address it at the moment. Nip it in the bud. Let's get going. Thank you for tuning in every single day to the show. We really appreciate it. I'm Josh Goss. My co-host, Jesse Poirier. Leave your thoughts on it down below. We'll catch you all in the next one.