This is a MAJOR turning point for the Montreal Canadiens...

This represents a major turning point for the Montreal Canadiens with a ton of uncertainty about the long-term winger partner for Ivan Demidov. This season for Patrick Laine represents a shift for the Habs, but with other big-name top six wingers being available in the trade market, such as Jake Patrika, the Habs have a decision to make as to what the long-term future holds for top prospects like mates. We have to dive into Laine slash Patrika, a bunch of stuff on that top six front, but it's not just that. We want to revisit an old quote from Martin Saint-Louis and the massive impact it will have on our young stars this year. And also, an article from The Athletic outlines each team's best contract and the results from Montreal. Usual suspects, but still very, very interesting. All that coming up on this episode of Habs Digest. And just before we start, I wanted to sincerely thank you guys for helping us finally push past that 21,000 subscriber milestone. It's huge. 25K is coming soon. And hey, if you're enjoying every single day, haven't hit the button, do it right now. It's completely free. Thank you for being here. let's start with that article at The Athletic. Links down below, as always, for you guys. Now, this year, 24-25 best performers relative to cap this past year, Suzuki and Evans, of course, at the 1.7 million. It's understandable why the Canadiens didn't have many bargain contracts on this list, Jesse. We know we had veterans on bigger contracts that were expiring, and now we have young guys on big contracts that they will live up to. The fact that we even see Nick Suzuki on this list, remember, Jesse, what was it, two years ago? A model had him as one of the worst contracts in the league he finally grew into it and more and Jake Evans too Jesse I mean love to see these guys but i have to imagine there might even be a few more guys making this list very soon absolutely and you know just such a good look on Kent Hughes for signing Jake Evans here for sure this was based off the previous contract but just a good look going forward but for sure talking about Nick Suzuki, your captain when you've got one of your highest deals, your highest contracts on your team as one of your best values, it just really allows for that feng shui, that flow to really make the magic happen on the rest of your lineup and really you got to feel like the contract situation, it's just getting better for the Habs with the Christian Dvorak kind of going there but like for me Nick Suzuki, it's a type of deal where he's gonna get that experience and then with that talent right, it's kind of you see those later on, those years, the end of that deal, Josh, like for me that's when Nick Suzuki is gonna be the most dangerous, you know, he takes care of himself, he's there for 82 games consistently year in year out, but like it's kind of getting that that experience where he really taking him over the top to really be able to kind of lift, you know, Lord Stanley at a certain point, honorable mention to Samuel Montembeault, yeah, who is also getting you know who's performing a great value relative um to his contract as well here yeah that's a great shout as well of course Monty, I mean remember getting a third place vesna vote for a dude making like not even four mil a year, it's like the dude is outperforming his contract for sure and that's one of the blessings we have i mean if you put Terry Price to the side of course that big contract final year of it though um Dobesh and Montembeault for their cap hit one of the best goalie tandems in the league relative to the price we're paying so just had to give a shout out to these guys i'm excited about the upcoming Evans contract i know Caden and Gulli will be joining this list very, very soon if he can stay healthy for a full season. Caulfield very well could as well. And we can only hope about Juraj Slafkovský. But speaking of him, Jesse, I mean, looking forward to Juraj Slafkovský this upcoming season. You have to imagine that top line is sticking together, though we know Ivan's going to definitely be knocking on the door, but that's nothing but a good thing. We wanted to revisit something. Now, I saw this doing the rounds a little bit on Twitter and did see it on Reddit as well. It's a quote that we brought up on the show a lot about Martin Saint-Louis, and he mentioned this when we made the playoffs, saying look when he made the playoffs that's what shifted it and to bring this exact quote up my first playoff run as a player took me to another level that's what I love about the playoffs especially as a young guy it makes you go to another level I came back the next year started the season at that level I raised the bar now we said this in a segment with Elliot Friedman right around the playoffs and at the time and even now Jesse revisiting this we're talking a lot about Suzuki Caulfield but Slav no one exhibits the characteristics that he's talking about here more than Slav he stepped up more I mean Lane Hudson was a point per game let's be honest here and of course Caulfield had three goals in five games but you're right Slavkovsky like Caulfield and Suzuki already had that playoff experience Slavkovsky and our boy Demidov didn't to get this early in their careers this early in their development curve and to see how they were adapting and stepping up in each of their like third fourth fifth playoff games of their career it just has me so excited especially with a coach like Marty who you know is not going to let them fall below that level i can't wait to see what slav is going to do with this new found ability for sure and just getting in the playoffs has found money for Demidov and Hudson and this is going to help them going forward for sure it helps a lot like you already got a great player like Demidov and you just get him in a situation where you get a little bit more experience for them that's gonna help for next year but who i'm really concerned about in all of this Josh is our boy your eyes have the question is how do we get him to start on time and i think us getting to the playoffs him recognizing what he needed to do and getting there was absolutely huge because is it fair to say that Slavkovsky can be a point per game type of player next year if he's really started time now that's going to be a major jump still you know getting another 32 points from you know his 50 that he had this year but i think that he can have that type of jump because he's getting most of that production those 50 points in that second half right, second half Slavin is a real thing so i think just kind of starting on time but i think Josh, like it's important to even mention like the effect of like Demi and that that 2C and like that second line we talk all the we talk all the time about how it helps Nick Suzuki but it's really going to help a certain Youri Slavkovsky so much in this situation as well to just really kind of get going you know but that's the thing about like with Marty's quote about getting into the playoffs is that you know it really helps for development the same is also true they're going to need to kind of juxtapose that and be able to handle the pressure that'll come because there's going to be increased expectations from media right don't want to call the kettle black but like we're going to expect like this team to make the playoffs now going forward and that's not an expectation that they had last year so they're going to see how they can kind of balance this going forward for me definitely a net positive 100, i i agree with all that especially that final point about really needing to come out strong this year because before it's like slow start we had a bit of like bit of one at times it's like f you know okay we're still young still rebuilding it's not the worst thing in the world but it's like now a bad slow start is not really going to be acceptable for this team and you know again media like we tend to stay positive but there's going to be times where it is frustrating if you make the playoffs and you start off cold not to say you can't turn it around just like Montreal did this past year but when you have that new level of expectation again with a guy like Ivan Demidov coming in you have rookie of the year Laine Hudson coming in you have all the prospects coming up you assume you're going to make a move this offseason touch on some of that in a second there's going to be some raised expectations but we know how to handle that pressure now our guys they stepped up in the playoffs Ivan looked amazing in games four and five and I can't wait to see what else is coming so leave your thoughts on Marty's quote how it's going to affect our boys down below because starting next season quick starting it off hot especially for our boy Slaf ready for some first half Slaf to be honest i can't wait to see it but another thing Jesse you mentioned the second line right the second line we need some depth scoring that's one of the things that Montreal is really trying to address and 2C of course is the top priority i think Kent Hughes is looking every single day to see how he can address that we looked at in New York saying Bo Horvat and Matthew Barzal are staying put those names are likely off the table as Matthew Barzal has made it clear they want to contend so you know even though 2C is still the priority there's been some talk a little bit about the second line winger who's going to pair with Ivan Demidov that's our problem right now but the number one guy we got to talk about is Patrick Laine now this is a big turning point for Montreal Jesse because this is the final year of Patrick Laine's deal 20 goals in 52 games this year he had 15 power play goals in those 52 games you prorate that to an 82 game season he would have had 23 or 24 power play goals which would have smoked everyone else in the league by six or seven this guy was a power play merchant but a power play menace this year I know he had his down moments he wasn't playing great in the playoffs he fractured his hand all this stuff Jesse when we're talking long-term future of Montreal this is really a proving season for look even if he has like a 20 25 goal season over 82 games this year I don't mind bringing him back if the cap hit's right but I think the question right now is who is the long-term fit on the wing next to Ivan Demidov we'll get into some other stuff that just came out today in a bit but do you envision that potentially being Patrick Laine um it could definitely be you know and like if he's really committed i see him just being an amazing player really for this team and like josh like we are hearing the rumors right like i think we need to like get into the right off the bat this is a huge can of worms like there's the Martin Necas but even the more recent rumors from friedman right of like JJ Peterka being there it's like there is the option if we're not able to get that to see that maybe we go get like that really skilled type of winger in fact even jeff gordon kind of alluded to it of like maybe that's the way that we can go about it on our second line that being said Josh, it's like I don't think that that's the first play that they want to go to, no, why they're paying Line a lot of money first of all I think that matters, he needs to play in the top six to be successful but most importantly in all this Josh, they want to do right by Patrick Laine, like they made like a commitment to him, they said like you come over here we're gonna get your love of hockey back and that's a two-way street definitely Laine needs to do his work on that but they're gonna try and put him just in a position to win as much as possible so but that being said I think that they're not gonna wait forever here right and if they do see that Laine does have that potential they see maybe a longer term play there to kind of help right like they don't want Laine on that third line which is why I don't think that they're gonna go for that winger this this summer here but I mean it's interesting all the same right because you don't want to wait I'm sure there's different voices within the Habs organization that are kind of fighting on either side of this argument I think it's it's very relative very fair to say but like that being said like we want to see a full year for Patrick Laine or at least like a good chunk of it before making a decision because if he can really play like all zones he was pro rated last year like not just on the power play but like for just for his goals to be at 31 about 32 which isn't a bad showing you know like over an 82 game season just the question is can he put it all together and being a contract year like Josh I just have that faith like this this ideal world where Line A is just lighting lighting it up like maybe call me like a hopeless romantic here but it's like he's like you know on like the 5v5 he's playing committed on the power play doing what he does best but like just a big body right getting on the forecheck laying some hits like just how incredible would that be my final question to you Josh this year with Demidov I think like Demidov is going to help Line A Line A is going to help Demidov but I think Demidov being the playmaker like he's gonna help Line A more than anything else here plus or minus 40 goals Patrick Laine for the viewers below let us know as well oh boy um you know I really want to be hopeless romantic as well I'm gonna take the under because I think Patrick Laine has the capability to score 40 goals you put him on the power play and you have a menace like Ivan Demidov feeding him one timers that could work but I'm not convinced that they're gonna go back to Laine on the PP1 could they should they probably maybe with like it's tough to say right like he was so great on the PP1 but in the playoffs without him on the PP1 they looked really good as well I think there's going to be two distinct PP units that could work very well um I don't know if he's going to be on that same power play pace of like 23 if he gets 23 power play goals it's hard to bet against 40 goals I'm gonna take the under but I'm gonna say 35 like I think he could really get 35 and in that case still absolutely worth bringing back but I think the person they put down the middle with that line is the biggest question whether it's you know another addition like yes you could bring in a guy like JJ Peterka you could go bring in another star winger I don't know Owen Tippett's name has been thrown out there a little bit I think he plays a bit of center is he more of a winger I think he's a bit more of a winger regardless like there's names out there we have prospects as well that could transition to winger from center I don't know but like you know down the middle is the question if they're playing with Kirby Dach hey you know maybe that could work like you put someone down the middle who who's really defensively responsible I don't know there's a lot to talk about here a lot of discussion what do you guys think is line A the long-term solution or have we just not seen enough yet I think this is the turning point year for it love to hear from you guys down below but listen that'll do it for this episode of Habs Digest right now leave your over or under 40 goals for Patrick Laine a fantastic question love to see what you all have to say I'm Josh Goss, my co-host Jesse Paul here we'll catch you on the next one