The Habs are on the verge of something BIG...

Montreal is on the verge of doing something big as a new report from Pierre Lebrun and The Athletic highlights that Montreal has pivoted in their plans due to unforeseen circumstances with this off-season's market and right now we're going to be doing something very very interesting. We got to break down what Pierre Lebrun said and Montreal's new likely top targets this off-season but it's not just that we got to talk about the young guys. Adam Engstrom has some incredible goals and Michael Hage has been doing one thing that makes his odds of being an impact NHL player way higher all that coming up on this episode of Habs Digest and let's start with Michael Hage now this comes from an article from Stu Cowan great article link down below um from a few days ago but I wanted to highlight some of the stuff that one of Hage's assistant coaches Rob Rassi said at the University of Michigan said I think he's got real top six potential at the NHL level it's not going to be an overnight thing but from the potential standpoint his ceiling is extremely extremely high that on its own incredibly high praise but it's this here Jesse it's hard throughout the course of a hockey season to be able to grow and add muscle but to see what he's done so far in the eight weeks in the postseason still having eight weeks to go i think he's going to be a different player next season from a physical standpoint he looks really good in the gym and jesse for a guy who already could use his size fairly well though admittedly that was one of those things that we were hoping he'd work on what kind of better news could you get for a 6-1-1-90 player to already be bulking up and using his body more effectively i'm scared for the ncaa next season i mean the talent's there you just put the a little bit more size in the equation the way that this guy can get up and down the ice i just think it's going to be a lethal combination and we know what michael hage knows that we heard the mo from kent hughes what he's looking for get in the size and it's always a great sign for your organization josh when you got key prospects like Michael Hage buying in even before they're at the NHL level just really showing that commitment to the team and really kind of putting their money where their mouth is like he is in the gym right now and i feel like it's just gonna make a huge difference in his NCAA year like building off that point per game plus year that he already had just being a phenom the difference player the player for Michigan i would have to say and again obviously getting the accolades to prove it as well Big 10 player of the year and you know what Josh like i know we're gonna get into this a little bit but like these movements have big implications on Hage and i think you know maybe still you know even though he's getting that size maybe get a little bit of buffer for him in the meantime until he's ready getting that vet maybe kind of makes sense with that feng shui you know to really make him earn it when it's his time they're coming forward so you know really looking forward though because i feel like this guy is going to be somebody that's going to be a difference maker for the Montreal Canadians as soon as he steps on the ice for that and he seems like the kind of guy that would welcome that challenge of having someone blocking the spot you know i'm going to go do it i mean look he was destined to play for the Montreal Canadians and he's doing everything he needs to do right now a Michigan rookie of the year like you said player like he was just winning accolades he's got a lot more CHL players coming to play for Michigan this next year he's looking to be a better team having Michael Hage is going to be if not the one C like a very very probably he's going to be the one C like a very very high up in this lineup with a lot of pressure on him but good pressure right and i'm very excited to see what he can do with this bigger more physical body leave your thoughts on him down below but one other guy that has bulked up both mentally and physically this year and it's led to very good performance is Adam Engstrom and this comes from Patrick Becksell and we'll link this down below patrick does a lot of great stuff with European Habs prospects, and he met up with Adam Engstrom at the World Championship in Ängelholm best forward season finisher Anyway, whatever. But Engstrom looks visibly bigger and a lot more comfortable than in our last meeting. He's grown in more ways than one during his first season in Laval. And I want to just get into this here, something Engstrom said, Jesse, because look, we've been so high on Engstrom. I went to watch Laval in the playoffs. This guy was an impact player offensively and defensively every single night. My aim is to get to camp and make it as difficult as possible for the coaches, to make it as good as possible. I don't expect to make the team at that moment, but of course you know it's what I want and if I get to play for Laval it's not a bad thing I'll play as hard as I can and work for a call up down the line and for a guy that put up the numbers he did 27 points Jesse in 66 games in your first ever season as a defenseman on North American ice I feel like it's almost unreal at this point watching him be an offensive generator for Laval and also having a lot of really good defensive plays 6'2 200 pounds like I know we talk about him a lot he had such a good training camp last year but this to me is one of these sneaky guys that could absolutely steal a spot from one of our guys already on the team. And hey, he wants to make it as hard as possible. I bet you he will. And I'm just hoping we get a chance to see him at camp coming up because I feel like players like Michael Hidge and Adam Engstrom are going to be some of the prospects that teams are looking at the most when they come knocking for the Montreal Canadiens. We know Ryan Barker is maybe a little bit untouchable. May you remain to be decided there, but like Engstrom is going to be a guy that a lot of teams are going to be low-key interested in if they've been doing their homework because i mean like this is a guy that he's hitting the gym as well he really realizes what he needs to do wants to play a little bit more physically in the playoffs and we saw him in the playoffs like him actually step up his game a little bit as as you were able to attest to as well and we feel like his game kind of got better as the year went on like playoffs it's because he got acclimatized like obviously coming over from Europe he admits there's like there was an adjustment period where it was like not just on the ice where it's like the smaller ice surface forechecking players basically in front of you basically every two to three seconds but it was also like off the ice where he needed that adjustment as well going forward so for me like this is a guy that i mean he just jumps off the page at you when you're really looking at these prospects for the Montreal Canadians because there's like some low-key high-end skill that seems dormant there while just being able to check so many other boxes of just really playing the game right so i mean this is gonna be an interesting prospect i mean i just hope he's ours once what's training camp comes around i sure hope so and again like he would be a great trade chip not everyone will fit the team in the future but look Andrew i think is going to do his job in doing everything that he can to make the habs decision as difficult as it can be and i believe it like we saw him in the preseason we see what he's capable of let us know your thoughts on Andre would he be more valuable as a trade piece with our already stacked core do you actually see him cracking this team next year could he surpass a guy like Struble and Jack i know that's crazy putting it out there i'm just saying he might just be that good though far from a guarantee But final thing, Jesse, like, look, we're looking towards the future. We know that right now. And the 2C plans this offseason, it is still our number one priority. Let's get that straight. I mean, everyone knows that. Every other team knows that. Problem is, it's a lot of teams' number one priority right now. But Montreal has the assets to make it happen. However, reports recently have indicated this is not going to be as easy as we once thought. And this one especially from Pierre LeBrun at The Athletic. Again, this article linked below, he talks about a bunch of teams. Habs GM Kent Hughes is leaving no stone unturned in surveying the forward market, trying to line up potential trade scenarios for the week and perhaps into the summer oh they're on the verge of something big though Jesse because the search for a number two center might be too hard so a compromise might be a top six winger with some of those calls Hughes is making are in that direction and it's something that they weren't shy about in these end of season meetings like look we want to add depth but we want to add top end talent as well now there's a bunch of names out there i've seen Bester's name floated around there i don't i mean you know maybe he's a former 40 goal scorer only recently his name has been surfacing but of course we have guys like all right well not him we have JJ Peterka or John Peterka John Jason Peterka of course who's a RFA he's been linked to a bunch of teams even a guy like Isaac Howard we don't know if he's going to be a top six guy but Hobey Baker winner for this season is not going to be back with the Tampa Bay Lightning i mean Jesse when you read this quote from Pierre LeBrun this makes me think like yeah i just don't think 2c is going to happen but i'm thinking now instead of just one or the other i'm thinking both could happen and i'm ready for some big Kent summer right now because there are a lot of top six wingers more so then two C's available and i think Montreal has probably the best package out there to land that would be wild if we were able to get both i don't know if a Patrick Laine would be too happy about that but that that's okay we're looking to get to the next wave like i don't know i may be like a little bit more reserved i'm like maybe we'll get one or the other but i think we need to do one of them absolutely and like and i know that like we want like a move to be made here but like i think we probably will be happy in retrospect if we get a little bit more kind of color on the situation from Kent Hughes of like not just doing a deal to do it but it's kind of that balancing act right now where it's like for sure the long-term vision happens we don't want to sacrifice all that future success to just make the playoffs this year that being said it's not too much to ask to really um kind of want your team to capitalize on the great success that they've had and get there i believe Josh that there's a world where we can balance that those two efforts if that means maybe adding like a top six impact wing or like a guy like John Jason Patourka you've been so big on Josh like in my app like i want to get you hyped up on this because it's becoming a much more real possibility and i mean like we got guys like Evans Newhook uh happening you know back like even though it's probably not the ideal to see having a world where like let's say like a Demidov and a Paterka and let's say kind of like a Newhook is kind of in the middle of that it works not the worst bottom six the same time we realize how like that centerpiece position is foundational on the ice to just creating so many opportunities so for sure that that's going to be the go-to here um and that's why Kent's really working the phones as we speak i think we're able to find a hybrid solution that still makes sense what we won't sacrifice is not improving this team this summer Kent Hughes absolutely knows he needs to do that hundred percent and again like i i think me yeah maybe i'm getting overzealous with thinking both could happen but i still don't think that's an impossibility like but again i think it'll only happen if the right trade presents itself i think we've kind of thrown Marco Rossi out the window at this point i think that's fair enough we clearly didn't want any of Zegras and i think no other team did either so again that kind of shed some more light as to like Kent is again not making move just to make a move we could have had both of those guys already based on the offers we've heard Kent didn't want them we're being picky slow cooking that's what we're doing and i'm very excited to see what's coming next because again like a guy like Pitka long term from Montreal could be fantastic opposite Demidov right like Pitka a guy who can score some goals had a really high shooting percentage this year but the indications it might regress a bit but I think this guy will be a 30 goal scorer for years especially with a guy like Demi anyway leave your thoughts down below this report is crazy it's just it's just the start of something big for us here Jesse but listen that'll do it for this episode of Habs Digest if you guys enjoyed leave a like comment subscribe to the channel we got content coming every single day all off season long on the road doesn't matter. Thank you for tuning in to every single one of them. I'm Josh Goss, my co-host Jesse Poirier. We'll catch you in the next one.