It's like Deja Vu... - Habs linked to SUPER skilled Russian winger

It's like deja vu as Montreal is linked again to a silky smooth MHL Russian stud here in Alexander Zharov as they are set to meet with him very soon. The second round upside prospect has shown flashes of brilliance in the MHL and we're going to dive into why Montreal is looking at him and how he reminds us a little bit, though definitely not on the same level as Ivan Demidov. We're going to get into that incredibly fun story, but also we have a big update from Elliotte Friedman on one of the top, probably the top right-hand defenseman available on the trade market this year as Noah Dobson reportedly being shopped. And finally, a little article that shines some light into what Montreal's plans could very likely be at the draft. So stick around for all that on this episode of Habs Digest, and we'll start there with the draft. Now, this was a great article by Mathias Brunet, and we will link it down below where he kind of breaks down how you can see here, this is in French, but to translate basically looking towards the draft, there's a lot of teams, including the Habs, that are ready to sacrifice some of their picks to get a short-term reinforcement, right? And he breaks down a bunch of draft trades in the past, Jesse, that do exactly that, trading picks for current help. Now, to put it bluntly, a lot of the time, it doesn't really work out for the team getting the help. I mean, the one I like to look at, because it involved Minnesota, was Kevin Fiala. He ends up getting shipped to LA. Hey, he's been fantastic, but now Minnesota has Brock Faber and Liam Ohgren on their team, right? Jesse, when you're looking at potentially bolstering this roster by trading away our picks this article really shed a lot of light into how a lot of the time like if you're good at drafting you might as well just keep what you got what do you think how that would affect the Habs plans this year I mean it depends on where you're really at in the life cycle of your team we've seen Vegas they've had tremendous success of making trades and kind of being a little bit more pride of win now kind of forget figure it out tomorrow but but they've won that cup but we're seeing there's probably you know obviously that it might they might take a little bit of a tailspin like same thing with Edmonton and like Florida they're in the Stanley Cup Finals but the the picks are sparse in those first first three rounds i don't think they have either team as any of them in those first three rounds so it really shows like when you feel like you're ready to contend that's the time to often to kind of trade your picks for immediate help to kind of build around the core you have right now if you're feeling like you're still getting into that window probably good idea to still get those picks so this leads us to reason why that Kent Hughes is is going to take a hybrid approach you know maybe similar to his college days where it's like you trade one prospect you keep another you know i really suspect that Hughes really to be taken uh some type of hybrid approach when it comes to this year because we're not ready right now just to be in full contention mode of really trading both of them but i think kind of but we're getting there right like even as soon as next year i could see this team being much more aggressive where it's a world where we're trading away our first round pick to get something a little bit more immediate because let's face it like we have this core around Nick Suzuki and Cole Caulfield especially and they're not the only parts of the core but they're a big part of it you'd have to feel like for Kent Hughes to really do his best job he'd want to pack the biggest punch he can while they have that that window of Suzuki Demidov Hudson if you could kind of get something to really go within that window i think makes a lot of sense so i think we're gonna see a hybrid approach right now but Kent's gonna get more aggressive as time goes on and very quickly as well yeah exactly and i think like one thing to learn from this is like i think it'd be a mistake with Montreal's drafting history especially within the Kent Hughes and Jeff Gorton machine now again there's still time time will tell with a lot of the guys looks like a lot of them have been great picks to get a veteran short-term replacement doesn't really seem like a great idea if he's using these picks to trade for a younger player that fits the timeline which is basically just like a draft pick moved up a couple years that could make some sense so i'm really up for that hybrid approach you mentioned but gotta hear from you guys with a lot of these trades not paying off for the team getting the reinforcements trading away the draft picks throughout history sometimes it does of course let us know what you think the Habs plan should be because at this point making those picks could very well pay huge dividends longer term you won't be looking at this trade in five six seven years and dang the Habs traded the rights to blank and blank for this other person right so have to take a look at that but look Jesse if we're talking about reinforcements there's been one name that we've talked about a lot especially on defense because look the Habs core we know we need some right hand shot defensemen with Reinbacher and Mayu still being there ready to jump in the lineup I feel like we've said it a thousand times right now we only have that one certain guy in Alexander Carrier and we've looked a lot at different options on the market but this recent update from Elliot Friedman on the 32 thoughts pod said about Noah Dobson quote I've heard quietly that the Islanders are testing the market on him I think they just want to know I know there have been a lot of Romanov rumors and I've had a few people tell me that Dobson is the guy to really keep an eye on and Noah Dobson Jesse he's been a guy we've mentioned a lot because this dude has like an incredible 70 plus point season just a year ago this year was a bit of a down year definitely give some back defensively if you don't like Mike Matheson's mistakes you'll hate Noah Dobson's mistakes there's a lot of similarities there for those two guys but six four 25 years old the only problem with him Jesse is that right now it looks like he's going to get a 10 11 million dollar per year contract with the cap going up and up and up and now recent reports saying it might even go higher than expected i think Montreal should kick tires on Noah Dobson at the very least Jesse to explore what the price is just like the Islanders are just exploring him but at this point i'm starting to realize that again as much as we know right D or like they're hard to come by we'd love to get one they cost an absolute fortune not just to trade for the rights but to extend long term and that worries me for sure and this has been a player that i have been open to in the past i think it's open to kind of own your takes though because it's an evolving situation especially knowing that Jesse's gonna have such a big contract kind of coming forward Josh i'm more of the opinion now that we really need to bring in more of a defensive guy really than anything else Montreal Canadiens they were one of the teams that allowed the most goals in the NHL last year you have to feel they still got in the playoffs but if they want to take that big improvement and get back there again they are going to need to bring in a guy that can help defense it's not a question they they really do and for me like bringing in Dobson unless Matheson is going the other way does does seem like a little bit of a lateral move there um just because obviously we need a little bit more of that defensive guy um especially just you know considering the constitution of our deal already where you have Hudson already like that's our pp quarterback nobody's taking that spot from him and you're not really getting the value out of Noah Dobs and if you're bringing him over and not allowing him to be your pp quarterback there i just think we probably need a little bit more of a defensive guy um here kind of going forward that's what kind of makes a little bit more sense to me especially considering some of the other needs that you know obviously Kent i don't think is going to be too quick to dole out what he doesn't see like as a need but obviously not the biggest especially given a little bit more of the offensive nature of his game Josh so i would have to respectfully probably decline given you know the the huge cost he's going to have great defender 70 plus season not too long ago i just don't think quite a perfect fit for what the habs need right now yeah and look we were i think we were pretty much on board the train when there were rumors before but as the time goes on and we look at the makeup of this team and again losing a guy like Savard there's certain presences that you need in this team and I'm at you're absolutely right Jesse a lot of the cup contenders have size in their D-core and big time defense in their D-core I mean Gustav Forsling the dude was so phenomenal in that Stanley Cup final I think he got a lot of the confidence I think right like there's a reason these guys are important to the team and we have some good defensive players but a guy like Noah Dobson like again yeah he would be great but I think the cost to get him plus the cost for the extension would be a bit too steep for Ken but let us know your thoughts on Dobson down below maybe you disagree maybe you'd love to have him on the team i'd love to hear from you final topic though Jesse this is one of my favorite things we talked about in a bit as David Calabretta and this was further confirmed by other people like Nikolai Kucherov a few other people the Montreal Canadiens are expected to meet with NHL prospect Alexander Robsky Saturday at the Gold Star Showcase now Robsky again Jesse i said at the start a bit like deja vu now no he's no demigod that's for sure he absolutely is not but he has gone from being unranked to now the number five European skater by some places he's 6'1 163 definitely on the lighter side still very young born in 2007 he's 18 years old he's a left shot right winger with Toparu Ufa and Alexei Sursky and Ra Reimer's article linked down below from the hockey writers go check it out as well but you can see fifth among EU skaters but he's ranked anywhere from 20th in the scouting spring rankings from all the way down to 66th he looks to be a second round pick Jesse looking to probably be available with Montreal's first second round pick and looking into some of his scouting reports or he's a magician with the puck he finds opening using his quick speed has an incredible level of control among his peers no problem waiting out those opportunities so many great things here very active stick defensively as well and while it wasn't always successful he's often in the right place at the right time and we'll just roll these clips again taking a risk again especially in the second round on a guy who kind of rises out of nowhere who has super super skill but definitely has some aspects that wouldn't fit the NHL game some of his decision making right now shines away from contact this to me sounds like one of those big swing big risk big reward picks for Montreal Jesse especially with the plethora of picks that we have this year for sure and they might not be waiting with such later picks to make some of this big you know swing for the fences type of moves just considering the depth that we have in the organization already like this is going to affect how they approach a situation and this is an interesting situation absolutely that you have to feel like Nick Bobrov is behind the scenes uh just cooking on here and we know here like with Zavarovsky think Slavkovsky but Russian and just not as good okay like no but there's some serious upside to his game really in the same part like he took a huge leap in that second part of the season and people that are always like those late draft risers that are kind of performing when there's tons of kind of pressure around them for them to increase their draft spot like for me that's a really positive sign like just having those amazing hands being able to know when to pick his spots in the offensive zone and again probably not at the Demidov levels of production in the MHL we saw MHL at Demidov produced was producing basically two points a game um our boy Alexander here is more of like 50 points in 45 games that being said you know he took a major leap up in that second part of it and yeah like the big thing with him if people will say it's kind of like the lack of like physical play but like when i'm watching him just like clips um you know it's hard to get like the full MHL games but like when we're doing some research into this guy like for me this is a guy though like he does have a motor like when i'm watching the ice he's skating it's just he's just not going the rest of the way to hit and that can be problematic like you want to take advantage of your skating i'm not a huge fan of fly-bys it's like when you're there you kind of want to take advantage and capitalize with making some contact there that being said like all the tools are there i think if you just get coached up like he's skating the work ethic it's just about kind of bringing it the rest of the way it's going to be up to Kent Hughes like is that something you feel like you can coach or is that just like a complete intangible like oh if he doesn't like to play physically just doesn't like to hit i'm sure different GMs around the league have some different uh you know varying opinions on this going forward that being said like he absolutely fits the target of kind of that high reward we're looking we got the depth i mean we love our Owen Becks we love our captains right but this is a player here like Alexander Zaroslawski like he has definitely a higher ceiling i would say to be better than both of them going forward that's why when i think that we have that depth in the organization taking those type of swings is something that i would be open to a little bit more of those riskier type of picks especially if you have enough an extra second round pick coming up after three third round picks right now he's probably not going to be available down in the third but you're absolutely right like again you can't teach that skill not at that age and again it's the NHL so making them look foolish making it look like you're not trying it's exactly what Minoff did right and even did that at SKA within the KHL at points but again there are some issues like shies away from contact a bit he has a lot of habits where he'll like skate back to the blue line and almost turn it over sometimes does turn it over stuff that won't fly at the next level but can be taught because his unbelievable skill is something that stands out hey it's a very very fun thing and hey as well Montreal loves to take swings on some Russian guys with later picks I mean we saw Yevgeny Volokhin that's paying off he's training with the Habs right now Bogdan Konyshkov looks very solid captained his team the year after he was drafted even a guy like Makar Haidin who we drafted in the seventh round last year he hasn't shown up great this year but he's in just another Russian guy that we took a swing on right so it wouldn't be out of character to pick a guy like this very very interesting name but leave your thoughts on Alexander Zarosky and the odds of the Habs taking him in the second round down below but that'll do it for this episode of Habs if you enjoyed leave a like comment subscribe to the channel thank you for tuning in every single day draft is coming up sooner than you think and we'll have every single update for you i'm josh goss my co-host jesse pocky we'll catch you in the next one