This is an absolute HEIST for the Montreal Canadiens...

This is an absolute heist for the Montreal Canadiens, as it's official Noah Dobson is coming to the Montreal Canadiens, but the return is far less for the Islanders than we would have ever anticipated, giving up no top-tier prospects. We have to dive into what the trade is, the extension for Noah Dobson, which in its own right, based on some inflation information with the cap, looks like one of the best deals for an elite right-shot D-man in the league, and we have to look at how this impacts the future of the Montreal Canadiens, all coming up on this episode of Habs Digest. jump straight into it here it is jesse noah dobson is traded to the Montreal Canadiens eight years 9.5 million dollars per year the return includes Emil Heinemann and Montreal's 16th and 17th picks in the draft this is nuts this came out of nowhere i started escalating last night the deal was officially done today after we heard it was only us and Columbus really in the running at the end jesse to get a six foot four guy who is scoring 10 to 15 goals every year 70 points in 23 24 down here this year with the Islanders but he missed 11 games this to me just solidifies i know we're getting some concerns with Montreal in a bit but this makes the team so much better in the immediate short term it's a to me crazy low price to pay for an elite right shot d-man like this i know we have some other things to solve but to me this is insane like if you had asked me if we had given up 16 and 17 and Heinemann what would we have gotten i don't think i ever would have said a player of Noah Dobson's definitely using draft capital to help this team i think is a great move we're gonna get that 2c and free agency i think that that's kind of the plan that's coming to fruition here we just got a couple days to wait as well obviously that's a big part of this but like you know what's interesting is Noah Dobson getting in my good books and the fact that he wanted to come to Montreal and we have to remember like Columbus Blue Jackets were very close to making the postseason last year like this was a team that we were competing against last year you got to be sure with that young core that they have going for we're going to be competing them next year like does this move help to put us in a better position than them to get into the playoffs in a very competitive Eastern Conference you have to feel like it does there was a reason why multiple teams were on the lookout we know he's not offensive first guy um you know i feel like probably we still need to make a trade for Mathison at some point i feel like it's too many just offensive guys of like Hudson, Dobson and Mathison i'm just not sure we'd be able to all use them kind of within like a top kind of four pairing in the best way to kind of bring out the best of them it seems like somebody would Mathison on the third pairing i think you know isn't maybe the best use of his talents kind of going forward that being said i think it's just absolutely incredible like we love him and we need to give him a shot yeah the shout out but like using these prospects and these picks like this was what was at Kent Hughes's disposal to help improve the team like we had this this kind of log jam so using in a way that's really gonna push the sport instead of getting prospects where it's like years down the line before they can help this team we know Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, you're right they need that help now and Josh what i love about this is like this is signifying that this isn't like your dad's Montreal Canadians like this isn't the Marc Bergevin era this team wants to play offense that's what they're signaling here with getting the Dobson like they want to play that transition game and the more that you can make those really great controlled zone exits getting guys the pucks the Noah Dobson is going to help in that picture and really increase the amount of goals that we're scoring next year which was one of the biggest issues we know we need to stop goals against we also need to get more goals Noah Dobson is absolutely going to help us doing that it's crazy right it's unbelievable and i have seen people saying like hey you know Noah Dobson like oh if he's not going to play PP1 is he going to get that many points again and i was talking to some Islanders fans Noah Dobson's actually not that great on the power play and he's still good but he lost his job to Adam this year the majority of his points especially in the past two years that 70 point season were at even strength whether 5v5 or 4v4 so being on PP2 is kind of perfect especially Jesse if we have a guy like Lane on the PP2 with him right it's kind of good for him where he doesn't need to shoulder that PP1 load and he can still be incredibly effective at even strength and the question is who's he going to play with I mean is it going to be Matheson that's an insane offensive duo there but also we got to look at his career here the J Fresh card this past year was by far his best of his career in terms of defense you look at his defensive metrics Jesse he was there in the 90 plus percentile this past year if you look at the chart on the bottom right the rolling three-year weighted average is 76 percentile on defense he does struggle with decision making but he's still incredibly impactful on both ends of the ice look at that defensive trend line that red one it is absolutely nuts and we got to dive into the contract too eight years by 9.5 million This, I think, sets the tone not just for him, but also for Lane Hutson, Jesse. I mean, Noah Dobson's a guy with a 70-point season. Of course, Lane had his 66 this year. Dobson's 6'4", bigger guy, right shot D-man. This is probably, in my mind, might even keep Dobson below $10 million or at least around $10 million. It's not going to be something crazy higher. And again, if we look at the inflation chart, this is also from JFresh who posted this on Twitter. Go check it out. In just two years, Jesse, by 2027, this $9.5 million contract signed by Dobson is the equivalent of 8 million in today's money this sticker shock stuff is is gonna be crazy for a bit but again looking at this i find it hard to say like like again if he was a free agent i would have been thrilled with paying him that this is nuts to me like imagine 16 and 17 imagine we trade it up to a top 10 pick with just those picks hard to do let's imagine it was just that i think you could trade it up 16 and 17 for maybe pick 10 and then you pray that that player turns into something like dobson plus this extension i'm over the moon jesse this is going to be a fun team to watch at the very least despite maybe some flaws here and the reason that it's exciting Josh it's like noah dobson always stood out for me when i was watching the new york islanders like especially when he i was like wow like who is this guy right in the islanders broadcast like just can't stop talking about like there is some amazing things to like bringing that size gives a little bit of that cushion for Reinbacher and i love that we're hanging on to Mayu and i know a lot of our fans as well we don't need to worry about that there was a lot of smoke going around that Mayu like in the NHL team we were all kind of throwing a curveball on this but i am happy as much as i like Hyman you know what i think that's like i love the the grind the forecheck that Hyman brings but maybe there's a lot of upside a lot to still like we know how right hand d are hard to get we you basically need to draft them and to be able to get them in a trade like this like the PEI native Josh like in your neck of the woods yeah um you know i just love what you know he's really gonna bring the game i just feel like we're gonna need to balance that out the offense and the defense together but i mean it's a goal scorers league we need to embrace that i love that Kent Hughes is it's really just acknowledging the state of the NHL as it is and we're looking to play some run and gun hockey to go along with it i'm curious to see who he plays with because again like as much as he definitely is an offense first guy that is mostly even strength which is an amazing thing for this team it's where montreal like we've been pretty good at even strength for a number of years we have a lot of great even strength players like Brendan Gallagher but this just brings us to an elite level now i don't know if this is a top five decor in the league like big head hockey saying but i think once you add Reinbacher in a little while like this very well could be and again if you move on from a guy like Matheson or something i mean i don't know who Dobson's gonna play with but again the rolling average here like just looking at how his defensive trend line has gone from the underlying numbers it's incredibly encouraging to me his offense has always been elite his defense is improving year over year and he's a big body right so you know penalties competition whatever power play he's actually again 50th percentile it's not like he's an elite power play player but we don't need him to be finishing 87th percentile offense 84th goals and primary assists the goals are a big thing too Jesse I know you said we want to score a lot of goals this is a guy 13 goals in 80 games 13 goals in 78 10 and 79 and then 10 and 71 reliably 10 to 15 goals every year do you think he'd be I don't see him really playing with Mike Matheson that'd be very dynamic I actually think I see him maybe even playing with a guy like Caden Gooley and already then again that might mean that Lane Hudson has to play with Carrier I don't know maybe Lane Hudson is it crazy to say this could be a hudson dobson big guy little guy together like offensive dynamo best offensive deep pairing in the league other than maybe like mccarran daves it could be it wouldn't be my first go-to i kind of would want to have a little bit of offense and defense there going forward and also you know for them to kind of pun intended you know have their own lane really not kind of feel like they're overstepping on each other there but that being said it's like the Montreal Canadiens are a team that plays best when they play with pace when they play with speed so like having that rush like offense really starts from your back end we got talented guys up front Demidov Suzuki etc but unless you're getting that good first pass and getting the puck to them in places for them to be successful that that really that is where your offense begins so i i like kind of that philosophy that they're taking and all this we obviously have a lot of faith in Kent Hughes and Mike Matheson and rather than Jeff Gordon just to get like the whole kind of team right which is i think that whole competition again Mike Matheson does come into mind there there's a world where maybe we can figure it out i just don't want to have too many guys that maybe have those defensive you know problems when we know we need to keep the puck out of the out of the net a little bit more i got full faith in Kent Hughes to kind of figure this out find the right sort of composition i definitely wouldn't have Matheson or Dobson on on the same pairing together but really trusting Kent Hughes to get this right can't wait to see what's coming this is probably just the first domino to fall we know we've been very aggressive trying to land some elite forwards as well keep an eye out for the Montreal Canadiens it's an incredible heist for today and again shout out to pick 16 and 17 never formerly Montreal Canadiens and Emil Heineman very sad to see him go um unbelievable stuff that he's done for Montreal wish him the best in New York but hey leave your thoughts on everything down below because that'll do it for this episode of Habs Digest we'll have more content coming one way or another later keep an eye out not sure if the draft stream's still going to go ahead when you're watching this because we got no picks anymore in the first round but we'll probably have something just for you but stick around for that thank you for watching i'm Josh Goss my co-host Jesse Poitier we'll catch you in the next one