Pierre McGuire: Don’t expect any more changes at Habs

He would have liked to add an offensive player to his top-6, but he hasn’t been able to pull it off so far.

It’s not the end of the world. Far from it, in fact.

The Habs GM tried to make a move at the draft (Rutger McGoarty) and tried to convince Jonathan Marchessault to come to town on July 1, but it didn’t work.

The price was too high to acquire McGoarty… And Marchessault wasn’t interested in signing a shorter contract in Montreal, compared to the one he signed in Nashville (five years at $5.5M per season).

That said, in Pierre McGuire’s eyes, the Kent Hughes shopping spree is over.

McGuire(who appeared on the Sick Podcast) expects the Habs’ roster to be similar to today’s if the season starts tonight… And he believes there should be more movement at the trade deadline if the Habs are still in the playoff hunt:

Can we expect more changes to this team before the start of the season?

Pierre McGuire joins @TonyMarinaro to discuss why #Habs fans shouldn’t hold their breath

Full pod
Watch: https://t.co/27uw4qwcuY
Listen: https://t.co/1XzRHUy9aW#GoHabsGo #thesickpodcast pic.twitter.com/aGjXkQ2DG4

– The Sick Podcast with Tony Marinaro (@thesickpodcasts) July 24, 2024

With the players in place, the Habs shouldn’t be in a position to fight for a playoff spot.

Especially when you notice that on offense, there’s an (obvious) lack of natural talent.

Suzuki, Caufield, Slafkovsky, Dach and Newhook are capable of producing offensively… But that’s where it ends, not bad :

Joshua Roy’s name could be included in the category of players who can be productive.

Roy collected 9 points in 23 games with the Habs last season. That’s good… But at the same time, the sample is too small to jump to any conclusions.

Anderson, Gallagher, Armia, Harvey-Pinard, Barré-Boulet, Dvorak, Evans… These guys don’t have what it takes to bring offense, and I have a feeling they’ll hold the group back at some point next campaign.

All this to say that the Canadiens’ line-up shouldn’t change drastically before the start of the next campaign, and that if it stays intact, it’s going to be hard to compete with the NHL’s top clubs.

You have to score goals to win, after all… And right now, we’re missing a couple of guys who are capable of putting up 40-50 points a season on offense.

Overtime

– It’s coming!

Only 77 days left until the start of the season!

Kirby Dach days until our season opener! #GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/wwsifFsq7E

– Montreal Canadiens (@CanadiensMTL) July 24, 2024

– He knows how to make new friends.

Why was Michkov wearing a Phillies hat?

“Everyone knows that there is a good baseball team here, the best team. I would love to go to it in the near future and get to know the players, and the team. … Therefore, we will root for this team.”

(Google translate)

– Kevin Kurz (@KKurzNHL) July 24, 2024

– Wow…

“I want to be clear what happened to Kyle Beach was wrong and handled poorly. Part of my process was speaking with Sheldon (Kennedy) about Stan and learning about all the work he has done,” Jeff Jackson on hiring Bowman. pic.twitter.com/Wfew3QMVCS

– Jason Gregor (@JasonGregor) July 24, 2024

– The picture is clearer in Toronto.

The position of the Toronto staff is becoming clearer. https://t.co/ktW6LtHGq0

– Passion MLB (@passion_mlb) July 24, 2024