Hockey

Second long-term center: “This issue is worrying the habs management.”
Félix Forget
Second long-term center: “This issue is worrying the habs management.”
Credit: YouTube (screenshot)

The subject of a second center has been raised in Montreal for months now. It is, after all, the biggest need in town… and the problem is, it seems difficult to envisage a short-term solution.

Right now, no one wants to sell in the NHL… and everyone's looking for center players.

As a result, shorter-term options have often been mentioned. Ryan O'Reilly, Nazem Kadri, and Phillip Danault (is he still capable of being a #2 center?) are names that have been floating around town… but these aren't guys who'll be around in 10 years.

And Frank Seravalli, who discussed all this in his Insider Notebook for Bleacher Report, admitted that right now, the club isn't sure how it's going to fix this long-term:

The long-term plan is difficult to envision. It's a subject of concern for the Canadiens. – Frank Seravalli

All of this is interesting in light of the fact that the club, in effect, still relies on Michael Hage within its nursery of prospects. So you have to wonder if this is meant as a disavowal of Hage… because if the club is worried, it's possibly because they don't see him occupying that chair.

We know that the kid, as good as he is, is a handful in the face-off circle… and that he's likely to be used on the wing with Junior Team Canada. Is this a sign that we should expect to see him on the wing rather than at center in the NHL?

For the time being, Oliver Kapanen occupies the position, and he's doing well. Still, there are signs of a possible regression (his percentage of shots that become goals is still abnormally high), so there's reason to doubt whether he's really a second center.

And Kirby Dach can't stay healthy… which is a shame, because he was playing some good hockey before his most recent injury.

Seravalli notes that the Habs could try to solve this problem by trading defensemen, a position where the club has a lot of talent. But for that to happen, he'll have to convince a team to let go of a quality center, which is easier said than done.

And with high draft picks becoming rarer and rarer with the successful team, it could force the Habs to get creative. It's not for nothing that the idea of Juraj Slafkovský as second center is circulating, you know…


Overtime

– Defeat for the Rocket, who were decimated today.

– Quinn Hughes: the Sabres (yes, yes) among the teams that tried on Quinn.

– Injured players make the most of their stay in New York.

– Good point.

– What do you think?

– The summer of 2027 will be very interesting.

– Oh?

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