I still remember those dark years at the turn of the 2000s, when the Habs were regularly shut out of the playoffs. I’d have my pint of beer with a sauerkraut hot dog at Le Grimoire at UQAM after class, and watch a team that gave everything it had… but didn’t have much of anything.
Koivu injured or ill… Hackett and Théodore, the team’s “real stars”, sharing the net… The late Sergei Zholtok, the team’s top scorer in 2000 with 26 goals, God rest his soul… Rucinsky top scorer in 2000, 46 points…
Petrov tied with Koivu in 2001, a whopping 47 points… Zubrus playing as if the net were in the corner of the rink… Brisebois doing his best, but… Not to mention a bunch of mediocre drafts in the first rounds between 1998 and 2002, which produced “gems” like Chouinard, Buturlin, Hainsey, Marcel Hossa, Perezoghin, Komisarek, Milroy, Higgins, to name but a few..
From this era, only Theodore (44th, 1994), Markov (162nd, 1998) and Plekanec (71st, 2001) became players who positively marked the club’s history over a (fairly) long period.
Ribeiro could have been another, even a very good one, but his antics finally got him out of the organization before he enjoyed his best years… in Dallas.[content-ads]2003 to 2021...The Gainey-Gauthier and Bergevin eras will have produced better times. Great seasons here and there, with a bit of magic orchestrated first by Kovalev, then Price and Subban, not to mention amazing playoff runs in 2010 (Halak!), 2014 and 2021.
With more modest means, it’s still a lot better than the Maple Leafs during the same period!
But then, after the opulence of the 50s, 60s and 70s, the Richard, Béliveau and Lafleur decades, followed by several more solid editions led by Patrick Roy until the mid-90s, the first quarter of the 21st century has imposed a rather severe diet on Habs fans, if we compare this segment with the team’s rich history. No Stanley Cup for 32 years… That said, I’m the first to regularly point out Marc Bergevin’s major contribution to the success that the team’s rebuilding already represents.
And despite some minor mistakes so far, the culture that Molson, Gorton, Hughes and St-Louis are in the process of consolidating frankly gives hope for a great return to excellence. And fans are feeling it at the Bell Centre, in the bars and in their living rooms.[content-ads]Already a contender?
If an organization is serious about being a contender for several years and winning the Stanley Cup, the best recipe is to put in place a core of players above the league average, ideally in the same age group. This very often translates into a dozen individuals who have or should have been selected in the top 15-20 of their draft year, and many of whom would even be top-5 worthy. Look back at all the Stanley Cup winners since the introduction of the 2005 cap, and it’s a constant. It’s a theory that Simon “Snake” Boisvert has popularized for many years, and one that we’ve repeated and reviewed many times in our analyses on this site. But what the Canadiens are putting in place is likely to respect, if not surpass, this model.
Even the current team – with a few veterans and almost as many greenhorns – is already comfortably within its winning parameters. content-ads]As inspired by listening toa Grant McCagg podcast earlier this week, 17 players on the current team at least deserve to be in the conversation of the top 20 players of their draft years.
Gallagher (147th, 2010) Matheson (23rd, 2012), Anderson (95th, 2012) Laine (2nd, 2016), Montembeault (77th, 2015) Suzuki (13th, 2017) Dobson (11th, 2018) Dach (3rd, 2019), Caufield (15th, 2019), Newhook (16th, 2019) Guhle (16th, 2020), Dobes (136th, 2020) Bolduc (17th, 2021), Kapanen (64th, 2021) Slafkovsky (1st, 2022), Hutson (62nd, 2022) Demidov (5th, 2024) In fact, no less than six of them are quite worthy of the top-5 of their respective years (Suzuki, Dobson, Caufield, Slafkovsky, Hutson and Demidov):
And that’s without counting these four lascars, all of whom could theoretically join the team at the end of the season or very soon: Reinbacher, (5th, 2023) Fowler (69th, 2023) Hage (21st, 2024) Zharovsky (34th, 2025) Finally, it’s not as if Carrier, Evans, Xhekaj and Struble are the team’s boilermakers. They’re still great NHL players! They add special ingredients and experience to the depth. content-ads]In another era, not so long ago, we envied the talent of the top teams, we envied the number of game-changing players they could count on, we envied their depth. Now, it’s the rest of the league that’s starting to seriously envy the Habs.
Of course, the team is still very young and probably still lacks a little experience. But imagine if HuGo managed to add a solid veteran at second center to this already impressive group, a kind of Crosby to extract the best from Demidov, for example… Even if he talks about patience and not rushing anything in front of the cameras, faced with such an opportunity, we’d find it hard to see them turning their heads to look the other way.
Crosby isn’t the only option, but perhaps it’s because they’re waiting for things to happen for him in Pittsburgh that Hughes and Gorton are advocating patience… while keeping their fingers crossed.1986 allure…Those approaching 50 and older will recall that when the Canadiens won the Cup in 1986, there were only two 30-somethings in the line-up, and not the least of them: Robinson and Gainey. Half the team was 25 and under.
Stéphane Richer and Patrick Roy were 19, Claude Lemieux was 20 and Chris Chelios, in his second season, was 23. Sounds a bit like today, doesn’t it? Wouldn’t it look even more like today if we had some kind of Crosby to help St-Louis lead the way?[content-ads]Break out the popcorn… and run the specials on the folding chairsOf course, there’s never anything guaranteed in sport.
But, in the end, if you consider 1) the age, strength and size of the core, 2) the context of the rising salary cap and 3) the team’s, shall we say, more “socialist” salary culture, you simply have here a rather unique model and context conducive to a possible “modern” dynasty. In other words, you have here the foundation and context to claim a few titles over a five- to eight-year period. A bit like the Blackhawks of the 2010s, no less. Basically, when the time comes – and it could be sooner rather than later – HuGo will just have to add a little more butter and seasoning to the popcorn.Enjoy the show!
pic.twitter.com/WStUHcS1HM– Sharks on NBCS (@NBCSSharks) October 19, 2025
pic.twitter.com/bZWs85noB2
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? To be continued – 
Gavino De Falco (@GavinoDe_Falco) 
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