Champion teams often struggle to part with their valuable players at the end of their careers, with whom they have won everything.
It’s emotional. And there’s always that hope for one last victorious push, if...
This has been the case in Pittsburgh for over five years.
It also dragged on for too long in Chicago.
The Kings fared better by surrounding Kopitar and Doughty in a successful “reset on the fly” rather than a full rebuild. But will it be enough to become a legitimate contender again? To be continued this spring on your screens…
We could say almost the same about the Caps, who, while cleaning up their lineup and suffering some losses, managed to keep and better surround Ovechkin and Carlsson.
“Reset on the fly” and “bargain bin all in”
Unlike these four teams that have won the Stanley Cup at least nine times since the start of the millennium, the Canadiens have had to settle for two semifinals (2010 and 2014) and a final in 2021.
It’s better than the average of the bears over the last 25 years in a 30-32 team league, but these are modest results for a team with such a rich tradition of excellence.
The somewhat motley crew of 2021, assembled by Marc Bergevin and resulting from a mix of his “reset on the fly” and an “all-in” gamble of the “bargain bin” type, had its limitations and was not of the caliber to beat Tampa Bay.
The months that followed the 2021 final were among the most painful in the history of the team.
The premature retirements of two “hall of famers” with broken bodies: Weber and Price.
A completely burnt-out GM.
A depressed team that finds itself at the bottom of the NHL in no time.
When life gives you lemons…
But the last few months, let’s say, “risky” of Bergevin (loss of Danault, and Kotkaniemi, controversial selection of Mailloux, arrival of Dvorak, Hoffman, and Savard) combined with the sudden retirements of Weber and Price, have had the merit of clarifying the path to follow for Geoff Molson.
The solution was simple, and with all the lemons life was giving him, Geoff Molson chose to make lemonade.
He thus decided to finalize the reconstruction work begun in 2018 by Bergevin’s “reinitialization”.
After redoing part of the foundation and walls by getting Suzuki in return for Pacioretty, then selecting Caufield, Guhle, and no less than 38 players in the draft between 2018 and 2021, the time had come to deconstruct for a few seasons in order to rebuild even better.
But let’s go back to the retirements of captain Weber and the best goalie of his generation, Carey Price.
Carey Price is in Vancouver watching the Canadiens vs. Canucks game. pic.twitter.com/5fUOhOnsPp
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) March 12, 2025
As we see with the Crosbys, Malkins, Letangs, Kanes, Keiths, Toews, Doughtys, and Kopitars, players who haven’t had as many injuries at 34-35 years old are generally still capable of helping their team for at least 3-4 more years.
During this period, teams rarely sink too low. More often than not, they stay in the pack or close to it, until it eventually implodes organically, as we’ve seen in Chicago and Pittsburgh.
The Kings and the Capitals have simply been more forward-thinking and proactive in managing their rosters, with rather encouraging results that we know today.
THE recipe
Thus, with Weber and Price still on the team over the last four years, as their contracts had planned, the Canadiens could also have likely stayed in the mix with teams like the Islanders, the Penguins, and the Red Wings.
But their retirement has greatly simplified things for the new managers Gorton and Hughes!
All they had to do was trade all the other assets whose trade value was higher than their use value, until the young players took real control of the team.
Not to mention the two other first-round picks in 2025, these retirements and the logical transactions that followed (Kulak, Toffoli, Lehkonen, etc.) have especially allowed them to draft three times in the top 5 for three consecutive years. Without forgetting the many second and third-round picks accumulated during this same period (Hutson, Beck, Fowler, etc.), it’s a proven recipe used by the Penguins, the Hawks, the Capitals, the Kings, the Lightning, and the Avalanche.
And to think that Reinbacher and Demidov haven’t even played a single game with the team yet!
So, once again, thank you to Price and Weber… and their big injuries!
AHL
