Couple of fries short of a Happy Meal

Many had dubbed this the Summer of Kent. Wait till 2025 they said. Contracts will have expired, the young talent will be ready to take the next step, and perhaps the window of opportunity will begin to open. Then we'll be "all in".

So how have HuGo fared thus far in this offseason? Has it been the resounding success some (paid?) insiders have suggested?

I think it would be disingenuous of me to suggest the Habs' brass has not done a good job since the off season begun. But to pull out the pom poms and start jumping up in the air, seems a tad premature.

For one, the first round loss to the not-so-mighty (aka likely overachievers) Washington Capitals, exposed a few glaring weaknesses on the Canadiens. A lack of scoring depth, not enough big, physical forwards and D, a shallow group of centers after Suzuki (imagine if they had played a team loaded with quality centers like Florida), and not enough in the way of experience sprinkled throughout the lineup. And unfortunately, none of the above were addressed thus far.

While the pickup of Noah Dobson, a top pairing, RHD, set to enter his prime, for a couple of mid level first round picks (shallow draft year, and history has proven these picks will unlikely be top pairing D men or top 2 line F) and a fourth liner in Emil Heinemann, felt like Grand Theft Auto, nevertheless, les Habitants remain soft of the backend. Should Arber Xhekaj once again not fall in the good graces of coach St.Louis, and given how injury-prone Guehle has been thus far in his career, this feels like a D core that can be grounded and pounded into submission, once again, come playoff time.

Bolduc, while a nice pickup bringing grit and potential scoring to a Habs forward group that sorely needs depth, has not addressed our biggest concern: the 2 C spot. Heck, we still don't know who our 3C will be. As maligned as Dvorak was during his tenure in Montreal, the bottom line is he won faceoffs, as well as being an upper echelon penalty killer (as was Armia, gone like the wind as well).

So while the Canadiens should feel little in the way of pressure, given they are only in year 4 of their rebuild, one can safely state that they remain a work in progress.

Let's face the facts. At this stage of the summer, it's unlikely HuGo will be able to address the need for help at the Center position, or even find another power forward or two (heck even a Tanner Jeannot would have done wonders for our bottom 2 lines). But one cannot exclude another in-season move, similar to what we saw with the Alex Carrier addition. That, or fingers crossed some of our young prospects, bloom in the coming year, giving the Canadiens some more marketable trade chips heading into next summer in order to land the big fish (or fishes).

But alas, for now, more patience will be needed, as the emerging Habitats still remain a couple of fries short of becoming a complete Happy Meal....