Habs Mailbag: Time for Canadiens to make a swing-for-the-fences move?

Montreal’s management and team owner Geoff Molson are aware that fans’ patience with the rebuilding process will eventually run out.

I’m wondering if there are any concerns about the Canadiens penchant for preferring safe development choices over risk. The decisions to trade first-round draft picks for established younger players seems like a mixed bag. They essentially got Alex Newhook for Mikhail Gulyayev, which probably worked in Montreal’s favour. But Kirby Dach for Frank Nazar doesn’t seem so good. And then picking David Reinbacher over Matvei Michkov seems like another blunder — no one ranks Reinbacher anywhere near Michkov. Bottom line: they don’t seem to want to swing for the fences

I believe a big reason why Canadiens GM Kent Hughes made the Newhook and Dach trades was to try to speed up the rebuilding process a bit by acquiring slightly older players who had NHL experience and had already shown some of what they can and/or can’t do at that level. Time will tell whether Gulyayev and/or Nazar turn out to be better than them. Dach also has to prove he can stay healthy.

Those trades made sense to me at the time and they still do. It was a surprise to me when the Canadiens took Reinbacher instead of a forward with the No. 5 pick at last year’s draft, but there were obviously some red flags concerning Michkov. After the Chicago Blackhawks took Connor Bedard with the No. 1 pick, four other teams apart from the Canadiens passed on Michkov before the Philadelphia Flyers took him with the No. 7 pick.

The Flyers were willing to take a gamble and time will tell if it pays off. As I’ve written before, my pick at No. 5 would have been forward Ryan Leonard, who went to the Washington Capitals with the No. 8 pick. He had 31-29-60 totals in 41 games this season as a freshman at Boston College.