The Canadiens Are Who We Thought They Were

In order for the Montreal Canadiens to make the playoffs this year and meet the projected 92 point cut line, they would have to play at a 97 point pace. Over the last 2 shortened seasons the Canadiens were on pace in an 82 game season to have 84 points! Heading into last year's playoffs the Canadiens tried their hardest not to make the playoffs again by losing 5 straight games and 7 out of their last 9! No wonder experts thought the Maple Leafs would finally get out of the first round playing a team looking that bad. But Montreal played Toronto and as the Maple Leafs do, they blew it in the first round. After that Carey Price looked like Hart Trophy winner of yesteryear, Shea Weber turned back the clock for one last kick at the can, and the new young core of Suzuki and Caufield carried the team on their backs like they were seasoned veterans. After the loss in the finals, the team was heartbroken but there was optimism in the air at maybe this franchise was finally turning into something, then reality set in and Marc Bergevin did what he does best, under and overreacted at the same time.

Bergevin is one of those GMs who will make a bunch of tiny moves and hope one of them pans out and you'll look like a genius when you swap fourth line players and all of the sudden Phillip Danault is your top centreman on the team, but maybe that speaks more to the depth of the organization. The Boss of the Biceps Club has made some good moves bringing in Jeff Petry for a couple of second round picks, receiving Tomas Tatar, Nick Suzuki and a second round pick for Max Pacioretty, and who can forget the PK Subban for Shea Weber deal. PK Subban was a Norris finalist the year after he was traded and if he wouldn't have blown out both knees who knows how that trade would've looked but I digress.

Let's look at Montreal's last 6 first-round draft picks.
2016 - Mikhail Sergachev - AWESOME PLAYER, so naturally he was traded for a winger the Canadiens tried to make into a centre.
2017 - Ryan Poehling - Yet to crack the roster full time
2018 - Jesperi Kotkaniemi - Up and down career so far, has potential but was lost to the Hurricanes this summer for a hilarious offer sheet
2019 - Cole Caufield - The short king was the steal of the draft, if he was 2 inches taller he would've been a top 5 pick. This was actually a good move
2020 - Kaiden Guhle - Jury is still out as defenceman develop slower
2021 - Logan Mailloux - ARE YOU SERIOUS!?!?! Just when the fanbase is coming off the high of a Stanley Cup run Marc Bergevin drafts a player who committed a sex crime and told teams not to draft him. This pick should've been literally anyone but.

This offseason Montreal lost Danault, Tatar, and Corey Perry to Free Agency, and Weber, Price, and now Joel Edmundson for health/personal reasons. The Canadiens gained Cedriq Paquette, Chris Wideman, Denis Savard, Mike Hoffman and the big get Christian Dvorak, you know the guy who has never had more than 40 points in a season.

If anyone is surprised with how bad the Canadiens are going to be this season, those people also probably think Marc Bergevin is a good General Manager. But the 2022 draft is one of the deepest in the last 5 years so good thing the 1st round pick they traded in the Dvorak deal is top 10 protected. the real question is what has this management group done to deserve making that pick?