Habs Feature | NHL, Montreal Canadiens, Cole Caufield, Kirby Dach, David Savard, Joel Edmundson, Juraj Slafkovsky, Martin St. Louis

ROCKET SPORTS MEDIA | MONTREAL, QC. — The Montreal Canadiens are four games into the new year. They won a high-scoring contest against the St. Louis Blues. But they have lost three of the games by a combined 14-to-4 score.

In my opinion, the players seem to lack confidence or don’t display enough effort without the puck. This was also the case for most of the Canadiens’ seven game road trip. However, with the start of a new year comes an opportunity to improve.

To ensure this improvement, the Canadiens coaching staff and organization members should focus on important priorities such as player development and taking a systematic approach to their play.

I will present several priorities for the Habs in 2023 that could allow them to be more successful in 2023 and beyond.

Extending Caufield

I believe that the most pressing affair for Canadiens’ management in 2023 is probably signing Cole Caufield to a contract extension. All the signs seem to tell that this contract won’t be cheap.

So far this season, Caufield has 23 goals and nine assists in 41 games played. If he keeps up his point production, he will reach the 40 goal mark by the end of the year. It would be the first time a Canadiens player reaches that plateau since Vincent Damphousse in 1993-94.

Needless to say, Caufield is a very good scorer.

Furthermore, he is still very young and could improve his goal-scoring abilities or overall play in the coming years. His agent is very aware of this. He will probably expect his client to get a long-term high AAV contract offer.

The question is, how much term and how much money will Caufield get? Other young talented players like Jason Robertson, Kevin Fiala, and Joshua Norris signed deals with an AAV upwards of 7.5 million dollars this summer. Not to forget Nick Suzuki, who inked an eight-year 7.875 million AAV deal in October.

Hughes will have to play his cards very well in this situation. On one hand, signing and keeping Caufield should be a priority for the organization. On the other hand, the team has to keep a good cap structure to be able to sign other young players in the future.

In other words, the Habs need to sign Caufield but shouldn’t sign him at any price.

Kirby Dach at center

A second objective the Canadiens should have in 2023 is to establish Dach as a second-line center. In a previous article, I talked about Dach’s game and future as a center with the Montreal Canadiens. I concluded that Dach has almost all the skills necessary to be a good top-6 center. However, he needs to play more center minutes to establish himself in that role.

So far this season, he was frequently lined up at the wing with Suzuki and Caufield. He takes on some of the responsibilities of a center while forechecking and backchecking as he is adept at switching roles with Suzuki. However, he is not practicing the main skill he should be practicing, which is his faceoff abilities.

The Canadiens have a 2-7-1 record in the past 10 games and rank last in the Atlantic division. According to Money Puck, the Canadiens have a 0.2 percent chance of making the playoffs.

Therefore, winning shouldn’t be a priority for the rest of the season. Developing a young player like Dach should be the main focus. To do this, he needs to play more frequently at center.

Or, at least, he should be given the opportunity to take center responsibilities. For example, he could take faceoffs on his strong side when the Canadiens are in the offensive zone.

Trade and keep the right veterans

Another priority for 2023 for the Canadiens is to continue to trade veterans or valued players for picks or prospects. Last year, the Habs did exactly this by trading away Ben Chiarot, Artturi Lehkonen, and Brett Kulak before the deadline. The strategy should be similar this year.

But Hughes has to be careful who he chooses to trade. Some players will obviously be on the trade block because of their large contracts and lack of production. This includes Evgeni Dadonov and Jonathan Drouin. Sean Monahan should also be in trade discussions even if he’s played well this season.

On the other hand, some players shouldn’t be traded unless Hughes receives a lot in return. In my opinion, David Savard and Joel Edmundson are in this category. The reason for this is that they bring valuable experience and leadership to the Canadiens’ young defensive group.

Both of them can be mentors to rookies like Kaiden Guhle and Jordan Harris. I  think this veteran presence is crucial in helping the young defencemen develop.

What’s more, if the young players show they have enough maturity and poise after the trade deadline and the first half of the 2023-’24 season, Hughes can decide to trade Savard and or Edmundson next year.

In other words, keeping both players is a win-win situation right now.

Building confidence

Last but not least, the Canadiens need to find a way to build confidence in their play. This will not be easy considering the Habs recently ended a seven game losing streak. Additionally, a lot of players are not producing or not playing up to expectations.

This is the case for Juraj Slafkovsky, who has been scoreless in the past nine games. Against the Rangers, Slafkovsky created a turnover on the power play which lead to a breakaway goal.

Chris Kreider forces a turnover and tallies on the breakaway for a SHORTY, opening the scoring for the Rangers!#NYR pic.twitter.com/AjiUbUrHLV

— Hockey Daily 365 l NHL Highlights (@HockeyDaily365) January 6, 2023

This play may have impacted Slafkovsky’s confidence, which is already low.

It’s not easy to see how the coaching staff will restore the team and the player’s confidence, but it’s clearly something to work on this year.

A bright year ahead

With all of this said, I think fans have a lot of things to look forward to in 2023. The Canadien’s record might not be good. Nonetheless, the trade deadline, the draft, and the possible addition of prospects like Joshua Roy and Riley Kidney will make up for it.

Who knows, maybe Hughes will also surprise fans by making a big trade this summer like he did last summer in the 2022 draft.

2023 will be full of excitement and hopefully, this is a sign of good things to come.

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By Gustave Pinault-Masson, Staff Writer
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