The week that wasn’t for habs fans

What were habs management thinking? Habs fans were expecting a big splash this week after two years of misery. They listened when PLD said it was the habs or bust, the invisible enigma Michkov finally appeared and Hughes actually met him. Habs fans were salivating and had hope. Maybe the habs could finally compete goal for goal with the elite teams and elite players in the league.

Well, Hughes and Gorton sure put the breaks on the fans delirium. No no no they were slowly building the back-end. What they forgot is sports is an entertainment industry and fans want to be excited and dream of the future even if some of the expectations will never happen. 

The week that wasn’t started with the PLD theatrics. The sports pundits hammed it up as they proclaimed a bidding war between the kings and habs for the services of the quebecois. In the end the big winners were the Jets and PLD. The Jets squeezed the most out of the kings being put in an impossible negotiating position. PLD got the money he may not have deserved for being an inconsistent enfant terrible. 

The big loser was the habs for having lost a bidding war that they may have not even participated in and the bad publicity that followed. As well, they may have overpaid for the services of Alex Newhook that could have been a response to the PLD  non-event. Newhook could become a very good player and he has explosive speed. However,  it seems Hughes was forced to overpay for that potential to divert attention away from PLD.

Habs fans thought oh well there is always the draft and the chance of drafting a high-end prospect in this bountiful stock of offensively talented 18 year olds. The Bob Mackenzie ranking was out and Michkov was rated 5th the exact position habs were going to draft. Many in the know said he probably should have been ranked second if not first. Damn Putin and his war. 

The first four teams did not bite and drafted as expected. The moment of truth happened for habs management. What would they do? Were they risk takers and fan appeasers or were they going the way of the old regime that drafted defencemen as a priority every year. Maybe it was apropos that Carey Price the leader of the defence mentality of the past regime flubbed the name of another defenceman drafted first.

Reinbacher will be good even though many scouts had rated him outside of the top ten. The general consensus was he was going to be a reliable dman with low percentage chances that he could become a top 2 dman. What he isn’t is an elite scorer who could become the russian equivalent of Conner Bedard.

Heaven knows if Michkov will be good or as elite as many think he will be. He probably is less of a risk than Slafkovsky and the small sample size the habs had when they drafted him. Even if he turns out to be Nails Yakupov2, he was that mad hope habs fans had that he would become a franchise player. Habs fans dreams were dashed when they did not draft the player who could compete with Bedard or Matthews or even Mcdavid. 

Habs management were not up to the gambling risk. One could wonder if Matvei Michkov was Matt Mitchell an american, with the same talent and who had made it clear he was staying in university for 3 years to finish his degree, would the habs have made the same decision? What could have been…