Montreal Canadiens: Time to Let Them Rebuild Once and For All

Something has been bothering me for a few years now, and I don’t care that we’re not even ten games into the season…I’m pressing the panic button.

My panic button. The button I’ve hoped management would press a long time ago. Let me explain.

Once in a while, I stop thinking rationally about hockey and think "what if." Speculation is dangerous, but in this case, there is reason to believe it would work.

"What if the Montreal Canadiens allowed the team to crumble like Pittsburgh or Chicago in the late 1990s and early 2000s and rebuild like many other teams are doing; what kind of team would we have now?"

That’s a question a lot of experts have pondered and the usual answer is "they’d probably be in a better position now, but the fans would not have allowed it."

They’re right.

Of course, fans do not control what management does, but when you work in one of the biggest hockey markets in the world, they can certainly generate a lot of pressure and through complaints, media, journalism, and even manifestations, they can cost management its jobs. Montreal and Toronto fans and media unfortunately have that "power" over what management do. They "demand" success at any cost.

Montreal has had a dreadfully average team for far too long, hanging in the middle of the standings since the mid-90s. What happened two years ago, finishing first in the East, was indeed an aberration.

So, over the years, to please fans and make the playoffs, management would use prospects and draft picks in trades to patch up holes with aging veterans or role players, thus wasting many years in the middle of the pack. Plus, drafting in the '90s was a pain and Montreal was consistently horrible at it.

Since Halloween is coming up, allow me to refresh your memories on how horrible the drafting was.

The first-round picks from 1990 to 2000 are Turner Stevenson, Brent Bilodeau, David Wilkie, Saku Koivu, Brad Brown, Terry Ryan, Matt Higgins, Jason Ward, Eric Chouinard, Ron Hainsey, and Marcel Hossa.

Very nice group, wouldn’t you say? Impressed?

Now I don’t need to tell you who they missed. It can be easily verified by looking at draft selections the past 10 years. But let me just say, Martin Brodeur and Jarome Iginla are on that list.

And who were the quick fixes? Donald Audette, Joe Juneau, Trevor Linden, Yannick Perreault, Karl Dykhuis, Eric Weinrich, Doug Gilmour, Shaun Van Allen, Sergei Berezin, and Jim Dowd, to mention only a few. Quite the all-star group, huh?

Instead of letting the team go down and get high draft picks that could’ve helped rebuild the franchise and make it stronger, they picked up those quick fixes to appease fans, media, and try desperately to make the playoffs through the back door.

Frankly, I’m more than tired of seeing the Canadiens struggle and hang around the middle of the pack. For the price of the damn tickets, they could at least try to offer a proper show.

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