Bleacher Report Grades Habs Rebuild As An A-

The fact that under Hughes and Gorton’s hands the Habs are at the stage of being a perennial playoff contender just 4 years since it all began is incredibly promising. Not to mention, the Habs only missing playoffs for 3 years before making it back to the postseason during the 2024-25 campaign was something nobody expected and surely earned them serious points in their grading of their rebuild.

What seemed to impress the author of the article, Joe Yordan, was just how fast everything that the Canadiens’ brass started to put together started to gel and lead to success already. With that being said, it seems a bit of an insult that both the Canadiens are given the same grade at the top with the Sabres, who are a team that has gone through multiple failed rebuilds before finally figuring things out over the past 2 months.

The Sabres may be the hottest team in the NHL since the beginning of December, but their rebuild success shouldn’t be based on this, as they took extremely long to get there, and for the longest time it was believed that the Kevyn Adams rebuild had failed. Oddly enough, the team started putting everything together. Comparing their progress as a whole to that of the Habs rebuild, it’s night and day how much better the overall rebuilds have gone. For example, if this article had been written 2 months earlier, the Sabres may have gotten the lowest grade.

The Habs’ rebuild has moved so fast that there are still multiple high-end prospects that will join the team within the next year or two. As a result, the rebuild isn’t entirely over for the Canadiens, considering they will be getting potential stars like forwards Michael Hage and Alexander Zharovsky, who will be added to the team in the near future, as well as Jacob Fowler, who is looking as if he will be the starting goaltender of the future.
This doesn’t include David Reinbacher and Bryce Pickford on defence, who both have the potential to be something big with the Canadiens in the future. Despite this, both defensemen have flaws that can hold them back.

Nonetheless, add all these prospects to join a core featuring young veterans Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield and Noah Dobson, along with potential young superstars already on the team in Lane Hutson, Juraj Slafkovsky, Ivan Demidov and the Canadiens have a group that can be a serious Stanley Cup contender in a few years.

There is no guarantee that this core will win a Stanley Cup, but the Habs under Hughes and Gorton have clearly stocked up to be able to do so. Bleacher Report sees the vision as well, as they have it as one of their top three rebuilds over the last decade. Like Yordan said in his article, the Habs haters are upset that things are progressing so well.

Do you agree with Bleacher Report that the Habs’ rebuild has been one of the most successful in the last 10 years?