Series in 2025-26: 'It won’t necessarily be the Habs’ goal'

Gascon notes that he gets the impression that management feels they still have time… and that’s not necessarily unrelated to what they said at their end-of-season press briefing.

They often insisted that the team might be even younger next year, and while they want to try to improve, they didn’t sound like two men aiming for the Stanley Cup as early as 2025-26, let’s say.

And obviously, in many people’s eyes, that would be a disappointing result after making the playoffs this year… but it wouldn’t necessarily be out of the ordinary either. The development of a team, after all, doesn’t happen in a linear fashion, and the Habs were a bit lucky to qualify this year.

It caught fire at the right time and all the other teams fell apart… and it still required a win in the 82nd game of the season, a game in which the Hurricanes didn’t play their regulars.

Even if Ivan Demidov has a big first season and the Habs go looking for 1-2 pieces to improve their team, it wouldn’t be the end of the world if the club found itself out of the playoff picture. The important thing, once again next year, will be to see the important pieces of the core step up.

And if that means another year of being #InTheMix, so be it… although, of course, it’s always nicer to see them #InThePlayoffs.

Overtime

– Cole Caufield teases Lane Hutson.

– What do you think?

– To listen to Mathieu Darche’s appearance on La Poche Bleue, click here. It starts around 1:08.

– Nice read.

– I think so too.

– Could any of these players be of interest to the Habs?

– Whew.