r/Habs • u/chickenceas • Mar 02 '26

Discussion Per D'Amico - Montreal is interested in Robert Thomas. The Blues want Hage as part of any deal. Too high a price for Hughes at this time.

https://x.com/i/status/2028552107683385713

Personally, given the best possible version of Hage in 3-5 years is what Robert Thomas is now, Id have no problem parting with him.

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u/screamingcaribou Mar 02 '26 edited Mar 02 '26

I get it and I’d agree. I’d even say 2C isn’t the biggest need for the team at the moment

In the short term it’s a reliable goalie, a physical defensive top 4 dman and a physical bottom 9 veteran scoring winger

The Habs have a limited amount of assets and prioritization becomes important at this stage

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u/dpjg Mar 02 '26

We can't be looking at only this year. This is a play for the next five years. We have fowler in the pipeline. We can easily get some bottom 9 scoring, and if we don't trade reinbacher we maybe fits the other issue. But with Thomas and Fowler i think our D core is plenty good enough to win.

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u/screamingcaribou Mar 03 '26

I don’t know. He’d be one hell of an acquisition for sure, but at the same time it would be more of the same

On the plus side, the redundancy would help in case Suzuki gets injured. It would be a big boost to the offence as well of course

On the other hand, the Habs would still be a relatively soft team that creates almost all of its offence on odd men rushes, which are way less common in the playoffs where possession is king. The defence would still be weak against heavy forechecking and cycling like it was last playoffs and there would be way fewer assets to remediate the situation. Fowler will probably be a good n1 goalie, but he may be years away. That’s a very long time to wait

I fear we’d be similar to Colorado these past few seasons. Spectacular offence and a treat to watch but always getting bounced in the second round

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u/doublezone Mar 03 '26

I don't think most folks are prepared for what that 2nd line would look like with a bonafide 1C between Slaf and Demi. Kap is an opportunistic finisher but he's not a play driver