Montreal Canadiens: 5 burning questions for 2018-19 season

Montreal Canadiens fans want to see a rebuild, while Marc Bergevin has stated their goal next season is to make the playoffs. So what the hell do they do?

It’s not an exaggeration to say that trading P.K. Subban for Shea Weber changed the course of the Montreal Canadiens franchise. They missed the playoffs in 2015-16, but that was the first time in four seasons that they failed to make it, and it was due to Carey Price playing 12 games more than anything.

The Habs had a nice core to build around, and all they needed to do was add a piece or two. Instead, Marc Bergevin dealt Subban because he somehow thought that Weber would be better than him, or he believed in addition by subtraction. Now, they’re stuck with an aging core with two albatross contracts all while looking down the barrel of a rebuild gun.

Free agency could’ve gone a long way towards resolving that, as John Tavares, Max Pacioretty, Weber and Price would’ve been a good group to build around. But Tavares didn’t even take a meeting with them, and they didn’t even make much of a concerted effort to land Paul Stastny, either. If they’re going to be stuck playing wingers at center again, they’d be better off starting all over again.

While the team’s direction remains as clear as mud, here are five questions they must try to answer in the 2018-19 season.

5. Will a change of scenery help Max Domi’s goalscoring?

The key to a successful rebuild is to stack up on young players while building through the draft and free agency. The Canadiens’ prospect pool needs a lot of work, but they just happened to trade one of their blue-chip youngsters away in Alex Galchenyuk. Max Domi is younger, but one’s coming off a 19-goal season and the other’s coming off a nine-goal season and his last name is Domi. It’s easy to see why Habs fans weren’t thrilled with this trade.

There was a lot of excitement surrounding Domi following his rookie year. He had 18 goals and 52 points, and formed excellent chemistry with Anthony Duclair. Since then, Domi’s second season was halted by injuries while his third saw a massive drop-off in production. Both of them are no longer on the Arizona Coyotes, although they will be thrilled with bringing in Galchenyuk.

It’s easy to chalk up Domi’s season to the team around him. The Canadiens may have only finished one point better than the Coyotes, but they have lots of talented forwards to work with. If he can develop some good chemistry with someone like Jonathan Drouin, Brendan Gallagher or Max Pacioretty, we could see a resurgence in production. Then again, we have no idea how much longer any of those players will be on the Habs by season’s end.