Karine
Hains: In Hainsight: Unknow Territory Leaves some Fans Antsy
The Vezina trophy has been won by a Montreal Canadiens’ goaltender 29 times since the league started awarding it and that might be why some fans are eager to see the Habs solidify what has historically been a strong position for them.
- Karine Hains
I do not think it is as simple as not building on a Roy or Price.
I think it is you look at your roster/prospects and look at what the strengths you have overall, and especially with rebuild and a young / prospect laden pool of players, build around those players. If the Habs had a young "Price", I suspect the rebuild would be vastly different.
In a cap world, teams do not have the luxury to wait around for their Price or #1 stud center anymore, at they eventually will cap themselves out paying the other prospects they have before getting hold of that one player.
People preach about patience, and there is some aspect to that, but there is also a window forced upon teams based on the cap. A team like the Lightning masterfully got their star players to reasonable contracts and were able to keep building and get depth. The reverse is true for the Leafs, who went all in on 4 players and are not finding any flex to create depth or making moves is extremely hard.
Roll the dice with what you have, create a strategy, build around that, and hope it becomes a contender, or if lucky, even a cup winning team.
I think HuGo saw a really strong defence pool and some dynamic and fast forwards, decided they will build on that, rather than wait for a goalie.
At least, that is how I see it.