Barn Burner: Boomer & Pinder with Rhett Warrener - Have The Montreal Canadiens Built The BEST Young Core In Hockey?? | BB Clips

Episode Date: September 14, 2026

Boomer, Pinder and Rhett preview the Montreal Canadiens heading into the 2026-27 season after a huge step forward last year that saw Montreal make a run all the way to the third round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The guys break down one of the NHL’s most exciting young cores, the incredible value Montreal has built through some of its long-term contracts and whether this team is ready to take another step toward becoming a legitimate Stanley Cup contender. With expectations officially changing in Montreal, can the Canadiens prove last season was just the beginning, or are we expecting too much too soon from this young group?Video Link: https://youtu.be/27rSQ6Nk8zQ#nhl #nhlshorts #nhlplayoffs #nhlpredictions #nhlhockey #nhlpicks #stanleycup #stanleycupfinal #montrealcanadiens CHECK OUT OUR STUFF ⬇️BARN BURNER MERCHhttps://nationgear.ca/collections/shirts/FlamesnationBARN BURNER SHORTS https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLj_bcGtvvo-cW2DHEDZ6dEO5ePDmlhZc9&si=jo8iNGxT4ImhS2Y8📲 Follow us:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fnbarnburner/X (Twitter): https://x.com/barnburnerfn?lang=en🎧 Listen on:Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/be/podcast/barn-burner-boomer-pinder-with-rhett-warrener/id1648562889Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3Mc6Qd5U22R2zbMlQ7RxIiProducer: Jack Haverstock Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Season previews continue. Canadian teams one day at a time. Let's look at a fan base that probably is right near the top in terms of how they feel about their team and how they're positioned. Maybe only the Carolina Hurricanes feeling better about how things are because, well, they just lifted the trophy. The Habs went from a talented young team to a team deep in the playoffs last year, eventually ousted by those eventual Stanley Cup champs. And oh, by the way, they did lock in their future stars in Demadov and Hudson at the pre-Summer dollars, which looks incredibly wise in hindsight. Nick Suzuki less than eight, what's he making on the market today if he's a 27-year-old center? 13? Like a ton. Oh, Cole Coffat, you're going to score 40 or 50 every year?

What's that going to get to these days? A lot more than 7.8. Slavkowski, they've locked in. He looks like a manchild on the wing all of a sudden. physical force. There's just good deals everywhere here. And that's just the four. Good.

Look at Demadov at 9. Nice. 10% or a 10x raise. That's always good for business. Then on the back end, Lane Hudson's already getting Norris votes in his second full season, a year after winning your rookie of the year award. He's locked in at 9.5.

And the goal is, well, Dobish looks pretty damn good, at least in the playoffs last year. You have everyone that you think is your future core locked in at what is believed to be well under market value. and you've got cap space and you already made it to the third round last year, you've got to be feeling good. I think a lot of,

obviously there's a success, but I think that, excuse me, that cap situation is a big part of why there is so much enthusiasm is you're not overpaying anyone and what you might be able to do with that cap room moving forward.

And you have to have a lot of faith in the ability that your staff is doing. Well, you've got a kid in that you expected to come this year, don't you? Hager or Hager. Yeah, there's Michigan. That's either the biggest trade ship you've got or a guy that can join you in the spring as a center in the top nine. Like, that's two great options. Yeah, the way they've drafted, the way they've traded, the way they've signed players, the way the players have performed.

You're not, I would guess, going to have a ton. I know what Canada, you ask this whole thing. But if there's a city in Canada that's in a good spot to bring in free agents, it might be Montreal. Yeah, why not? I mean, guys want to win. I understand there's all the other stuff, but winning is the top of most guys' lists. And we saw it with Florida. The taxes were always good. The climate was always good. No one wanted to go there until they actually were a team that could win. There's some of that in Montreal where it hasn't been great. And they were like, well, the French, there's too much pressure. Yeah. Nobody seems to be. That's on a list of no-goes. Yeah. And you did two Americans that just inked long-term favorable deals in coffee. Field and Hudson amongst other great players. Chris Kreider was not drafted by the Habs when he was on the board. They took Louis LeBlanc, a kid out of junior B of that draft class,

went to the Rangers. They had some incredible playoff battles. He bumps into Kerry Price. He's public enemy number. He chose Montreal. He called them. I've said this people. Like, I wonder.

There's the contract. Yeah, there it is. Like for someone like Cole Cofield, 7.85. Who he's signed in for the next five or six years or whatever it is. And you've got Lane Hudson at 8.8. And you mention, you know. Demadov, 911. As these salaries escalate,

how does that feel for someone like Cole Coughfield or Lane Hudson? Where you could be making more than double what you're making now. You could be making $6, $7, $8 million more per year. I don't think it. I've never been in that situation. I know. There's times where I could have made. made more money, not those kind of numbers.

But the discrepancy between the best and not is not the best and what that I think we're, we're just obviously going to see that over the next three, four, five years. And in their heads, they're going eight for two those guys. I still every two weeks I'm getting a sports car, which should be the way it is, right? You would think? And do you think in the Hudson said he's not going, well, I'm going to make 20 the next time. Yeah, he's going to come up as a late 20 year old. Right.

that's going to be like, yeah, I'll make this for now and then I'm going to make 25. It's like Nathan McKinnon signs for 12.6. He's a max player, max salary guy if he wants to be. He knew that at the time he negotiated the deal. The cap was going to go up, but he doesn't care. I think he wants to win and he wanted to be with McCarre in their primes together. And is Nathan McKinnon leaving $10 million in the table? Yeah.

Right. That's what it is. I think in their heads, they'll think about it, but I don't think it'll impact anything. Because any time, I just think for Lane Hudson, who's 22, he hasn't won anything yet, he's still evolving. He's making $8.8.8 million a year, $8.85. So I told him that it will be available money.

This guy's making 15, 16, 17. You're going to, like, every year, those are, there's going to be guys who are not as good as you. But that's happening to the history of the game. Always. Even when it was a flat-ish cap, there were still, I signed, and then Jay McKee, who's sure, maybe he's better than I. But how much better?

Not double. It was nearly double. Nearly double. Right? So it's not... You needed a better agent. No. You do also have to be happy with where you're at and what you're...

No, it is. It's just so much money. It is. You know, for you, it was a couple million bucks or whatever. When it's, I could be making 10 million more this year and next year and next year. You're like, this is $50 million at the end of my career. Yeah. It's crazy.

And then the flip side of that argument is like, okay, well, Nathan McKinnon could be getting 10 million more a year for the next five years. I know you keep going to make $200 million in your career. Maybe you're not too worried about the extra 50. Like it cuts both ways in the sense that, yeah, it's a lot of money you're leaving off the table. You're also going to make a quarter billion dollars in your career. 50 million is a lot of money. So I don't think at that number you're ignoring it. But there is a, it's hard to say that.

There is a point where you're like, and I think again, I was going to say that earlier with a guy like Hudson or whoever in Montreal that seems to be making way less, you're going to look at the pot at the end of the, under the rainbow, right? Like your total pot at the end of your career is more what you're like, well, I made $250 million playing hockey. Okay, well, you're not okay.

They just locked in Marty San Luis as well today, four-year deal, or it's a three-year deal at the end of next year, whether they scrap the final year or not. We don't really know they're not public. You can't scrap the final year of a player's deal. We see it all the time with coaches. So whatever it is, they got it for four more years. So are they tracking?

Do we see this as a team that's destined to win a cup in five years? I don't know. You could argue they need a little more center death, but we just talked about it. They got Hage coming, and they got a huge prospect covered. they can trade for that piece. They have lots of cap space. Josh Anderson's money is going to go away.

Chris Crichter's good for one year. Then that money will clear up. They are as well positioned as anyone for the next decade. I think they're positioned well, but the reason they were in the semifinals was Dobish and is Dobish that good? Yeah, was that a hot, because we saw Yar Holakow play Kerry Price in the playoffs too.

Like weird things happen in short amounts of time with goalies, but you have to love we're at. Even if Dobish isn't the guy, they've also got Montaubo and Fowler. For sure. I just, I don't think it's inevitable. I don't think anyone's inevitable.

Do they have a top five player on Earth? That's what I was going to bring up. Because it's not McKinnon, it's not McCar, it's not McDavid, it's not dry south, right? I still think they're a center away from being a stud team. Yeah, I agree that. Now, what about Slavkovsky? Because he kind of, first or he's 22. He is, he's talking about a moose.

This guy, he's, I just wondered, are we not quite appreciating what he is just? No, that's just not the center. that's all. He's not a center. I think we understand, we do appreciate what he is. And if Kirby Doc wants to stay healthy and be great, like what he was drafted to be,

maybe the center need isn't as bad as it looks, but he's also been a guy that's almost always injured. I think it's Hage or Hage is traded for the center this year if they're, you know, top two in their division and coming down the stretch. I'm thinking back to the playoffs and how exciting it was much.

Oh, they didn't play excited. This shouldn't have got out of the first round. They weren't playing. That's true. Right? It's not a criticism. I was pumped to watch them.

And they had me almost by propaganda that, oh, this is a young, fast, exciting team. And then it was like, they haven't had a shot on that in forever. They got wet blanketed pretty hard in a bunch of those games. It wasn't just the Tampa series either. No, that's what I mean. They couldn't create against Carolina. Even Buffalo, I don't know they should have. Not necessarily.

They beat Buffalo, but. They weren't undeniably better. No. It could have been a, well, it was a fun year, and we lost the Tampa and seven. They should have lost game seven. And I still think that if you put up that division, that's trouble. Yeah, they're not in the top two for odds to win this division. We'll get to that in a moment.

They're minus 180 to make the playoffs, plus 600 to win the Atlantic. And it's the two Florida teams that are above them, which makes some sense. Buffalo is also improved. Toronto's going to be really different. We don't know what to expect. they're 12 to 1 to win the conference, 28 to 1 to win the president's trophy. So we're not saying this is the year they've arrived.

It's their cup. What we're saying is when you look at their foundation and how much money they have left, the few holes that they can improve on, shouldn't be that hard to fill. That's what I was thinking when we, because I knew we were going to be talking about them today. And I forgot,

I kind of forgot how they kind of rope adoped their way through a bunch of Oh, yeah. But they still, they got to round two. they were one of the few teams that beat the Carolina Hurricanes. Not many teams did last year. Yeah, fair season. So the only two first three rounds would beat them, right?

But it's like, okay, so this is great. The contracts are great and the players are great. Do they have that superstar? And do we see them as a cup threat? It can be fine to have all of that working, all those levers are being pulled the right way. But everybody looks to San Jose and celebrate it's like, well, this dude. I still think San Jose's position is better.

They've got more potential for superstars. Right. Yeah, I don't know that you can look at the halves. say there's the best player in the league in five years. You can feel that way about celebrating. I think that's fair. And not for, Dolbush was outstanding.

Like, outstanding. Yeah. In the playoffs. And the books ever cooked in. They don't have win in the division. The books have them finishing third in the division. The books have them at 99 and a half points, not the 105-ish they had last year.

106 last year, excuse me. They're good. They're exciting. They're young. They don't have to go to the third round to be on track still. We understand they got a lot of balances to get where they got. It was a little ahead of schedule,

but they're a team that's going to be there every year for a long time. My biggest take is they like playing in Montreal, and they like playing for Marty, and that should continue. And the building. The Marty-Saint-Louis thing really is, it's legit. You're talking about pulling the levers.

That was a, coach 14-year-olds. There's no real tie to the team. It's not like you brought back somebody from the days of yours, who's been a, like Patrick Waugh or something, right? It's, okay. We know he's a great player and he's a student of the game and that, but there's not really any coaching experience here.

We're going to install him as like, they could have looked very foolish. Yep. Potentially. There was potential to look foolish, but they were in such a position that they weren't really expected to do well. So it was almost like, hey, can this guy come in and plug a hole until we figure out what we are?

And all of a sudden they're like, wait a minute, these guys love playing for him. is the, I agree entirely. It was a low risk environment to put that guy into, and I don't think they thought he was going to be the coach when they were good. A lot of things have gone right. Like, Lane Hudson wasn't the top 10 pick. He arrives like, oh shit, this guy's really good. And shit, maybe Marty is the guy. We thought we'd have to be on a next coach when we started winning. No, he's there. He's locked in for the next four. Nice roll of ice. Carry on, Ryan. We told you they sent Crater. We told you they locked up their coach today.

They're a fun team. The building's electric. And the league's just better when Montreal's good. I don't think that's a good part to debate. I'm happy to have them. Any other crazy Montreal thoughts? I mean, they're going to be good. They're fun. And everyone has Habs fans in their life because we know how this league used to work. There was only two teams in Canada. You picked your color.

You're red or blue. I mean, it's already one of the most boisterous nights at the dome when they pass through once a year. This can be a vocal fan base this year, rightfully so. Everything's going their way. Everyone, all these teams, they have a bit of a run to get glazed. It's like, oh, I remember the playoffs. He did that. It's like, okay, well, strip it back.

It's a new year. They didn't win the cup. They were quite a few wins away from winning the cup. Are you good enough with what you have here now to be a, a cup team? Do you need to add to it? What if there's a, the next move doesn't pay off like a Caulfield, Doebush, Hudson? Yeah. Doesn't mean you're just going to continue to, to roll the dice and come up with.

I think, like, obviously nothing's guaranteed. but I trust the management team a ton. I like the coach. I love the core. I love their cap situation. It's a harder situation to screw up than Austin. If I was a, if I was a Habs fan,

that would be my take on all of it is that the guys running things. Yes. Do a good job. Like Hughes and Gorton, like these guys are not made mistakes. And they still have this huge chip to play in Hage. Can either join this team in the spring or could be the guy to go get you the number two center to go get Ryan O'Reilly.

for a cup run.