Ripped a page out of
@kotkaniemi15 's book and I took a look at our offseason acquisitions and departures for the past 5 seasons and where our mindset was at the time...
only taking a look at notable players or ones that have played a considerable amount of games for the Canadiens
Maybe start at the bottom at work your way up so it's kind of in chronological order.
2021 offseason heading into the 2021-22 season
After a painful Stanley Cup Finals loss, Montreal is looking to bounce back even stronger. The expectations are to contend for a playoff spot in the Atlantic division and see the progressions of the Suzuki-Caufield duo that was so good in the playoffs. With the most additions AND losses in a single offseason in the last 5 years, MTL is currently 0-4-0, has only scored.3 goals in those 4 games and has apparent chemistry issues. I think the problem is chemistry... this is just not the same team we saw in June and July and it shows with the number of transactions they made. The only real answer at the moment is time.
Losses : 13
*Edmundson - Injury
*Byron - Injury
*Price - Injury
Weber - Injury
Danault - Free Agency
Tatar - Free Agency
Kotkaniemi - Offer Sheet
Perry - Free Agency
Merrill - Free Agency
Staal - Probably Retiring
Gustafsson - Free Agency
Fleury - Expansion Draft
Weal - KHL
Additions : 9
Dvorak - Trade
Hoffman - Free Agency
Savard - Free Agency
Perreault - Free Agency
Paquette - Free Agency
Montembeault - Waivers
Wideman - Free Agency
Niku - Free Agency
Brooks - Waivers
2020 offseason heading into the 2020-21 season
Before the suspension of the season, it looked like the 2018-19 campaign was a fluke as the Habs finished as the 24th seed in the whole league. However, the bubble playoffs proved that this team was on the come up with a young center core of Suzuki and Kotkaniemi. The emergence of the young guys lead to guys like Toffoli and Perry to sign with MTL in free agency. The only expectation this season was to make the playoffs and then see what would happen...
Losses : 7
Domi - Trade
Juulsen - Waivers
Hudon - Swiss League
Alzner - Buyout
Kinkaid - Free Agency
Weise - Lost him to the Habs Tonight Podcast
Folin - SHL
Additions : 7
Toffoli - Free Agency
Anderson - Trade
Perry - Free Agency
Edmundson - Trade
Allen - Trade
Romanov - Signed ELC
Frolik - Free Agency
2019 offseason heading into the 2019-20 season
A surprise season lead Montreal to be only one win short of a playoff spot. What was supposed to be a down year turned out to be a revelation. Domi and Tatar had breakout seasons while Kotkaniemi looked like he would be the future number one center after a pretty good rookie year. In the offseason, MTL didn't change much but got a little more depth. Rookies Suzuki and Fleury were making their professional debuts this upcoming season while Kinkaid was finally the right backup the Habs needed since Budaj.
Losses : 4
Shaw - Trade
Benn - Free Agency
Deslauriers - Trade
Lernout - Free Agency
Additions : 5
Suzuki - Signed ELC
Chiarot - Free Agency
Cousins - Free Agency
Fleury - Signed ELC
Kinkaid - Free Agency
2018 offseason heading into the 2018-19 season
After a disappointing year, the Habs looked to start some sort of retool molded around Price and Weber. The team got younger and it was expected to be a really bad year after having traded away Pacioretty and Galchenyuk.
Losses : 3
Pacioretty - Trade
Galchenyuk - Trade
Carr - Free Agency
Additions : 8
Domi - Trade
Armia - Trade
Kotkaniemi - Draft
Tatar - Trade
Ouellet - Free Agency
Plekanec - Free Agency
Agostino - Free Agency
Peca - Free Agency
Chaput - Free Agency
2017 offseason heading into the 2017-18 season
After an underwhelming playoff series against the Rangers, Montreal was looking to keep Radulov and add more even offense to make the playoffs again next year. They also revamped the blue line after the losses of Markov, Emelin, and Beaulieu by replacing them with Schlemko, Morrow, and Alzner...
Losses : 6
Radulov - Free Agency
Markov - Retirement
Emelin - Expansion Draft
Beaulieu - Trade
Sergachev - Trade
Flynn - Free Agency
Redmond - Trade
Additions : 7
Drouin - Trade
Deslauriers - Trade
Alzner - Free Agency
Froese - Free Agency
Schlemko - Trade
Morrow - Free Agency
Hemsky - Free Agency
I may have missed some players, I did this solely off memory
* Expected to come back at some point this season