Quoting: Kotkaniemi15
In an ideal world Suzuki, Caufield, and Petry. (Which is for the most past what happened last season, although it was more by committee than a 1:1 comparison) However, the 2019 Blues just underperformed in the first half of the season, the 2022 Canadiens have much larger problems stemming from the absence of Edmundson, Weber, Price, & Danault. Plus the habs aren’t a good regular Season team, so to have the kind of run that St. Louis had to do to make the playoffs isn’t a possibility.
Saying the habs will make the playoffs this year is delusional.
For the habs to get back in to contention a few things need to go right. For one, Petry needs to be a #1 defenseman, which isn’t really super likely considering he’s dropped off at age 34 this year, and the older you are the less likely you are to bounce back. Frankly, he didn’t have any business being as good as he was last season, players usually don’t have career years at age 33. Plus Savard is no Weber or Parayko, so RD is a huge issue for Montréal that will likely hold the team back in the future.
The forwards are less of a problem, since bounce back seasons from most guys and natural progression from Suzuki & Caufield would make the forward group already better than 2021. Goaltending is voodoo, so we would just need to hope Carey gets hot at the right time.
RD is going to be a painful spot for several years. There's nobody close to top 4 potential in the system, let alone top 2. Savard isn't good and Petry is not going to last, but there's no pressure there because nobody is coming up behind them.
That's our right side for the next few years.
We might find a magic partner for Savard, so he can be serviceable in at least one pairing. Fingers crossed for it to be Norlinder, but that's of course a long shot.
Edmundson returning will help Petry.
Romanov will hopefully continue to improve.
Our right side is all dependent on our left side right now, but there's nobody who can carry a partner on either side. We need to jump and make a significant move for a quality RHD regardless of anything else. If that isn't possible, we need to collect a few potential prospects are the position.