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***CampinKiller*** · 09-20-2023, 03:28 PM

It's been over a year and a half since taking over as the Montreal GM, and I am going to ramble about the journey to this point because why not? It's been an interesting ride so far, taking over as the 4th GM in the first 4 seasons of the team's existence. From where I sat, I was taking over a team that wasn't really respected by the majority of the league due to the turnover, and I don't think at the time I was really thought to be much of a GM myself, given my history on the site (especially for my players flaming out). Maybe it was the doubt that drove me, who knows, but I've loved it so far and don't see myself stopping anytime soon.

The Beginning

I came to Montreal in the S62 off-season as an RFA. New England wasn't going to have the room at D for me after my last J season, so they let me entertain FA, where @Inf1d3l swooped in and picked me up. We'd had a good talk about how Montreal was new but rebuilding, had some big class in the S62 class especially, and the general plan. I was excited, and off I went. The LR was enjoyable, I knew several people from my time in the league, and GFG/ANA, so it was a good fit. About midway through the season, infi announced he was stepping down due to personal reasons, and everyone was great in supporting him with this decision. There were questions as to who would take over, but @Serpe x 13 was given the job and given the infi stamp of approval, and things seemed like they would be fine. Unfortunately, shortly after he got the job, Serpe had some personal issues come up, and so stepped down. I had been hired as the co-GM by Serpe already after having also applied for the GM spot, and Jess reached out and asked if I still wanted the job. I said yes, and off we went.

Unfortunately, almost immediately I had trade requests from two of our top prospects from the S62 class, as given the tumultuous past few days, they wanted to go somewhere with some stability. I completely understood their positions, and while I did try and convince them to stay, I don't blame them for wanting to leave when the team was on its 3rd GM in as many days. So we cooked up my first two trades as a GM, setting our rebuild back a few seasons by trying to load up for the S64 draft. In them we got our previously traded lottery pick back, as well as a future 1st and some 2nds/cap dumps. Not bad trades, but I think nowadays I could have gotten better. Heading into the S64 draft, we also traded away infi to WPG for the 2nd overall pick, as infi knew he wasn't going to be around as much and we needed to maximize his value. The S64 draft itself was an interesting one. We had 2nd and 4th overall, but I wanted a third pick, and ended up trading in for #13 on the night before the draft, in arguably the worst trade of my tenure. Not because we didn't draft a great player at 13, but I gave away too much value for it. In the end, we made 3 selections in S64's 1st round: A top D in Johnny Patey, a franchise winger in Mads McBride ( @NJBadApple ), and a solid C in Shylo Moxii @Shylo_Moxii

I didn't want to be in full rebuild mode for long though, as another prospect left us as an RFA since we were going to continue our rebuild. So I was happy in S64 when we made the playoffs for the first time in franchise history, unfortunately losing to Hamilton in a 4 game sweep. Some smaller moves were made over the S64 season, including bringing in @lilstifler from Seattle to give us a chance to be halfway decent. Wanting to speed things up, on the eve of the S65 draft, I traded our #6 overall pick to Edmonton for @vic03 who was up and coming, and a big LR presence. S65 itself though ended up being something of a disappointment, as we missed the playoffs again. Looking ahead to S66, I wanted to do something to get us into a window faster.

During all of this, I had been looking for a co-GM for probably at least a month, with the present war room not really wanting to get into it (this was during the height of the test simming era). I had bumped my hiring post a few times and gotten it trolled by the lovely group of people that NOLA had assembled at the time. Thankfully, @Benpachi, team captain, decided to apply for the job after much consideration. It was an easy pick from me, and I am glad he decided to do it to this day, as Roddy's a great guy and has been invaluable in our LR and war room.

The Core

When the offseason rolled around in between S65/S66, I wanted to do something to get us over the hump and into at least competitiveness. We had a few holes, namely at forward, that needed filling. Our #2 overall pick from S64 had left us in RFA to Seattle, giving us #12 and #2 in the S66 draft. A week or so prior to the draft, we made a move to bring in a top forward from WPG, Dwayne Gretzky ( @3lewsers ), to center our top line while our S64 class came into form. Leading up to the draft I put 2OA on the block, to see what offers we might see for it. Around this time, SEA had put @G2019 on the block, as he was potentially looking into FA, but didn't want to just leave Seattle with nothing. I reached out and had a talk with him that went fantastically, and then reached back out to tig. Tig wanted 2OA, and the rest is history. Bringing in G was one of my best decisions as GM (in my opinion, at least), as he immediately was a big team and LR guy, asking almost immediately to help out in the war room. We had another up and coming piece, and we were looking for one more.

I had been real hesitant to trade #2 because I was very interested in bringing in @Katth and assumed that Calgary was going to take him at 4 (and he surely was not dropping to 12). During our long discussion in the war room, the idea was floated about moving up to Texas's pick at #6, which they had said they were trying to slide back from, but we still weren't sold on Katth being there at 6, though we did have other options we were considering. Texas offered us 6OA and 38OA for 12OA, 37OA, and 40OA, which was a no-brainer. Due to some details about that getting out before it happened, and some other things I don't remember well, we had to set it up where the trade would only happen so long as the guy who Texas wanted was there at 12. In the end we got Katth though, who was going to be the final piece of a solid core for us. It was also the wheeling and dealing I'd probably been happiest with since taking over.

With all these moves, S66 brought us our first winning season in history, and our first playoff wins in team history, though we still fell to Toronto, 4-2. S67 was a season that went about the same as S66 in terms of the regular season, but in the playoffs we had huge results. A sweep of Buffalo brought us our first ever series win, and we followed it up by eliminating a stacked Toronto team in 6 games to reach the conference finals against Manhattan. Our run ended there though, as we would end up losing in 6 games. At the time, I thought we were just a couple seasons away from the Final.

S68 saw another big trade, as we brought in another veteran center in Friedensreich Hundertwasser ( @AskedMadden ) to help our forward core. Biemans was called up for his rookie season as well, and we would close the season with 40 wins, the most in franchise history. We'd also brought in a stud defensive center in Marco Barengrub ( @gaby ) at the trade deadline from Tampa. Unfortunately, we would end up losing in the 1st round to Buffalo in 6 games. But the best seasons were yet to come. In S69, we brought in Rock Strongo ( @Leafs4ever ) as Toronto blew it up, giving us yet another veteran forward to slot into our top 6. We went 50-15-1, winning the division, and narrowly missing out on the President's Trophy. We made quick work of Hamilton in a 4 game sweep, and looked ahead to New England, eager to return to the conference finals. It wasn't to be though, as Olof Karsikko would put on a masterclass in net, sending us packing in 6 games. In S70 we returned an almost identical roster, good for 2nd in the league in terms of TPE, and won the division again, going 46-17-3. We would blow past HAM in 6 games and setup another meeting with New England. After going down 3-1, we would rally back and force a game 7, which New England ended up winning 4-3. A devastating loss for us in one of our best seasons.

Going into S71, Strongo had retired, and we knew that there were only a few seasons left on our window at best. We had traded away our 1sts for several seasons, and while the forward core was in good shape, the D core was going to start regressing hard in a few seasons, as we'd never had success with our picks at D. So we made the decision to not trade any of our 1sts beyond S73 and try and make one more run at things before blowing it up in 2-3 seasons. We brought in @Kez from Calgary, and he clicked immediately centering our top line with McHits and McBride on the wings, as we won 50 games again, but narrowly lost the division to a surging New England team. We would unfortunately be swept against Buffalo in the 1st round, behind a hot goaltender, again sending us home early. As S72 approached, we prepared again, knowing it would likely be the last ride of the core. 45 wins later we faced Buffalo in the 1st round and dispatched them in 5 games, setting up another meeting with New England. They were now the better team, but we hoped to do to them what they did to us, but it wasn't to be, as they handled us in 5 games. It was tough and frustrating, and set up a bittersweet set of goodbyes for us over the offseason.

The Present

Pretty much immediately after our loss to New England, I pulled the trigger on a trade block post that basically said the entire team was on the block. Two of our best pieces were undoubtedly McBride and Biemans, as they were peaking and nearing peak, respectively. Knowing how some GMs in this league are with offers, I basically said that if you low-balled me I would ignore you, so don't bother, which either worked out well, or caused half the league to not want to message me at all, because I was surprised at how few teams seemed to be in offer for two stud players. Almost immediately with McBride we had a great offer from Winnipeg, not slowing down after their cup: a top 10 (outside chance at lotto) 1st in the S74 Draft, a future 1st, and a couple 2nds. After discussing and considering other offers, we pulled the trigger, sending away our Captain and a big part of our war room for a great pick haul. We followed it up fairly quickly by also sending Grogu Mandosson to Winnipeg for another 1st. We still had Katth left, and had a few teams with good offers, but wanted to wait until closer to the draft to decide what to do with him. In the end, we would end up with a good 1st in the S74 draft, a future 1st, and 22OA in the S73 draft. Not a bad haul for 3 good players.

Looking ahead to the future, we have a lot of draft capital, and I'm excited to get to use it and bring in some studs. We've already made two great picks with the 2nds we had in this last draft, bringing in @ThisSeemsFishy and @Will3 to be the first steps on our rebuild. Having 3 solid 1sts in such a big draft in S74 is going to set us up nicely to really have a big core to work with in a few seasons. It's just going to take a bit of patience and a lot of scouting, but Montreal will be on the rise again soon enough. This time though, we'll end it with a cup or three.

NJBadApple · 09-20-2023, 03:46 PM

It was a great ride, really enjoyed my time in Montreal and highly recommend it to any prospect who reads this. Best of luck through the rebuild!

**brickwall35** · 09-20-2023, 03:51 PM

It's been awesome to see you grow as a GM, CK. If I weren't planning a team hopping player for my next create, Montreal would 100% where I'd look to make my home. It sucks we weren't ever able to get FHM's blessings, but Montreal has gained respect, and I know some day will reach the mountaintop.

***G2019*** · 09-20-2023, 06:56 PM

Montreal is absolutely fantastic, and the culture that's been built by guys like you, @Benpachi , @brickwall35 , and @NJBadApple is second to none. So happy McHits got to play there!

Katth · 09-21-2023, 02:15 AM

I’m glad to have been part of growing and developing Montreal, a team that has matured a ton under your leadership. Sad we didn’t get the cherry on the cake, but it wasn’t for lack of trying.