Montreal Canadiens’ Young Core Is Showing the Maple Leafs What They Got Wrong – The Hockey Writers – Toronto Maple Leafs

There’s an easy way to read a recent Montreal Canadiens story. Their young stars are taking less money because they want to win. The Toronto Maple Leafs‘ young stars took more money because they wanted to get paid. End of story. Except I’m not sure that’s the story at all.

The more interesting thing happening in Montreal isn’t that Juraj Slafkovsky or Ivan Demidov apparently aren’t interested in squeezing every last dollar out of their contracts. It’s that Montreal has created something those contracts are buying into. That’s a pretty important distinction.

The Young Canadiens Players Are Buying into a Team-Building Philosophy

Demidov’s agent, Dan Milstein, recently explained that his client actually wanted the eight-year deal and wanted it done quickly so Montreal would have room to add other players. Demidov’s eight-year extension carries a $9.15-million cap hit. Slafkovsky has made similar comments about wanting Stanley Cup rings more than additional money.

And this isn’t happening in isolation. Montreal has assembled a remarkably young group around Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Slafkovsky, Demidov and Lane Hutson, with Noah Dobson and Kaiden Guhle also part of the long-term picture. The Canadiens reached the Eastern Conference Final last season, so these aren’t just prospects talking about some distant future. They’ve already had a taste of winning. That last part may be the key.

The Taste of Winning Has Changed the Canadiens Conversation

Toronto never really got to that point with its famous young core. That’s where I think the HockeyFeed comparison is useful — and where it also needs a little caution.

The Maple Leafs didn’t fail because Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and William Nylander were bad teammates who didn’t care about winning. That’s much too easy. They were outstanding players who happened to be paid like outstanding players.

The problem was what happened underneath them. Toronto put an enormous amount of money into its elite forwards and then spent years trying to build the rest of the roster around them. The experiment produced plenty of regular-season success, but it didn’t produce the championship that everybody assumed was coming.

We Now Know How the Maple Leafs Core Four Story Ended

Marner is gone. Toronto missed the playoffs last season. Matthews has two years remaining on his contract and has already acknowledged that he can’t predict what his future will look like beyond it.

That makes Montreal’s approach particularly interesting. The Canadiens aren’t necessarily getting their young stars to leave huge amounts of money on the table. They’re getting them to understand that the next dollar isn’t necessarily the most important dollar.

There’s a difference. If Demidov becomes a superstar, $9.15 million will look like a bargain. If Slafkovsky becomes the player Montreal hopes he will become, his contract will also look pretty good. But there’s another benefit. The players know what the organization is trying to build. That’s the part Toronto struggled to create. The Maple Leafs had talented players. They had good players. They had some excellent teams.

What the Maple Leafs Didn’t Have Was Roster Balance

What they didn’t have was enough inexpensive young talent arriving at exactly the right time to grow alongside the expensive stars and keep the roster balanced. Montreal is trying to do that differently. And here’s the part I find most interesting from a Toronto perspective. Maybe the lesson isn’t “don’t pay your stars.” That’s far too simplistic. Maybe the lesson is “don’t make your stars the entire plan.”

Thinking about the current Maple Leafs team, there’s Matthews, Nylander, and Knies. Paying them isn’t inherently a mistake. The mistake is assuming that three or four expensive players will somehow make the rest of the roster less important. They don’t.

In fact, they make the rest of the roster more important. Every million dollars spent on one player is a million dollars that can’t be spent somewhere else. That’s the NHL salary cap. It’s not complicated.

The Really Difficult Part for the Maple Leafs Is Knowing When to Spend

Montreal appears to have some young players who understand that equation. They’re essentially saying, “Give us enough money to be happy, but leave enough for the team to stay good.” That’s a pretty powerful message.

But there’s one more thing worth remembering. Montreal hasn’t won anything yet. The Canadiens have a terrific young core. They have made a deep playoff run. They have players who appear genuinely excited about staying together. Now they have to prove that the culture survives as the money grows, the expectations rise, and the playoff losses start to hurt. As the Maple Leafs have discovered, that’s when the real test begins.

The Maple Leafs Young Core Was Supposed to Be a Shoo-In for the Stanley Cup

Toronto’s famous young core was once celebrated in almost exactly the same way Montreal’s is being celebrated now. People were talking about Stanley Cups before the players had even learned how difficult it actually was to win one.

So I wouldn’t put Montreal on the other side of the argument just yet. But it is worth paying attention. For the first time in a long time, the Canadiens look like they are building something Toronto spent years trying to build: It’s a young core that wants to win together — and understands that the players themselves can’t be the whole salary-cap plan.

That’s the part the Maple Leafs should be watching. Not whether Montreal’s players are nicer. But whether Montreal has figured out how to make young stars, contracts, depth and winning all fit together. That’s a much harder trick. And maybe a much more important one.