For the 1st time in its history, the Habs have publicly admitted that they are rebuilding, through Geoff Molson himself. This is a major revelation, though by no means a surprise. However, when you look at the club's future, it was a necessary rebuild. As Arpon Basu mentioned last week, Kent Hughes won't be buying out a contract this summer for one very specific reason: to avoid penalties in 2024. <q>At the NHL combine in Buffalo last week, we talked to a number of agents, NHL management types and team sources to get a sense of what the Canadiens might be thinking as they approach this important off-season. One fundamental principle seems to be clear, and that is that the Canadiens will avoid bleeding expenses in the 2024-25 season as much as possible. - Arpon Basu</q> With the salary cap set to skyrocket and deadwood contracts set to expire, the summer of 2024 seems like the perfect time to officially say that the Habs are no longer rebuilding and it's time to become a winning team. <blockquote class=twitter-tweet><p lang=en dir=ltr>A little Canadiens offseason primer with some information gathered at the combine and elsewhere. His name is sadly missing here, but <a href=https://twitter.com/MAGodin?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>@MAGodin</a> was a huge part of the reporting process: <a href=https://t.co/vEDYbl7dPf>https://t.co/vEDYbl7dPf</a>- Arpon Basu (@ArponBasu) <a href=https://twitter.com/ArponBasu/status/1669053354079576071?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>June 14, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src=https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js charset=utf-8>