Habs Fan in Edmonton

That is a perfectly reasonable, rational and logical answer. I (and perhaps others) will get excited ahead of time for you and will speculate like crazy on who the Habs will/should draft. You can put your feet up and relax. You just might be the smart one here. LOL

That's great news!!!

It's what fans (fanatics) do, we speculate and get excited about who the Habs may or may not draft then we may or may not get excited about who they actually do draft. What excitement would there be right now if we couldn't get a little excited about the upcoming draft? The Habs aren't making the playoffs so there is no cup run to get excited about.

How many stupid mistakes can you find in this article? I would be embarrassed if I wrote this. 2024 NHL Mock Draft (Update 3-25-24) (thesportsbank.net)

In his last 3 seasons with the Habs he had 10 goals in 136 games. MB made some good trades but unfortunately this was his biggest dud. It was time to move on.

Another factor with Drouin is that he is only making 825K this year. Lower expectations and pressure on a player who is making close to the minimum and that can make it easier for a player when he doesn't have the pressure of living up to a big contract. Next year will be different as Drouin will likely be expecting a decent raise after a 50+ point season and Colorado definitely won't have the funds to give him any sort of raise (ie. have to sign Middlestadt, maybe Landeskog is off LTIR, Rantanen a year from UFA status). He could be in an entirely different situation with more pressure unless he is willing to sign for the minimum again in Colorado which I doubt will happen.

Drouin was given every opportunity to succeed in Montreal. As it turned out he didn't have the mental toughness to survive in a market where the spotlight is intense. Colorado is likely the perfect spot for him, far away from the glare of the media and fans while also being able to play on a team with talented offensive players. Sometimes a change of scenery is just what a player needs as it was in this case.

That's awesome, they will stay ahead of the Habs even if the Habs win which they likely will. Now hopefully the Oilers will be real cranky going into Winnipeg on Tuesday night.

This is the one game on the road trip I expect the Habs to win, will likely rebound after a weak effort in Vancouver while Seattle is just playing out the string at this point. I predict a 5-3 Habs win.

Any chance the Sens can win 2 in a row? Highly doubtful as the Oilers should show up in a cranky mood after their lackluster effort in Toronto. I also expect a big effort from Winnipeg as they got smacked yesterday. I don't see Arizona having much luck against a much better Dallas team who is fighting for first. I expect a much better effort from the Habs tonight after a weak game in Vancouver while Seattle is not that motivated so Habs could be back to 7th from the bottom by the end of the day.

We probably do underrate Harris. He is smart, mobile and has great character. I put him in the expendable category, not because he is bad, just because I think others will leapfrog him as they have attributes that are really important for a defensemen in the NHL (ie size, physicality, offensive skill) while also being as mobile as Harris. Harris/Kovacevic could be keepers as bottom pairing defensemen. Not sure where Barron fits in, he has some good offensive skill but I think Reinbacher, Mailloux will be vastly superior on the right side and I don't see Barron being a bottom pairing defensemen.

I don't think it will be as hard either, in my opinion: Guhle, Xkekaj, Reinbacher - absolute keepers and will be Habs long term Mailloux - likely a keeper, just needs to keep working on his defense, his offensive skills are major league Hutson, Engstrom - need a chance to see them play the pro game for further evaluation Kovacevic, Barron, Harris - expendable Struble - likely a good bottom paring defensemen, brings a physical element the ones mentioned above don't Matheson, Savard - needs to keep at least 1 veteran, I think Savard is here until the trade deadline next year but if they are in contention for a playoff spot then maybe longer

That's a lot of defensemen to find ice time for. It's hard to develop them all properly as there is just so much room. I expect at least one of Harris, Barron, Kovacevic to be gone by the start of next season. If they trade one of the others it will be because they got an offer they couldn't turn down.

Yes, Jake is still looking out for the Habs.

Also good to see Winnipeg lose today, would love to see them finish 3rd in their division and then go out in the 1st round (or 2nd round at the latest) to maximize that pick. Is there any chance Ottawa can win tonight? Probably not.

The Coyotes pull their goalie, tie it up and win in overtime. That's a good night!!

Not only did Reinbacher make a great offensive move, he showed great anticipation to break up the play and create the opportunity. Impressive!!

Thanks for posting, that is an absolute beauty. Plus 1G 1A for Mailloux. The future looks bright on defense.

It's certainly worth asking. It's always tricky for a GM to decide whether to do a bridge deal to get a better idea of how good a player is or try and lock them up long term. It worked out great for Colorado signing Mackinnon to a 7 year contract after his ELC as he exploded in to one of the game's great players and was tremendous value but it doesn't always work out that way. Brad Marchand was another value contract for the team as his contract of 6.125M is great value for a guy scoring over a point a game BUT sometimes the player just wants the security of a longer term contract. It depends a lot on what the player wants. Then you have Gallagher's contract, not so great value. I have faith in Hughes in this area though as contract negotiations is something he is pretty familiar with.

I think most would say that Hughes has elite skating ability which allows him to make up for any other deficiencies he might have. Hutson's skating is not quite the same level. I think you could say the same kind of player in that their offensive game dominates. Hutson needs to get stronger and he certainly could.

I think of Hughes as being bigger, stronger and faster. Hutson has tremendous creativity and smarts. I just worry that Hutson will be easily pushed around at the NHL level.

That's great to see, especially beating Winnipeg.

Agreed, it is a question of timing. They gain some salary space this year with Edmundsen, Alzner and Pearson coming off the books (approx 5.7M) although Monty's new contract at 3.1M kicks in. However they do gain a lot of space after next year with Petry, Allen, Armia and Dvorak all coming off the books (approx 12M) plus the cap is going up so a year from now they should have the funds for a big free agent acquisition if they want to go that route. The wild card is that a lot of the young defensemen will be coming off entry level contracts and will need raises.

I wouldn't call it garbage. They just need some secondary scoring. They are headed in the right direction. I am not surprised that this game was a bit of a letdown as they put up a tremendous effort in Edmonton and were the better team in most of that game.

Good point, forgot about that.