Habs Fan in Edmonton

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.

Four to six weeks? Why didn't they just say the rest of the season or do they still have hopes of making the playoffs?

That is a risk but it comes with the territory of being a GM and some defensemen will get traded (I am betting this summer) if Hughes can come up with some sort of package deal to improve the top 6 forward group.

Of course, the opinion of the BPA is going to vary from team to team, it might be the same when the pick is obvious (ie. McDavid, likely Celebrini) but it's not always obvious.

Evan's strength is in his hockey IQ/anticipation (his stick got in the way of many Oiler passes), his faceoff skills and work ethic. He did score 13 goals a couple years ago which probably had many of us thinking that his offensive game would have more to it than he has shown the last couple years but he hasn't been blessed with great linemates either. His +/- is usually among the best on the team (some think that stat is useless, I think there is some merit to it). I think at this point in his career he is what he is, a very responsible 4th line center who you like to have out there when you are protecting a lead late in the game. He will never hurt you.

Good question, I think Mailloux has the most value of that group and would get the most in a trade but he also has a lot of value to the Habs with his offensive skills. I think Engstrom is the sleeper of that group but obviously 1 or 2 of those guys will be gone at some point. Guhle, Arber and Reinbacher are likely the keepers and we need to find out if Hutson's skills are translatable to the NHL. I can see Barron being moved as I just don't think his defensive skills are good enough but his offensive skills might interest some teams.

I think Evans is the perfect 4th line centre, Beck will be the 3rd line center. We just have to figure out #2, hopefully a healthy Dach.

Arber is a keeper!! At some point the Habs will have a decision to make on what defensemen to keep and he is not going anywhere.

I think we are getting a little off topic, maybe a cold shower is in order for some of you??

Monty continues to look like a #1 goalie, the young defense is coming along, just need a 2nd line that can score and this team is pretty close to contending for a playoff spot.

Habs played a terrific game, tough penalty on Armia. I thought Evans and Armia were tremendous tonight. Oilers were fortunate to win.

A very interesting top 15, makes me wish the Habs could trade up with the Winnipeg pick and have a 2nd one in the top 15. Again it shows how all over the place the picks are after Celebrini. Demidov looks like a ridiculous talent. I think he had Silayev at 13, have seen him #2 or #3 in some mock drafts, that is quite a difference. Parekh is a wild card, such amazing offensive skills. It will be a very interesting draft.

I hope so as I like Lindstrom. Size without skill is useless but if you can get both!! You also don't need to be a monster. Suzuki is only 5' 11" but he is over 200 lbs and has excellent core strength and balance. He is hard to knock off the puck. A lower center of gravity is not a bad thing if you are strong. Certainly part of the reason Suzuki doesn't seem to get hurt much. I would take another Suzuki in a heartbeat.

I don't think a 17 year old can lead the Olympics in goals and be MVP playing on a big ice surface without having a fair bit of skill. I just think there was too much hype regarding Wright because he peaked early (declared a generational talent when he was 16). He still may be a very good NHL player but the hype was a little much. Obviously the Habs went with BPA instead of worrying about position. It's still early though.

Interesting to read the posts after they drafted Juraj. It's obviously not an exact science when you are drafting 17/18 year olds. I think they got it right.