xXx..CK..xXx

Again, no one said he is getting an 8 year deal so it defeats the majority of the argument.

I guess you’re right that Philadelphia could trade him later as well but it seems a little far fetched to me. I assume a lot will depend on how the rest of their playoffs turn out. On topic, they got blown out 5-1 today once again. I will still be surprised if Pacioretty gets traded because the goal of our team seems to be to be competitive next year. Trades like yours would be nice if we don’t think Pacioretty will resign at a reasonable rate but I then see it as evident that we’re obviously getting the better end of the stick on proposals such as yours. We can argue about all the emotional relationships certain fans have attributed to Pacioretty, especially since his captaincy and events around that time, but the real reason our actual brass would consider trading him is because he has an expiring contract, not because Pacioretty and losing culture are synonymous. I don’t feel as though it’s as easy as it sounds to get your type of deal done in such a circumstance because the same dilemma (expiring contract) will face the other organization. Especially during the off season where people seem to think this may get done. Teams that make sense to me for Pacioretty would be teams like Pittsburgh, Tampa, Washington, Nashville, maybe LA... Even Vegas. Not necessarily teams that need wingers it teams that know they will be competitive next year for sure.

I don’t know why a team would do a deal like that prior to next year’s deadline when Pacioretty only has one year left on his contract. If Philadelphia sucks half way through next year, it’s a terrible trade from their side.

I don’t want anyone who’s been on Buffalo anymore. The Habs do need a player who can lift a club and no one has done that on Buffalo. With that biased perspective in place, I would have taken Evander Kane in our lineup even though LW isn’t a priority right now.

It’s funny when you think about it. When talking about Alzner, Bergevin refers to how many people thought Chara was too slow a few years ago and it turns out he was just tired. His comment about Alzner is then that perhaps he was just tired this year, implying that he may not be too slow for the league. The topic later changes to our centers and one of the names that comes up is Eric Staal. Bergevin then states that it looked like he was done a few years ago. First he defends Chara and states that he wasn’t actually over the hill and that we can’t go by what people say in that respect. He also says that Alzner may have just been tired this year, sardonic or not. He then comments that Staal looked over the hill and everyone was saying the same thing. Why couldn’t Staal have been “just tired”?

Pacioretty has never been a league leader in scoring but those players have been the crop of the league for 13 years now and they still continue to lead the league in scoring along with a few younger players like Connor McDavid. In terms of scoring, I beg to differ that Pacioretty has never been at their level. He was and can be right there with Ovechkin and other elite scorers over time. That wasn’t the point though. The point was that players can remain productive relative to their potential longer than people are giving credit. The body doesn’t just say your muscles will remain youthful because you are elite. Rick Nash’s numbers started dwindling when he went to the Rangers at the age of 27, not when he became 33. Who else’s numbers went down when they were on the Rangers? Eric Staal. The Rangers seem to play a system that doesn’t allow for a high point total amongst their players, similarly to Montreal. If we’re arguing that Pacioretty won’t put up numbers because he doesn’t have the teammates, I can buy into it. If we’re saying he won’t be able to put up 25-30 goals at least because of age? That shouldn’t happen for years. I’m not sure who would want to sign Pacioretty at 8 million for 8 years but it’s also a number that’s arbitrarily being thrown out there in support of why he should be moved. I would personally sign him for 5-6 years at ~7 million and have no problem with it. See how my number is arbitrary as well? I repeat that I would accept a trade with Pacioretty involved and also repeat that I wouldn’t sign him to 8x8. But at this point cap space is one of the least of my concerns. We should be trying to find players to add to our team and compliment Pacioretty. Once that isn’t possible? Sure, like Alfredo said, it’s rebuild time at that point. Markov is 40 and Radulov is 31. Some people felt not signing at least one of them was the biggest mistake last season. If we have Radulov, do we trade Pacioretty? It’s only one person, one year later, and we have cap space to make acquisitions. Yet here we are.

How many more years does Evgeni Malkin have? How many more years does Alex Ovechkin have? Blake Wheeler? Jamie Benn? Sidney Crosby? Anze Kopitar? Eric Staal? Claude Giroux? Gosh, it feels like there’s a lot more on the border of 30 plus year olds who can produce quite well. Brad Marchand? I remember when Boston fans wanted to trade him. Older than Pacioretty. I’ve already heard how Ovechkin is done and that Eric Staal is over the hill years ago and yet here they are at 33 scoring 40 plus goals. I strongly disagree that Pacioretty only has two years left in the tank. I can certainly see how there might be a little more inconsistency in one’s game as they get older from season to season. Heck, Pacioretty already has an off year this year. But it would not surprise me to see Pacioretty have a great year in 4-5 years. Signing him to a large contract may be a mistake but let’s hear what those numbers and term are first.

I’m probably the wrong person to ask because I also would have paid Radulov more to stay in Montreal and even said that beforehand. Max Pacioretty deserves 6-7.x million wherever he ends up and the 9 million figure is one I’ve never heard. With that being said, the cap is going up and the amount of cap space should be the least of our worries after seeing what transpired this year. I would pay Pacioretty 7 million. He’s our best player. I’m not opposed to actually trading Pacioretty for a nice return. What I do see is that people come up with reason after reason that he should be traded without any of it being necessarily factual. 1) He’s regressing —> what if he’s not? 2) he won’t resign with us anyway —> he loves it here? 3) he’s not worth 9 million —> he’s signing for 6.9? 4) it’s because he’s old etc. etc. etc. If it comes down to it, trading him is fine but people have made up a lot of things about him as well, and given them as reasons he should be traded.

Joe Morrow with the first game winning goal of this year’s playoffs.

When I look at Max Pacioretty’s statistics, I see a model of consistency. He’s also a player who came back from a broken neck much earlier than anticipated, who’s nickname is Wolverine and so all joking aside, I would have to think that if any player should defy the odds of recovery and ageing, it would be him. I would firstly assume the best when it comes to him rather than assume the worst. This isn’t even based on wishful thinking in my opinion. Max Pacioretty has never been a purely speed based player in order to accumulate his points. He was/is fast North-South but it was usually to the outside of the rink anyway unless our defense were feeding him breakaways. He scores his points with his lethal shot from inside the offensive zone, and there’s no reason to assume that part of his game will regress in the next 5-6 years. Max Pacioretty is our best player and quite frankly his statistics this year show me that he didn’t have any first line players to play with, not that he’s regressing rapidly. His assist totals are an underrated part of his game and they were much lower this year as well. Max Pacioretty has performed without first line players before, having been centered by Desharnais, but they had chemistry that made Pacioretty’s numbers remain reasonable. Drouin can be a first line player but he doesn’t seem to me to be the type of player to raise the level of other first line players as well. Furthermore, he was in the process of learning a new position. As for trading Pacioretty to get younger, that’s not a good enough reason for me. Age is something similar to character and I would rather skill than age. I’t’s fun to propose acquiring a “younger prospect center” who can be a first line center, but why does any team make that trade for a player with an expiring contract prior to next year’s trade deadline? Perhaps even ever? Surely, there are other options for our team to move forward prior to dealing Pacioretty.

Trading Pacioretty for someone younger will likely change the team’s average age from 26.8 to 26.7. It’s not like we’re going to become extremely younger by trading him because Pacioretty is old. With Price’s, Weber’s and Pacioretty’s age getting up there, this is precisely why we should try to make our team better in the short term without mortgaging the future. Help them win here. I seem to be in the minority but personally that glaring 8 million in cap space is what I would first focus my attention on. Use it wisely and it can help us be a better team now. As for Pacioretty’s value, the argument seems to be that the longer we wait, the lower his value will be. We didn’t trade him this season when teams would get two playoff runs out of him and yet people who said we should trade him this year because our return will likely be better will still want him traded “whenever”. The argument is now that he should be traded ASAP because his value will be higher. Well, this was already the case before. As for Pacioretty himself, I’ve already posted trade proposals with him included, but it seems to go completely over people’s heads that he can still be a helpful piece for another 5-6 years himself. Trading Pacioretty for a core piece who is also younger can be said for Weber, Price, Pacioretty and even players like Gallagher and Byron. It’s nice to say that we should trade Pacioretty for a core piece who will help for years to come but the only certainty I see is that Pacioretty himself is a core piece who can help for years to come. Some people are proposing that he should be traded based on a timeline regardless if a beneficial trade is actually available out there. As for Pacioretty being clearly unhappy in Montreal and wanting to leave, everything I’ve heard him say points in the other direction. Of course he’s not going to come out and explicitly say he wants out, but it seemed to be apparent common knowledge that he wanted to leave (which I never believed) and now here is he a few days ago saying how he wants to be part of the solution and that he loves it here in Montreal.

Why is I so important for the team to get younger, when it’s already one of the youngest teams in the league?

The main answer I didn’t like was the Karl Alzner one. Comparing him to Chara from years past and then saying “maybe he (Alzner) was tired”. It’s a little too easy to always answer questions by saying fans and media just don’t know everything and it seemed like any opinion about Bergevin’s methods were always incorrect and had Bergevin always saying “no” to Melnyk’s opinion. The other stuff, like the attitude and character discussion is blown out of proportion in my opinion and even being lost somewhat in translation considering Bergevin is French. I don’t believe intangibles are the most important thing, but I certainly agree that some players like Drouin and Price often looked disinterested throughout the season. Some would say Pacioretty looked that way as well. It’s not the most outlandish thing to say that the attitude needs to change. The other side of the coin is that he keeps repeating that the team wasn’t ready from day 1 and were never in a position to compete for the playoffs. That’s where I believe he’s either completely blind or too manly (or not man enough) to admit that the team lacked enough skill to compete for a playoff spot. He instead says that we could have the best players in the world (which we did not) and it would not matter.

Considering players like Evander Kane, Rick Nash, JVR and James Neal are actual free agents who teams can sign for free without losing any assets, just like John Tavares, Pacioretty is not the second highest prize come July 1st.

I’m not defending our prospect pool but I still think Scherbak can be elite. I hope it’s not just youthful exuberance that he’s shown and that the grind of the NHL season doesn’t eventually wear him down.

I didn’t read or hear the comments but Julien explained early on last season that he was teaching new systems and that it would take time for these systems to become second nature to the players. I would personally speculate that “buying in” is nothing more than understanding and applying them. I don’t think it was any player purposefully deciding not to buy into a system. It’s more likely that some players took longer than expected to adjust. I personally put the blame on Julien in such a scenario, rather than anyone else. - - - As for Price checking out, it certainly did seem that way. I was very displeased with Price’s as well as Drouin’s performance this year. We can make jokes all we want about this attitude quote, but I specifically did not like Drouin’s demeanour. I agree that Price looked mentally checked out and it’s specifically part of the reason I felt as though the team needed a better backup than Montoya. Price had no one to motivate him to continuously perform at a high standard. With all that being said, this is unacceptable and it’s not an appropriate excuse to state that Price mentally checked out because the team was bad and that our GM couldn’t put together a team. Although the skill level of the team showed on paper, his performance was a substantial part of the reason why our record was not only bad, but as bad as it was. We can complain all we want, but he’s not allowed to behave that way.

I don’t think anyone feels as though Price can win us a cup on his own. The proof has been in his playoff performances. If anything, people bring up more often that the Price effect can be negated by other goalies playing over their heads in a span of 7 games. The benefit of having a goalie of Price’s caliber is that the team should be able to be competitive in any given year. There’s a difference between that reality and saying that he doesn’t need any support. He certainly needs all the support he can get, and he even needs a solid backup behind him. I also think that although we’ve lacked in offense for years on end, it was always rather easy for fans to point out that our success was only due to Price in past years. I think this season demonstrated that over the years, we’ve had some alright teams in front of him from time to time. I don’t defend management in general but I think it’s even more fair to say that Price played much below standard this year when compared to saying that management has expectations that are too high of him. Bergevin made some bad decisions last summer in my opinion, but it wasn’t because he thought Price could carry any team.

Carter also has a few years left at a decent hit whereas Pacioretty’s contract is expiring.

The title of the thread. I read it as how to have a competitive team next year.

Sign Nick Holden Sign Paul Stastny Trade Pacioretty + draft pick for Jeff Carter Before I hear how old he is, we’re basically the youngest team in the league. Sign James Neal/JVR Neal - Carter - Gallagher Galchenyuk - Stastny - Drouin Hudon - Danault - Scherbak Deslauriers - Shaw - Lehkonen Holden - Weber Alzner - Petry Mete - Reilly/Schlemko Price Niemi

Thanks for the season ??

Where can I brag about winning the SK league? It would probably go largely unseen there as well! ??? On a *side* note, when’s the deadline for picking players? I’m assuming before Round 1, but what day is that?

I thought the Habs wouldn’t have a shot at winning the cup this year but I don’t think I’ll ever be able to place such a negative prediction in this thread heading into a season, as how they actually did. I happened to be the second lowest total guessed by anyone with 95 points.

After brief analysis, I predict we finish 29th.

I think it’s true the team can be good next year. I’ve watched enough sports to know this to be true. Things change. There is a difference between thinking it can be good and stating that it definitely will be. I have never expressed the latter. I’m not even a fan of Bergevin but it’s actually those who dislike him who constantly predict that it’s impossible for him to do anything right and that the team will always suck.