GHT120

Hockey Operations Personnel includes Claudine Crépin (Director, Team Services and Hockey Administration) and (Susan Cryans (Executive Assistant to the EVP and General Manager) ... and Marie-Philip Poulin is a Player Development Consultant ... whether they are all "white folks with penis's" depends on how the boxes are drawn on the org-chart ... but THAT said, more needs to be done.

HOPEFULLY, that function will be filled by a veteran coach joining the organization to consult with/support MSL ... IMO there is a better chance of getting a quality veteran coach if they don't have to be subordinate to an inexperienced HC, or undertake the travel demands of full-time coaching.

Agreed ... I expect it would be more "bleeps" than words if it was caught on camera.

Therrien was never a favourite of mine ... after a .476 points-percentage season the previous season, I remember thinking at the time that Therrien was the coach Bergevin had hired to fire once he felt the team was ready to win (as GMs sometimes do) ... but then Therrien knocked off .656 (5th best in the league), .610 (tied for 9th best) and .671 (2nd best in the league) seasons with the leftovers from the Gainey/Gauthier era in the first 3 of his 4.5 year second term.

I would suggest that HuGo hiring a second coach with no NHL experience (or (allowing MSL to hire one) is them doing things quite differently ... that he is French is true but with 704 of his 937 NHL games played with Dallas I would say that calling Robidas a "former Habs defenceman" is technically true but not in the spirit of the "nepotism" that teams are normally accused of when hiring former players.

A very MSL-like choice: Robidas, 45, spent last season as head coach of the Magog Cantonniers in the Quebec U18 AAA Development Hockey League. He led the team to the Jimmy Ferrari Cup and was named a finalist for Coach of the Year. Robidas was previously named an assistant coach with the QMJHL's Sherbrooke Phoenix on June 15, 2022 prior to accepting the offer from the Canadiens. Before embarking on his coaching career, the Sherbrooke, QC native successively held the positions of Assistant Director of Player Development and Director of Player Development with the Toronto Maple Leafs between 2015 and 2021. He also joined their ECHL coaching staff for part of the season. MSL-ish also in that he worked his way to the NHL. Robidas spent 3 seasons in the AHL ... he had to pay attention to detail to manage to stay in the NHL for 14 seasons.

See new thread: Rodibas hired by MSL/Habs

One would think that a lot of NHL teams would hold back players going to NHL training camps ... if I were running a team (a scary thought) I would seriously consider using August to prep my team for the 2023 WJHCs. (i.e., using more youngsters).

LW Although he did take 54 faceoffs last season.

Think he meant at some point, not now.

I thought this was the most interesting bit: “The Liiga is a conservative league,” Bobrov said that night. “It’s a very conservative league, a very defensive league. He learned how to defend in that league. And then he showed on the world stage what he can do when he can show some offence, shall we say. We haven’t talked about it yet, but he may have learned what Liiga had to teach.”

And for THIS season I am fine with that.

Agreed ... combine that with his quickly establishing a reputation for wanting offensive players to express their talent and he is a draw ... and not necessarily only for "local players" ... it will be interesting to watch how MSL evolves as a coach this season.

Good point on Huberdeau ... but Gaudreau's two best seasons were with Tkachuk on the team ... which of the two is the chicken and which is the egg?

That is a major "as long as" ... until that is known (or they flip them for assets) it is difficult to assess the trade.

Currently, one player needs to be moved/waived to meet the 23 player limit (counting Slafkovsky) ... almost certainly a forward (they have 15 on the current CapFriendly listing) ... another forward is also likely to be moved to make room for a 7th defenceman ... but since they want/need to reduce caphit to give HuGo flexibility (i.e., room to make other deals if they arise) during the season, my perception is that those moves are needed for roster/cap reasons and not so much directly to "make room" for Juraj ... I expect they would want to make them regardless of where Slafkovsky is playing. Based on "talk" that Byron may not be able to play, Paul going on LTIR may end up being the 23-man roster solution ... but that doesn't give HuGo the desired/needed cap flexibility.

I took your phrasing as meaning that Matheson was the same unknown that Guhle, Harris, Baron and Norlinder represent ... Matheson is an established NHL defenceman ... I don't know that he can match the very best of Petry but I absolutely think he can replace the contributions of one of 21/22 Petry, or Romanov or Chiarot ... I don't factor Weber as part of the equation as he was gone all last season and only the most hopeful (IMO) expected him to ever return ... the youngsters may or may not be in the NHL full-time this coming season and so I consider them in a very different manner than Matheson in terms of filling, pending any trade, the other two "empty" spots ... and considering how poorly the defence played last season I am not certain that it will be all that worse.

I expect that ***IF*** Slafkovsky merits being the NHL HuGo will move/dump somebody, somehow to make room in the Top 9 ... exactly where will likely be fluid early in the season to find what best suits Juraj's development.

I wouldn't include Matheson with the youngsters ... IMO it is a given that Edmundson, Matheson, Savard and Wideman are (at the moment) filling four of the six slots (barring injury) ... Guhle, Harris, Baron and Norlinder will vie for the two other spots with Scheuneman as the 6/7 D depending on how the youngsters perform. The good news is that if Dadonov, Byron, Allen, Drouin and maybe even Hoffman play well enough to help take the Habs out of strong contention (IMO bottom 3-5 teams) for the first overall pick they should be VERY tradeable as the deadline approaches and their departures help drop the team closer to contention.

For the curious: Mike Johnson 2007 Bryan Smolinski 2008 Robert Lang 2009 Jay Leach 2010 Ryan O'Byrne 2010-2011 James Wisniewski 2011 Colby Armstrong 2013 Thomas Vanek 2014 Manny Malhotra 2015 Victor Bartley 2016 Christian Thomas 2016 Zach Redmond 2017 Nicolas Deslauriers 2018-2019 Cale Fleury 2020-2021 Chris Wideman 2022 Expect the choice relates to the last player to wear the number before 2007 ... Richard Zednik, who wore it from his acquisition in 2001/01 through 2005/06 ... a fellow Slovakian ... Juraj has a CHANCE to become the best player to ever wear #20 as his regular number (Beliveau wore it for one year, Pete Mahovlich IMO the best "regular").

He will be 30 entering the 23/24 season ... much will depend on how the youngsters progress this season ... if the plan next summer is for 23/24 to be a playoff year (see below) then it definitely makes sense ... it also depends on term, AAV and, the great unknown, cap status next summer ... cap status in terms of the 23/34 cap ceiling, the projected cap growth and whether Price is an ongoing burden. playoff year: by this I do not mean whether or not the team is trying for a top 10 pick in 2024 but rather whether HuGo are making roster/cap decisions based on a goal to make the 23/24 playoffs or continuing to build longer-term.

Huberdeau makes some sense ... Panthers add goal scoring and physicality but give up a QUALITY winger to do so ... the bigger price may well be Weeger ... he was 2nd (regular season) and 3rd (playoffs) in TOI for Florida defencemen last season ... that is a big hole to fill ... but they were already over the cap so they moved out enough money to sign Tkachuk. From Calgary's perspective, it will be a quality return for this coming season but overall it will depend on whether they can extend either player, or get significant assets for them in a trade ... and with the loss of both Gaudreau and Tkachuk from the top 6 is this still a "Darryl Sutter" team?"

I don't know that I would automatically assume they are worse ... Tkachuk brings a different style that may greatly benefit them. They obviously face some cap/ roster challenges ... Bobrovsky is an albatross of a contract ... unless there is a season-ending, LTIR injury somewhere on that roster, I expect they may well consider significant salary retention if they can get Sergei to waive his NMC ... not many other places they can save the, at least, $3.4M they need to become cap compliant ... Reinhart, Hörnqvist (8 team NTC), Bennett and Verhaeghe seem to be the other trade candidates.