sbhatt

I agree with you 100%. Ben Hutton grew up close to my hometown; I have met him a few times and watched him work in the gym. He's a good kid who works hard....the kind you take a chance on to see if you can get him back on track.

Hell no. Almost every team in the Eastern Conference is going to ice a better team to start the year. The number of teams that would have to suffer catastrophic injuries, or underperform significantly for it to happen makes it too massive a longshot to consider.

He will come back in December, and of course without a full summer in the weight room to rehab...at his age after so long a spell off, will be lucky to be at 70% by March. Only bright spot is, the team is garbage anyways, so it doesn't make much of a difference. The only effect this has is to make the trade look even more lopsided in Nashville's favour...another black mark on MB's pathetic track record.

At this point, it doesn't matter when they knew...stealing at least 50% of what you paid for tickets from the Bell Center is justified, because they are stealing from you by charging you to watch a pure garbage product. I'm pretty sure the police and the crown prosecutor won't see it that way, but if it goes to trial and I (or someone like-minded) were on the jury, you would walk!

I'm baffled by the notion that DeLaRose is better at anything than Plekanec. I have never watched DeLaRose play an NHL game that made me hopeful he might be anything more than a 4th line center.

I agree 100%. The Montreal Canadiens, partly because of such a prolonged streak of futility, have lost the 'aura' of being the most storied franchise in the NHL and whatever drawing power that should have. The thought occurred to me today when I saw that LeBron James had chosen to sign with the Los Angeles Lakers; I have no doubt that their aura as a place where the all-time greats go to win championships played a role in his decision. ESPN showed a chart featuring the top 8 career scorers in NBA history, and 6 out of the 8 had at some point played for the Lakers...pretty impressive. (for you sports trivia buffs, the Lakers on that list were Shaq, Kobe, Kareem, LeBron, Magic, and Karl Malone. The two non-Lakers were Jordan and Nowitzki)

When he actually uttered those lines: the best team on paper isn't always the team that wins a lot, we're going to play with speed and passion, goal is to make the playoffs...I wish someone had thrown a shoe at him. I had so much more respect for the Leafs management when they had their presser right after hiring Babcock, when they committed to a proper rebuild and told their fans that there would be some pain to endure for a few seasons. The complete lack of bullshit was admirable. That would be too much to expect from MB.

I was just at my gym, and the chirping from Leafs fans has started already...and there is no comeback. The fact is: the Leafs are powerhouse and the Canadiens are absolute dogshit. So depressing. Blow it completely up....Lose For Hughes is about the best thing we can hope for at this point.

TSN just reported Tavares not going back to NYI

Finally a move that makes sense. Keep trading cap for assets.

Look at the list of teams with a legit chance of tempting him: San Jose, Las Vegas, Nashville, Dallas, and Toronto are all much better teams than the Canadiens. Nashville and Las Vegas are already cup contenders, and Toronto and San Jose were both playoff teams last season. Dallas just missed the playoffs, and that seemed more of a fluke than anything else when you look at the talent on their roster. JT is going to get his money no matter where he decides to sign, so of course it comes down to the chance to win it all for him at this stage of his career over anything else...and that is why it is so obvious that he is not even going to consider coming to the tire fire of a situation that is Montreal.

Any defensive liability will be result in few call-ups, where said prospect will get 4-5min of icetime playing with incompatible stone-handed 4th linemates. Of course this will make them look terrible, ensuring their return to Laval is imminent and their development nonexistent.

Why? Haven't you heard that goals aren't important anymore? It's all about character now.

I just didn't get that "wow, this guy is going to be a star in the NHL" feel from him, which I think is something you should feel watching a guy who goes that early in the first round. I hope I'm wrong, but I feel pretty confident that when we look back on this thread in 3 or 4 years I won't be. For the record, I'm not thrilled with the 2nd round picks either. I don't trust the management of this team at all.

Yes...the U18 gold medal game.