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tomh009

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Posts posted by tomh009

  1. 2 minutes ago, Habs Fan in Edmonton said:

    I missed them too. I need to get a hockey package next year as it sounds like Hutson might be fun to watch. A lot of the Habs games are blacked out in Edmonton, regional restrictions blah blah blah  However I was able to watch Washington and Philly. 

    Sportsnet top package has no blackouts (outside the Habs region) and you can likely get it for $200 for the season.

  2. 3 minutes ago, Prime Minister Koivu said:

    Just from highlights, Hutson is very difficult to cover because of insane edge work. 

    Teams learned to play against Caufield, to prevent or at least expect passes to him. Caufield has now learned to be more versatile, though.

     

    Learning what Hutson can do, though, doesn't necessarily help as much in playing against him.

  3. I couldn't watch last night's game so this is my first time watching him (in the NHL). It's damned impressive what he's able to do. He's quick, he has moves and he looks like his vision is superb. Watching him on PP, or taking the shot for Slafkovsky's goal was really impressive for a kid in his second NHL game--and yet Detroit knew what he could do, from yesterday's game, and had no answer.

     

    I'm feeling super optimistic about Hutson at the moment. Maybe too optimistic. But these are not just Poehling-lucky goals, this is a display of skill.

  4. 3 hours ago, hab29RETIRED said:

    The way Detroit had us hemmed in our zone in the third was ridiculous. I think they hit the post or crossbar around 8 or 9 times during the 2nd and 3rd periods. It really highlighted our weakness on D.

    (...)

    If we have an infusion of talent and a substantial upgrade  in the middle six (from our roster I think that would only be Dach, Newhook, and Roy), and the Armia-Evans-Gallagher is the the 4th line, we can make a push to be a playoff team. But that means we basically need one legit scorer for the second line, and 2/3 of the third line.

    ... weakness on D, made worse by the absence of Guhle and Xhekaj. But at least on D, I think we can expect steady improvement over the next handful of years as our prospects mature into NHL players, and then grow their skills in their first few years in the league.

     

    Forwards are more challenging. Top line (Caufield, Suzuki, Slafkovsky) looks good. Dach, Newhook and Roy could potentially be a second line, or else give us a strong 3C (if we have another top-six winger from somewhere).

     

    Bottom-six, though, we have the three you identified (Armia, Evans and Gallagher), plus Dvorak and Anderson. RHP? Heineman? Probably none of Pezzetta or Ylonen, unless as a 13th forward. I expect Beck and Mesar will need time in the AHL, as will likely any 2024 draft pick. That's not a super-encouraging bottom six, no matter how you arrange it, so we would need to hope that Hughes can trade picks and/or D prospects for some credible forward strength. Or sign Monahan to a reasonable UFA contract.

  5. 20 minutes ago, hab29RETIRED said:

    Don’t we also have to resign Guhle, or is that the following year? Slafkovsky is eligible for an extension this year as well.

    Guhle has another year. Barron and Xhekaj are the only ones that I'm 100% confident will get new contracts next season. But Pearson, White and Wideman will drop off the roster, as will Edmundson's retaind salary and Alzner's buyout. Probably Ylonen, too, although he might be traded so salary coming back from that. But from the other five, it's over $7M freed up, plus the cap goes up by $4M.

     

    Montembeault's extension kicks in, though, and that will eat a little over $2M of the $11M or so above.

  6. 2 hours ago, dlbalr said:

    What's particularly interesting is that Tuch got a one-way AHL deal.  Usually it's ATO/PTO deals at this time of year.  I assume that lets them pay him more, offsetting some of the foregone money by not signing an ELC that starts this season.

    If his ELC would have started this season, how much would he have actually received? Maybe 1/82 or 1/41 of the salary, plus the signing bonus?

  7. 20 minutes ago, The Chicoutimi Cucumber said:

    Maybe something transformative occurred this year. Anything is possible. But it would be folly to make longer-term decisions based on 6 months of aberrant performance. The plan has to be to trade him - whether now, or later, or at the deadline.

    The deadline will give Hughes another six months or so of data. And it's not like waiting will risk the Habs losing a first-rounder in trade value anyway, so my prediction is that Hughes will not trade Armia in the summer. Unless, of course, he were to acquire a better player for that role at the same time.

  8. 8 minutes ago, GHT120 said:

    No doubt they have value ... but where they fit beyond next season will, I-M-O, have more bearing on what (if anything) happens to them this summer, or at the 24/25 deadline.

    I have no argument with that. As I said, I think it depends on what deals Hughes makes in the summer and whether he thinks he has better options for those positions. I don't expect that Evans would make much more than his current $1.7M, and Armia would likely cost less than he makes today. Hughes gets paid the big bucks to figure out whether those two (and others) are worth extending, but (at least for me) it's impossible to determine the right choices without knowing what the other puzzle pieces are.

     

    The return for Evans, for example, will surely be just a late-round pick, which really doesn't have much value. And his salary is not onerous, so the big question is who will fill that role in 2025 and beyond. Maybe Beck will be ready? But that is not known yet this summer so I suspect Hughes would not move Evans until he has either another player for this role or higher confidence that Beck will be able to fill it.

  9. 4 minutes ago, GHT120 said:

    I expect HuGo to be making moves based on where they want the team to be in 25/26 or 26/27 ... not 24/25.

    Yes. But PK will be needed in in 2025-26 as well. Possibly after that, too. 🙂

     

    My point really is that players like Evans and Armia do have value beyond their point production. And that we'll need some capable PK players as well. We'll see what Hughes decides to do in this regard.

    • Upvote 1
  10. 37 minutes ago, Commandant said:

    17 goals, good defensive play.  1 year rental. Rising cap and not many FAs.  Someone might bite if they dont have to give much in assets, and struck out on the UFA market 

    Need some additional PK skill on the roster, though. We don't have much beyond Armia, Evans and Suzuki now, and the gap will get bigger yet if we trade Armia.

  11. 1 hour ago, GHT120 said:

    Three of the current roster (Pearson, White, Ylonen) likely not back next season ... Anderson and Gallagher wouldn't be if I had a magic wand ... Armia is I-M-O unlikely to be extended (despite his post New Years play) and hopefully tradeable at the 25/25 deadline ... Evans has one more season but likely will be too expensive to renew as a 4C, and not I-M-O a 3C on the playoff/Cup contender the Habs are rebuilding towards ... so the question is likely whether Tuch's skill, size and aggressiveness gives him a better bottom-6 NHL future than RHP, Pezzetta and any Rockets ... my hope is that in 2-3 years Tuch and Whekaj could be 2/3 of the 4th line.

    It's a lot of assumptions (Armia, Evans and others); so much depends on whether Hughes' assumptions match yours (or mine)--and what deals they are able to make in the summer. Getting rid of Armia, Evans, Pearson and Ylonen, for example, will make our already-weak PK far worse yet, so that would likely be contingent on signing someone that can also take on that role.

     

    Hab's PK TOI this year.

    image.png

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