Machine of Loving Grace

Elias Pettersson has a higher ceiling than any of our prospect Cs and Horvat is better than our Cs so Vancouver is in a better situation overall still.

You forgot Gaunce. I... did not call that one.

I could be charitable and give him an F+ for Danault's contract extension.

I can't be the only one sick of "challenge" trades as they call it in MLB.

This club always finds great goalies. Vezina is named after a Hab, go down the list from Plante to Gump to Dryden to Roy to drafting Theodore and Vokoun to drafting Price. Rare we go long without a great goalie, and have found hot goalies like Penney and Halak as well. Huet ended up better than the guy we moved him for in Garon. We always find them. So losing one like Vokoun doesn't hurt as much as it could. We usually find great defencemen too. I won't go through all the names but after losing Schneider/Desjardins we soon had Souray, then we had Markov. After Markov we had Subban and drafted McDonaugh. It hurt to lose McDonaugh in a bad trade but it's not like we didn't still have Subban. It doesn't hurt as much as it could. The Habs have had an eternal struggle when it comes to centres, only temporarily solved in 2004 and 2010, but usually this team doesn't have two top six legitimate centres and only three #1 centres in the last 25 years (Koivu, Damphousse, Turgeon) so having one, they should do everything possible to keep them and give them the best chance to succeed. If Galchenyuk ends up a first line centre elsewhere, or even just a top six centre, it's honestly worse than the Subban trade or Sergachev because we find defencemen. We struggle for centres. To blow it with a third overall pick? That just hurts more. So people better hope he Beaulieu's it in Arizona.

2013-14. Desharnais should have been moved to the wing. Galchenyuk at centre. 82 games in the role (unless hurt) in 13-14, 14-15, and 15-16. If he isn't a top six centre after that? Then we look into moving him at the wing. Instead, the team didn't commit to him down the middle *until* 15-16 for the second half of a failed season, played him 1C the first half of 16-17, he got hurt, came back playing hurt, and aside from the final game of the Rangers series, never was assigned to play centre again for the team. Why? Because Bergevin publicly said he was no longer a centre. Last year we saw Drouin fail for the most part at centre (gaining 10lbs hurt his speed which is why he looked better later in the season after likely dropping some of the weight), Danault be hurt, Plekanec be unable to play top six again, and see Paul Byron of all people play centre before Julien played him there. That's pure ego. Bergevin decided he would no longer play centre and was ready to play anyone over him in the role, including scrubs like De la Rose. Arizona was 30th in goals. You know who they scored one less goal than? Montreal. And Arizona was able to get a guy who scored 10 more goals for the guy they gave up. And Arizona immediately talked about playing Galchenyuk at centre. But hey, just a bunch of idiots in the desert who have never won anything.

The team will just buy the seats and claim a sellout like they did last year.

Level of ruin depends on how good you think Galchenyuk can be, but he did publicly decide to say that Galchenyuk will not play centre, directly interfering with Julien as a coach, and Julien proceeded to avoid playing Chuck at centre at all costs. We'll see how he looks in Arizona. If he's average at centre then who knows. If Galchenyuk prospers, it means Bergevin directly held back the most vital role the club needed filled for his own reasons.

Curious to see if Peca slides in as a C immediately in the lineup. Some think he can. Supposed to be blazing fast.

This is the most riveting discussion about seventh round picks of all time.

2013 was the last time the Habs didn't have a 7th round pick. 2016 they got Winnipeg's after trading theirs to Buffalo. 2017 they got Philly's while Winnipeg had theirs. 2018 they got their pick back from Philly and gave Philly their next years.

I'm still 100% convinced that when Mike Smith's deal is up in Calgary, they will make a massive pitch for Carey unless he has another bad season. It just makes a lot of sense. They have a very complete team but are lost in net. Parsons and McDonald look like they won't be starters. Going big on Price makes sense for them. Calgary has a ton of centre prospects and is willing to give up first rounders for what they want. Habs could take Brouwer and Frolik to make space and flip them. I just see Price wanting out and Calgary being a comfortable destination for him, and the return being enough to feel like it wasn't a salary dump.

There is a lockout coming up. Likely two free buyouts like last time. We could get out of two of those deals at no cap cost and it would turn into Weber/Price for Drai/Talbot.

Two way centre with size that continues to improve. Trading him would be like Winnipeg trading a 19 year old Mark Scheifele.

The rumour right now is Hunter becomes assistant GM in Detroit and replaces Holland when he finally leaves.

Hutton for McCarron sounds pretty logical. Benning loves his size and grit.

That was everyone's thought originally but Hunter wants to be a GM and everyone knows that Lou is in NYI to train his son to be GM.

It's fine if that happens. Look at Kadri in Toronto. Great contract, would be a #2C for any team with a #1 but now he plays 3C to Matthews and Tavares. Also Danault makes only $3M so if he does get pushed down it ain't like he is a heavy load eating up bottom six space. It's also possible that the guys we drafted at centre don't pan out for whatever reason. So we have to be aggressive in how much depth we create there and let them see who is best. If we don't have a C that plays a two way game, Julien will rely hard on Danault even if he isn't as offensively skilled as Poe or Kotka and that means top ES minutes.

The question with him is if he can be a 2C. He's an excellent even strength scorer so if he adds to that on the PP he very well could be. But three years at $3M means he knows he is in the middle six and doesn't mind.

Exactly where it should be. Good deal for him.

Opening lineup and the lineup with Shaw/Byron is... ugh it's confusing. We have too many wingers. Pacioretty, Domi, Armia, Gallagher, Hudon, Lehkonen, Scherbak, Shaw, Byron, Deslauriers... That's 10 right there. For 8 spots. Pacioretty and Byron are clearly the trade targets (I hope we see Byron and Peca together as they'd be the fastest Habs duo since Bure/Koivu) and if we move them early then maybe we could start thinking about Drouin back on the wing. Drouin - Peca - Gallagher Domi - Danault - Armia Hudon/Scherbak - Plekanec - Scherbak Deslauriers - DLR - Shaw Yeah it sucks down the middle, welcome to the Habs. At least that's a skill first line, a two way second and third line, and a grind line. Good for tanking while players still maximize effort/potential. My real headache is Hudon vs. Lehkonen.

Wasn't sure about it until I found out he's still an RFA after this deal so I'll say good.

Gimme Bernard if we're trading with NJ.

Armia avoids arbitration for a one year $1.85m deal.

No money to re-sign him with Schmaltz coming up as an RFA next summer. Looking at the league my targets would be Dallas, New Jersey, both New Yorks, Vegas, and Vancouver for long term deals and Pittsburgh, Nashville, and Washington for Patches as a rental.