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Machine of Loving Grace

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Posts posted by Machine of Loving Grace

  1. 2 hours ago, Meller93 said:

    To be fair this isn’t one tenth as bad as the Alzner signing haha.

     

     

    Alzner

    5 years at $4.625m

    Defensive defenceman

    Credited for his size and toughness

    Best days with a top four defenceman attached to his hip

    Signed at 28

     

    Chiarot

    3 years at $3.5m

    Defensive defenceman

    Credited for size and toughness

    Best days with a top four defenceman attached to his hip

    Signed at 28

     

    1 10th feels low.

  2. 20 minutes ago, tomh009 said:

     

    Whether Bergevin got played by the agent or not, we lost nothing on this. Bergevin actually looks stronger having actually dared to issue an offer sheet, even if nothing came of it.

     

    Aho gets a decent contract with the five-year duration he wanted. In 2024, he can choose who he wants to play for. And he didn't have to drag out the negotiations into the fall.

     

    Canes, on the other hand, end up with a shorter contract than they wanted, for more money than they wanted, with more up-front bonuses they wanted. A player that may be unhappy with the owner, especially after the owner bragged how easy it was to write a big cheque, after having refused to budge in the negotiations earlier.

     

    So who is the winner and the loser here?

     

    Aho is the winner. He got the contract he wanted.

     

    This isn't team versus team. This is a player wanting the contract he wants and forcing the GM of his current team to either agree to it or let him move on. That's the point of restricted free agency.

     

    Montreal looked good when the offer sheet was first announced and then everyone saw that Bergevin was too conservative and didn't want to give up more than a single first round pick for Aho. Once the details came out everyone was convinced Carolina would match it, except the few in Montreal media and Habs fans who thought Carolina was this struggling soon to be moved to Quebec team because their billion dollar owner lost a couple dollars on a secondary football league.

     

    Carolina looks fine. They didn't get the eight year deal they wanted but they still got Aho for five years. They are coming off of a conference final appearance. The jerks are fine.

  3. 1 hour ago, The Chicoutimi Cucumber said:

    Sounds like Aho wants to come here and Carolina is forcing him to stay. 

     

    Bergevin may have succeeded in throwing a monkey wrench into the Canes dressing room. Who knows, they may have to trade him after the year is up; but Wadell will probably refuse to trade him to us on principle.

     

    Every player signs an offer sheet knowing there's two teams they want to play for. Nobody signs an offer sheet wanting to leave.

     

    If he wanted to leave, he wouldn't sign anything. 

     

    No doubt Don Waddell got very cocky and not only admitted he expected the offer sheet to be more money, but also that he was prepared to fight him on a contract all summer. Not a good look at all. But they also have to fluff feathers because the deal was primarily designed for a big market to try to take advantage of a small market. Same thing happened when Philadelphia sent the offer sheet for Weber in Nashville.

     

    Aho might have a problem with Don now but I don't believe he had a problem one iota playing in Carolina. He just wanted the five year term. Around the league are young players no longer bending to seven and eight year deals and losing out on free agent years and now asking for four and five to become UFA's sooner. GM's hate these deals. The players know that this is why their NBA counterparts have more control. This is why Marner is fighting the Leafs. They want him for eight years. He's not budging on five. That's the real fight, and Bergevin handed Aho an easy way out of the fight at a cap hit that actually helps the Hurricanes all because Bergevin didn't want to sacrifice too much on the offer sheet.

     

    https://montrealgazette.com/sports/hockey/nhl/hockey-inside-out/hurricanes-say-canadiens-got-played-by-sebastian-ahos-agent

  4. 52 minutes ago, Neech said:

    This trade will look a lot worse if we head into the season with a big chunk of empty cap space.  

     

    Not really. 

     

    With young players demanding big money and five year deals to get out of RFA status, the league will finally move to where it should be.

     

    You pay your stars top dollar and make the middle tier players take paycuts. Instead of the past 20 years of middle players getting inflated deals in free agency while the top guys are expected to be team players and take paycuts.

     

    Shaw's health is also a ticking timebomb. Now he's back to being Chicago's problem. Good riddance. 

  5. 19 minutes ago, hab29RETIRED said:

    Leafs probably have room with the moves they’ve made now, even if we made an offer where we would give up 4 picks.

    point is a possibility and while I like him, I’m not as high on him as an on Aho and Marner.

     

    Leafs got the room due to Horton's LTIR. But the past few weeks have been ugly with the media. I wouldn't be a happy camper if I was Mitch.

  6. On 6/26/2019 at 7:18 PM, The Chicoutimi Cucumber said:

    On a side note, I'm one of those dinosaurs who thinks it's unfortunate that the Selke now routinely goes to high-scoring two-way forwards. The award was designed for Bob Gainey, the prototypical defensive specialist. Carbo was Gainey's truest successor.

     

    As a dinosaur you're forgetting Clarke, Murray, Poulin, Gilmour, Fedorov, and Francis winning it.

     

    When Carbonneau won in 88-89 he was the Habs 2nd highest point scoring centre on the best team in the league while being 4th on the team in goals. He wasn't a slouch in offence that year.

     

    I'm more impressed with the Fedorov and Datsyuk's and Kopitar's of the world who put up top scoring numbers while playing elite defence over guys who can let other players worry about scoring while they just focus on shutting players down. It's why the Subban's out there always impressed me more than shutdown defencemen.

  7. 14 minutes ago, illWill said:

    Is Aho worth 2 firsts, 1 second and 1 third round pick, AND taking up 9-10 million in cap space? Honest question. That's a heavy price to pay no matter which way you look at it. Remember the majority of us didn't want to spend that on Duchene and that is without losing the draft picks. Most of the reasoning being that we want to be able to afford our own players when their contract is up. Why is Aho so special we should sell the farm for him? This offer sheet by Bergevin is conservative in both AAV and draft pick compensation, but flexes the power of the Canadiens money. If this works it will be a brilliant move, if it doesn't, no harm done. 

     

    Is he worth it? Maybe.

     

    He's like getting Saku Koivu all over again without the early injury while not having to put the weight of the franchise on him because you got Kotkaniemi who will also be at centre. 

     

    If he really likes Montreal then the five years isn't a death pill like it might be in Carolina. Also five years is the window for getting the last juice out of Price and Weber. You don't have a lot of time to dilly dally and hope for the best. 

     

    You also have to gamble if you want something great. Carolina doesn't do it if they don't think it works in their favour. Colorado doesn't give up Barrie at a 50% discount if they don't believe Kadri solidifies their centre position with a roster of elite wingers. Gotta pay to play the game.

     

    The problem is Bergevin needed a Weber level poison pill to make Carolina sweat and instead he just made a public showing and is hoping Aho's agent does the rest of the work. If it works for him? Full credit. But it would take Carolina pulling a 180 on this.

  8. Great trade for both teams. 

     

    Leafs are back in a win now situation. Their defence is basically a collection of out of town mercenaries. They sacrificed the best centre depth in the league and now have to hope they still got some jam in the forwards for the playoffs, which they kept losing due to Kadri suspensions. They can sign everyone now due to the Horton LTIR but they better hope the lesser known guys get better and someone stands out as a 3C. Barrie is a great long term fit for them but who knows what happens next summer.

     

    Kadri going to Colorado is perfect. They have better savings on players than any other team. They now have a set 2C who will play with Landeskog and compare favourably to anyone in the Central. The Avalanche were in on Panarin so they might still be in the hunt for another winger. They could be scary. I just don't trust Grabauer. I think of them right now a lot like the 95-96 Avs before they got Roy and Keane. This is them getting their Claude Lemieux. I think the Avalanche could become the Golden State Warriors of the NHL if they can get a more reliable goaltender. 

  9. I was quite impressed with Bergevin to make an offer sheet, until I saw he got cute with it to avoid overpaying on draft picks. 

     

    Make that two firsts, a second, and a third, and Carolina is now asking themselves if those picks are a Price injury away from a Top 10 unprotected lottery pick. It's now their version of the Kessel trade, which was also almost an offer sheet. Instead it's about trying to take advantage of a small market with a new owner spending lots of money, but it's also a team that has over $2M in new ticket sales for next year. Had it been both? Carolina sweats.

     

    Now they don't. Of course Waddell is acting like an idiot about it though. He's laughing about it and the Canes Twitter account is laughing about it. Aho and his agent got to hear Waddell say he expected a bigger offer, meaning he thought he was worth more in an offer sheet. Money he wasn't giving to Aho himself. That's not good. That could mean a poisoned relationship and a distracted season next year. Carolina doesn't need that. 

     

    The way this might end up shaking out is Carolina matching, Aho unhappy, Canes season not being a happy place after the Cinderella run, and Aho getting dealt when the offer sheet trade restriction is lifted. Meanwhile the Habs could have paid more and got him now and Bergevin got too conservative to not shake the boat. And now he has to wait a week to hear no. 

  10. On 5/22/2019 at 3:25 PM, The Chicoutimi Cucumber said:

     

    How can you not "care much" whether those reprobates, those jabbernowls, those scum-sucking, filth-chewing, stench-emitting, bile-spewing, face-licking bags of festering dog pus, the mother-frigging Boston Bruins, win yet another Cup? I propose that you have your lifetime membership in Habs nation revoked!!

     

    GO BLUES GO!!!!!!!!!!!

     

     

    There's a lot to like. They are the last of the 67 expansion teams to not win a Cup (California became Cleveland then merged into Minnesota who moved to Dallas), they are not the Boston Bruins, they have the "rookie goalie leads the team to the Cup" story that used to happen once a decade but now happens more frequently (Dryden, Roy, Brodeur was a sophomore, Ward, Niemi, Murray), they were the worst team in the NHL at one point, Larry Robinson is behind the bench and would get another ring for his career, and Jaden Schwartz has scored 12 goals in 19 playoff games when he had scored 11 goals in 69 regular season games.

     

    I'm all in on the Blues. I was so worried I'd have to choose between the Bruins and Joe Thornton.

  11. I haven't watched much hockey this year (lost interest around the same time my dad did when he was my age funny enough, at least he had me around to stay partially engaged) but work was slow so I watched this game and thought I would say hi. 

     

    Is Claude Julien coaching or Michel Therrien? The young skilled guys were stapled to the bench while grinders I've never heard of were always on my screen. Who the heck is Weal? Is this guy some powerplay specialist I've never heard of? 

     

    I barely saw Kotkaniemi, which knowing Julien and rookies is no surprise.

     

    Domi sure proved me wrong. Still don't care for him as a human. He seemed to be the 2C based on the line report. Why isn't Drouin with him? Why was Drouin and Kotkaniemi playing together? That sounds like Julien creating a situation to ensure those guys don't play. You can't put a rookie centre with a heat magnet like Drouin.

     

    Mete looked good. Weber looked exactly what I expected. Price got exactly the kind of defensive coverage I expected.

     

    Habs played one period and got a lucky goal from Petry on possibly the most important game of the year. If they make the playoffs they are playing probably Tampa? Playoffs just means money for two home games in Molson's pocket it sounds like.

     

    Feels like the team finally has a future with young centres and young defencemen but I don't know how they compete in the next three years with the Bolts of the league. I wish I could be coming in eating all the crow but this is worse than the team being bottom 5 again. At least that could mean Hughes. At least the Sens won't get him. At least this isn't the Sens.

  12. On 10/11/2018 at 10:24 AM, The Chicoutimi Cucumber said:

    I hated it when you had to be a behemoth to play hockey. I'm loving the league's general direction - and frankly advanced stats seem to have done more to advance the cause and root out the dinosaurs than anything else.

     

    It's fun to pull out copies of 80s NHL and see teams flying out there with firewagon hockey. And then the fun stops when some team is basically given full permission to try and murder those players with head shots and slashes. 

     

    Friend of mine had a tape, I think from 1992 or 1993, of the Penguins absolutely running circles around teams and the best those teams could do would be to literally grab onto Jagr or Lemieux to stop them. That was all they had. Basically barehug them and hope they can't stickhandle through it. That's why I don't blame Pavel Bure at all for being a cherry picker. Cherry picking meant there wouldn't be some useless defenceman hanging off of him when he took a shot. And you still saw countless times some defenceman swinging Paul Bunyan axe bombs at him when he's ready to shoot at whatever goalie is in net.

     

    This stuff is usually forgotten. Most of analytics was just reminding people of what good hockey looks like when referees actually call what they see and penalize players properly.

  13. 1 hour ago, dlbalr said:

     

    The Habs would have to cap their offer at five years at that rate if they wanted to stay at the 1/2/3 level.  Those would all be RFA years too which would be a tough pill for the Leafs to swallow.  That's also a pricey cap hit for the Habs (or any team that wanted to offer sheet him) to take on without buying out any UFA season.

     

    Tough pill but losing him for that package would be much worse. 

     

    More likely they trade him for a blue liner.

  14. 45 minutes ago, dlbalr said:

    What's your proposed contract for him?

     

    Something around $8M would be a tough pill for them to swallow but they would match it to keep him as a 1/2/3 wouldn't be fair to them for Nylander.

     

    I would rather wait for Matthews though. I would easily offer a Max contract that expires right when he is to become a UFA. 

  15. 42 minutes ago, The Chicoutimi Cucumber said:

    Honestly, if Ottawa folds, I wouldn't cry over it...unless they move to Quebec City, of course ???

     

    They got prelim plans for a new arena in LeBreton Flats. That will solve some issues. The real issue is Melnyk. And if he keeps running the worst circus in the league, I expect him to be pushed out. The league likely knows at this point they have an ownership issue and not an Ottawa issue.

     

    Things seem ridiculous with the Sens but they are not 31st for cap hit and not the worst in the league last year for attendance. The longer Melnyk is there the worse things will get, but I think the league would rather contract the Sens and then give them an expansion not owned by Melnyk than move Ottawa to Quebec City. 

  16. 3 hours ago, dlbalr said:

    So someone in Ottawa's organization thought it would be a good idea to drop some beach balls from the rafters yesterday.  Considering they dropped the ball on the Karlsson trade, is this their theme for the season?  On the other hand, the balls could have filled some of the empty seats...

     

    When it rains it pours... beach balls.

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