huzer

In a surprise to no one, Yzerman GM of the Wings.

Man, that was an entertaining Flames/Avs game!!

I guess if we go off the previous pattern, when Julien gets canned, either Bergevin fills in on on interim basis, or they hire Gainey as coach for a few months before bringing in Carbonneau.

Vigneault hired, McLellan hired, Quenneville hired...what other coaches will get recycled this offseason? I'm guessing Therrien isn't on anyone's radar, at least.

Karlsson only had 2 primary assists last night and led the Sharks in ice time. What an injured bum. I'm a bit surprised at the debate around Karlsson, and the underlying thought that Petry is "good enough" thus the Habs don't need to improve. The fact that we're comparing Petry and Karlsson seems a bit weird to me, never mind Karlsson played 29 fewer games. That's like saying we couldn't use a Taylor Hall because Lehkonon scored as many goals. I guess if the point is not to improve the team, the Habs shouldn't show an interest in him. I don't have any realistic belief that he'd sign here, but to not aggressively pursue would be absurd.

At least the Habs can't fall any further!

I’m not talking about building your team via UFA as the Rangers used to try and do. I’m talking about supplementing your roster vis trade/UFA. Even TB roster is about half homegrown/half acquired. Last years UFA crop wasn’t the greatest after Tavares. There were a few goalies that were out there, but the Habs were pretty content after Niemi was competent as a backup. I’m not concerned that last year the Habs didn’t sign anyone. This year, as of right now, there are a few bigger fish out there than there were last year. My initial points are still valid, being do we trust this regime to develop players (in year 7, take a look at the 12-15 draft years, those picks for the most part, haven’t panned out), do we trust them to make competent trades (year 7, seems to be ok), and do we trust them with UFAs (meh). Contracts seems to be a weak point (Plex extension, Alzner, Desharnais extension). Personnel (held on to Therrien/Lefebvre way too long) also doesn’t seem like a strength either, maybe last summer will tilt that more towards the positive, but it took 6 years. I’m hopeful that the 17/18 drafts turn out better with a new development team in place. After a few years of general failure, I’m not ready to completely say the Habs have righted the ship. They’ve missed in 3 of the last 4 years. The AHL team has missed 7 of 8 years.

I'd love to be more optimistic, however there are teams that didn't exist the last time the Habs won the Cup that have either won the Cup, or been to the finals. I've been down the unicorn and rainbow path of optimism with this team before. Your last statement is what I believe causes all of the concern amongst most Habs fans. Offseasons can not be our weakness if we hope to improve. It'd be nice if the UFA market for the Habs wasn't signing reclamation projects that end up getting released before November every year.

I'm talking 19-20 vs 18-19. Corrected phrasing would be "If we make no moves this summer, objectively we will be no better next season than we were this past season". I'm not saying no moves will be made, just that until we see the results of this offseason, expecting a different result next year shouldn't be a given. I'm all for eternal optimism, but expecting progression from all players while not expecting regression from some doesn't seem realistic. I'm also usually wrong about any of my prognostications, too.

Shortsighted view: Ultimately, until we can see the moves that occur this offseason (can Bergy have 2 decent ones in a row?), objectively, we're no better than last year, which is a team that failed to make the playoffs. Suffice to say, failure to improve the D corps will lead to more of the same. Adding some offensive firepower won't hurt either, but I'm not sure if both can adequately be addressed in one offseason. As nearly every sports outlet is saying, if Bergevin doesn't utilize that cap space they've left on the table the past two years, he's doing it wrong. Explicitly counting on the development of prospects to elevate the team into elite status does not seem wise.

I voted for the third option. However, that's being more pessimistic about the development of our current prospects. Will the new staff in Laval benefit long term? I'll admit I have not followed the Rocket at all, so I don't know. I think Bergevin is "ok" on the trade front, and while he's not shy to make the big trade, his bigger successes have come from the smaller moves (I guess Patches and Chucky weren't small trades, and they both provided a positive impact). Impact UFA signings are pretty much nonexistent. So, can the Habs improve on those three things that haven't been strong points for the past 5 years is the question. Can we logically expect an impact UFA signing to provide elite talent to supplement the roster? Panarin reportedly has turned down the Habs before (2015) so while I'd love Panarin this year, I'd say it ain't happening. The other of the big three, Karlsson, Duchene? Will Bergevin throw a wad of money around at UFAs? That doesn't seem to be the Habs MO, but it sure is silly to not spend to the cap. If they don't sign a big name UFA, who would that cap space potentially go towards? Skinner, Gardiner, Eberle, etc. Trades, who's out there that may be traded (LD?, top 6) that the Habs could acquire that would not cost future assets (picks, prospects)? Prospects, 2017 appears to be a good draft class, hopefully 2018 will as well. Moving much further back, the cupboard is pretty bare. In short, I dunno, but at least the team this year was a hard working team that didn't mail in many games this year. There's the old saying "Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard." We have hard workers, now it's time to get more talent on the team.

Tkachuk did fine, Poehling is also older than KK. Every kid is different.

Great ending. Holy cow.

Hatty for the boy!

Drouin-Domi-Shaw was a great line, then Shaw got hurt. I’m not willing to throw Drouin under the bus at this time. Played C last year, back on wing this year. Sure, I hope he’s more consistent next year, but he’s still a young player. Is he the straw that stirs the drink? No. But he should be a very good complimentary player.