Link67

I agree De La Rose is losing traction quickly on this team

The guy just won the jack adams, lets not put him in a group of "Meh" coaches, he is a very good coach who was made the sacrificial lamb for the season in calgary, this was by no means justified by evaluating his job. He did some amazing work developing some of their best young players, he trusted his young talent and it thrived because of it.

I do believe it, he was doing just fine when the injuries started happening, he was given big minutes for several weeks and was thriving before his own injury derailed what was a breakout season for him. I also know that we don't win a cup with a top 6 than consists of three 20 goal players. We can sacrifice a little on the defense to upgrade the offense because, 1. we have Price, and 2. because to acquire something you have to give something. Edmonton needs d-men more than forwards we need forwards more than d-men, simple equation. i'm more comfortable with Barberio playing 20+ minutes a night based on what I saw last season from him, than I am with seeing Eller, Desharnais or Byron in the damn top 6, that is really the bottom line to my entire thought process here. And I think through a trade of my needs for your needs, and cap management in mind, it is the better option.

Sergachev is the best offensive d-man in this draft, Chychrun and Juolevi are a toss up best 2 way d-men in the draft

I really find it irresponsible to accept overpaying and overstretching in Free Agency when impending doomsday contracts like Galchenyuk, Pacioretty, and Price are all on the 1 - 3 year horrizon. there is more to this than just fixing next years team, we also need to ensure we can keep its good pieces together for a long period to make a few runs at this thing. Cap management is going to be crucial, while we try to upgrade the areas that lack the MOST. I think most of us agree our top 6 lacks the most.

its a realistic proposal though, both teams are giving up something in a certain area to upgrade another which is lacking. I'd rather a trade like this than free agency because it better uses our current cap. No way we get a guy as capable as Eberle at his cap hit in the FA market this year. Eberle comes in and is an immediate talent, PP help, 55 - 65 point scorer, Nathan isn't even on our first wave of PP as long as markov and Subban are there, so the impact isn't only in helping our current top 6 woes, it also helps our PP woes. Pacioretty - Galchenyuk - Gallagher Carr/Lehkonen - Plekanec - Eberle Carr/Lehkonen - Danault - Andrighetto Lessio - Mitchell - Byron Subban - Barberio Petry - Markov Pateryn - Emelin Doesn't look so bad to me, especially when you consider that the d-man we draft is a year or 2 away from making a strong NHL push, Barberio and Pateryn proved a lot this past season, their age and ability gives me the confidence to believe this defense corps could hold it down for a year or 2 effectively, while our top 6 becomes much more potent than it was the previously

How about the team just draft the best player available at 9th, which is likely Chychrun or Sergachev. Doing so boosts our confidence in the future of our top 3 d-men to the point where we make an offer to Edmonton that looks like this Nathan Beaulieu and Lars Eller maybe a fringe prospect or a pick for Jordan Eberle Edmonton drafts another impact forward at 4th in Dubois or Tkchuck which makes them more willing to trade one of their top 6 for a top 4 d-man they so desperately need. on the other hand, we have scoffed at the thought of giving up a future top pairing d-man like Beaulieu, but adding a Chychrun or Sergachev would certainly alleviate that cringing effect would it not? I just see 2 teams with 2 needs they can fulfill for eachother, and even more so now that I see what spot they are drafting and what they will be drafting from those spots. In the end, Dubois or Tkchuck is possibly going to be better than Eberle, and Chychrun or Sergachev will likely be better than Beaulieu, the trade offers short term advancement for both clubs, cap space is evenly divided after the trade and the long term effect is also a possible upgrade over what you gave up in the first place. They get a d-man that plays on their top pair next season, we get a RW that plays in our top 6 next season.

Toronto management superior to ours? How so because the Big Boss Lou who is living off a name he built 15 years ago is at the helm? he is the next version of Sather, take a look at his body of work the last 6 or 7 years in NJ, made some crazy bold moves that were costly, tried to keep pilling up with misfits and has-beens from everywhere else to clump next to his decade worth of gems in Brodeur and Elias, He single handedly wasted the last 5 quality years of Brodeur by putting together a weird mixture of misfits From Sykora to Ryder, tons of 1 year guys that couldn't be kept because of a constant state of cap issues or because they were just done and should not have been brought in. Lou is the type of old - school GM who is done Thriving in this league because things run much more differently than they did back in his hay day. for one, most successful front offices these days run as a committee, a team of managers with specific roles that cast a large web on the daily management of a team. Lou likes the lone wolf and eye of Mordor approach, the league also works under a salary cap now for the last decade, and that directly coincides with his less fruitful years as a manager. is Lou a good manager? sure, he will likely make them a playoff team soon, might even make them a team able to go through a couple rounds, Do I think he can build a winner at this stage of his career, in this era of NHL management? No, not at all. because for every Kadri and Rielly signing, there is likely to be your Kovalchuk decisions, as well as the decisions that lead to you being unable to retain Niedermayer, and Rafalski coming from this very same man. he has also questionably fired coaches rather quickly who have since moved on to great coaching stints elsewhere. I wouldn't worry too much about Lou taking them to the promise land it has Burke written all over it, its those next generation type of GMs like Bowman, Yzerman, and yes even our very own Bergevin who are the GMs to watch for because they run their operation very similar to eachother. Surrounded by capable guys, diversifying tasks to specific people, Bergevin has certainly proven to be gun shy at this point, but he also doesn't cripple the team to the point of losing core players because of risky or very bold decisions either. He has the hockey I.Q to get better at going for something aggressively and not always watching the train roll by because the risk was not minimal, none of us were great at our jobs in the first few years, but those with the potential to be always end up being, its just a matter of time.

100% my thought, we spend on the top 6 now, if we clear cap we use it for the top 6, if we have spare cap we use it on the top 6, we need 2, or at the very least 1 significant addition to the top 6. Everything else can be status quo, and with a not so crazy year of injuries we should see a serious jump in performance.

i'd say None of the UFA's and all of the RFA's except Bournival, who may have his career compromised already by concussions, and Bennett, who has looked nothing like what they expected. Although I wouldn't be completely opposed to giving Bournival another contract to see if he can get healthy, because I certainly don't mind the player, but if you can't take a check anymore, you can't play hockey anymore.

we honestly talking about NOT going after a monster of a man who just scored 20 goals and 55 points this season to play on our second line? If Gilmour can play for us, then surely Lucic can play for us too can't he? We have enough imaginary chains on our coach selection because of language, lets not do the same with players because of where they have played or what type of menace they were to us when they were our opponents. He is exactly the kind of player our top 6 needs, size and grit with scoring, I could care less what his name is, where he played, he fits a need and he should seriously be looked at if we can get him for the right price. I'd be less scared to grab him than guys like Staal and Ladd, because if those 2 come here and don't produce to standard, they offer us nothing else, at least a guy like Lucic offers toughness and physicality and intimidation even if he isn't scoring or in a slump at some point.

Ran 3 draft simulators with our new position, and we picked.... 1st: http://postimg.org/image/nnol8zm7n/ 2nd: http://postimg.org/image/86a9wruib/ 3rd: http://postimg.org/image/69unn5gyf/ So as you can see, the possibilities are real, and they just keep getting better the more we stink up the joint

Yep, i just had this discussion with a co-worker the other day, he kept going on about how when Lundqvist went down the Rangers didn't drop that much. Had to remind him that Talbot was boasting some serious numbers only eclipsed by Hamburglar as far as back ups playing major roles was concerned. Also, last week I remember checking goalie stats on TSN website, and of the 5 pages worth of Qualified goalies to rank based on games played, Condon was 4th from the bottom of page 5 with a .904 SV%. Thats 10 goalies per page, the average NHL SV% was .916 this year, both our Goalies are well below that. Now I know it matters very little at this point, this team is plagued by more than just that, our top 6 is not solid enough and when the best goalie in the world goes down and you replace it with well below average goaltending, then you have what we saw this year. When the Rangers encountered the same problem last year, Talbot was well above average goalie stats, their top 6 is superior to ours, and as good as he may be Lundqvist is still not as big a loss as Price on any team. the results there? they stayed above water for much of the season. Praise their coach all you want, bring the pitch forks to ours, but the bottom line is and always has been the product on the ice is what makes the difference night in and night out

No one is, not one goalie right now is putting up the numbers that Price did last season in SV% and GAA, only the wins category is being matched. And considering the type of team Price had in front of him being evident this year, his numbers last year were even more remarkable now. Holtby or anyone else for that matter couldn't even attempt those numbers with this team in front of them ,let alone not being able to hit them with a team like Washington in front of him. Come on now, Price is in a league of his own, this season only cemented that further for everyone not the other way around. The man makes a non-playoff team look like a conference final team, what do you think he would do for a top 4 seed team?

you realize the likely candidates this summer will be Crawford, Boucher, and Vincent right? how much better are they?

seems like the top 6 this year might have a real shot at being 18 year old nhlers, if we can just squeeze in there somehow

like his finish and shooting ability in the 2015 - 2016 video i just watched of him, interesting

I get to see Mikhail Sergachyov when I attend Spits games here, seems really legit, will be an NHLer of quality before he is 22 I believe, we just cant afford not to draft a forward of quality though, this roster needs it so bad

I'd still take him if he is available when we pick, kid keeps getting compared to Jamie Benn, and that has be salivating already

Pacioretty - Galchenyuk - Gallagher Tkachuk - Plekanec - Okposo(UFA) McCaron - Eller - Carr Byron - Danault - Mitchell Scratches: De La Rose, Flynn Beaulieu - Subban Barberio - Petry Markov - Pateryn Scratch: Bartley Desharnais must be moved this summer for anything we can get, Andrighetto can be packaged with Emelin for something to sweeten that pot a little. We also continue on a brutal Slide these next 10 games and with a little luck get to pick 4th and nab Tkachuk. We sign Okposo to a 6mill range contract getting ourselves a big power forward type player who can consistently break the 50 point plateau and solve that need in the top 6.

I agree if they get one more tough guy in the line up it would help stabilize us in the 3rd overall pick spot this summer, I like where you are going with this.

I don't know why we are all so sad in here, the longer this keeps going the greater the chance of seeing Laine or Tkachuk in a Habs uniform next year. the season is a wash, has been for a long time now, we now have an opportunity to acquire a top 6 forward this summer because the need has shot itself so clearly to the front of our issues list, that it can't possibly not be addressed. As well as acquire one from the draft if we keep losing and slip into a top 4 pick. The likely hood of getting 1st pick is really slim, but 2nd 3rd or 4th is starting to look very good, so keep hoping for stinkers night in and night out. The worse this gets the quicker this team can spring back on its feet, imagine a summer where we draft a top 6 forward and sign/trade for one? With a healthy Price and that kind of upgrade up front there is something to look forward to next year, quick turn around here we come! but until then, I better not even see close to .500 hockey the rest of the way

agreed his likely NHL role will be a 3rd line guy with some offensive potential

lets not forget that Chicago for 70% of the season was looking like it was going to miss the playoffs, they came on strong at the end and never looked back. And people need to stop saying 'Just because one guy goes down.." Its not just one guy, its not just one guy AT ALL, its THE GUY. we are built around HIM, he is the best in the league at his position which also happens to be the most important position in the sport. It is like saying the Devils could have had the success they had if Brodeur was injured for nearly a whole season. In our last cup win, we were a middle of the pack team with the best goalie in the game at the time, we won the whole damn thing in the end, does anyone think the 93 Canadiens are a deep playoff team or even a playoff team if Roy plays 14 games that year? Jesus guys.. When you are built around a goalie, and he goes down, its catastrophic, when he makes you a great team and masks your issues and then goes down it makes you look silly. But he is part of the team, he won't miss 90% of the season all the time, we wouldn't even be talking about whether Bergevin should have done this or the other right now we would be talking about how many rounds this team goes through. The team is a work in progress, but Price puts it way ahead of the curve, and I think this season will have Bergevin focus even more closely on the offense during the off season. Perhaps a guy like Price makes you a little too passive when trying to address issues because he makes you look so close to contention, in the end we suffer through this year and we will benefit from it in the ones to come

*USING MY BEST THE ROCK IMPERSONATION* "Finalllllyy Galchenyuk has come back to Center Pacioretty and Gallagher!!!"