Offseason Thread.. What do you want?

[TheDriveFor25]

Ok, so... was it a good season? I guess. Considering the Markov injury, it was nice to make the Playoffs. However, it sure would be nice to have a more consistent team. So, now that the offseason has begun, I wanna hear what you want and what you expect... I'll go first..

1) Trade the Kostitsyns. SK is a headache and AK is a floater. Get what we can, but hopefully it is something with size.

2) Trade one of the Goalies. WHAT? Yeah, I'm serious. Why have two great players that can never see the ice at the same time? Get some skill.

3) Name a Captain. Always liked the idea of having a leader with a C. My guess is it goes to Gorges, with Gionta and Cammy wearing the A's.

4) Upgrade Pleks. I love him. I really do. But he is not the player most of us wish he is. A line of Gionta - Gomez - Cammy works really well. But we need a whole new 2nd line.

[TheDriveFor25]

Get Marleau to replace Pleks.

[Wamsley01]

Ok, so... was it a good season? I guess. Considering the Markov injury, it was nice to make the Playoffs. However, it sure would be nice to have a more consistent team. So, now that the offseason has begun, I wanna hear what you want and what you expect... I'll go first..

1) Trade the Kostitsyns. SK is a headache and AK is a floater. Get what we can, but hopefully it is something with size.

2) Trade one of the Goalies. WHAT? Yeah, I'm serious. Why have two great players that can never see the ice at the same time? Get some skill.

3) Name a Captain. Always liked the idea of having a leader with a C. My guess is it goes to Gorges, with Gionta and Cammy wearing the A's.

4) Upgrade Pleks. I love him. I really do. But he is not the player most of us wish he is. A line of Gionta - Gomez - Cammy works really well. But we need a whole new 2nd line.

What are the solutions though? It is easy to say upgrade Pleks, but if you upgrade Pleks to say Marleau now you stick a fork in Halak. So now number 2 is not going to be a choice because you cannot add a $7M center and $4.5-5M goaltender.

Upgrading Pleks is easier said than done. It will have to be done through UFA because you need to replace him

if you allow him to walk. If you allow him to walk for nothing, then need to deal AK46+Price to acquire an upgrade

on center, is your team better off with Price/Pleks/AK46 or the new center?

[TheDriveFor25]

My solution is to let him walk, sign Marleau, and trade Price or Halak, A.Kost, S.Kost, and even try to get rid of Gill and Hamrlik. Yes, Gill was good in the playoffs, but he was too slow.

We have to get bigger. I've been saying it for years. Yes, Cammy and Gionta are amazing and can produce. But their production will increase if there is somebody to make some space for them.

I would love to see...

???? - Gomez - Gionta

Cammy - Marleau - Frolov

Pyatt - Lapierre - Pouliot

???? - Maxwell - Pacioretty

Markov - Spacek

Subban - Gorges

Emelin - Obyrne

Halak or Price

Biron

Our return for a goalie and the Kostitsyns could net a top 6 forward to play with Gomez/Gionta and a solid two way fourth liner.

[BCHabnut]

I would like to see White as a habs next year. And I really hope we can sign Moore too.

[PMAC]

Ok, so... was it a good season? I guess. Considering the Markov injury, it was nice to make the Playoffs. However, it sure would be nice to have a more consistent team. So, now that the offseason has begun, I wanna hear what you want and what you expect... I'll go first..

1) Trade the Kostitsyns. SK is a headache and AK is a floater. Get what we can, but hopefully it is something with size.

2) Trade one of the Goalies. WHAT? Yeah, I'm serious. Why have two great players that can never see the ice at the same time? Get some skill.

3) Name a Captain. Always liked the idea of having a leader with a C. My guess is it goes to Gorges, with Gionta and Cammy wearing the A's.

4) Upgrade Pleks. I love him. I really do. But he is not the player most of us wish he is. A line of Gionta - Gomez - Cammy works really well. But we need a whole new 2nd line.

1. Agreed. Even though AK may blossom elsewhere it is time for us to ditch these guys if we can get a decent player and a pick in return;

2. Nope. Not yet

3. I would be happy with Gionta, Gorges, Markov or Cammalerri wearing the C

4. I would like to see Plexs re-signed but not at anywhere near 4.5-5mi

3.5-4? we should probably keep him

5. Resign Moore. All those who called Gauthier an idiot for " wasting" a second round pick should hang their heads in Shame and wear a Philly or Leafs jersey for two days as punishment.

6. A healthy Markov

7. A contributing Max Pac

:hlogo:

[Prime Minister Koivu]

We try and sign Plex. I do think that he is best suited as a third line centre but we have no other options. Letting him walk for nothing would really hurt (we should have traded him at the deadline and used those assets to get a better centre).

Name a captain.

Wait for AK to get on a streak then trade him. SK will bolt or refuse to play.

Re-up both Halak and Price. Trade Halak is a monster offer comes our way.

Resign Moore.

Keep MaxPac in Hamilton until he is ready.

Take MAB out to the woodshed and put him down.

[Dalhabs]

Now its time to suffer the consequence (spelling?) of our very many horrible contracts. Cant see us resigning anyone at all except Price. Hopefully the benching of Price has made him focus the increased practicetime to get better so we wont miss Halak so much because can we really waste capspace on both? Halak will be able to get SOOOO much of a raise now that it wont be funny for us. Poor Gauthier will have his hands full this summer and whatever he do it will piss someone off. You have the Price-fans, the Halak-fans, the Plekanec-fans and there is no way in hell that we can keep all three.

[Chris]

Those contracts are not that bad. Gomez is clearly overpaid but the others are fair market value. Would you have rather had Kovalev at 5mill for his 30 points? Give me a break. Everyone who was brought in DID there job. It's the leftovers that didn't step up.

So players who need to be gone are:

Metro

Mara

Darche

The kosty Bros

Pleks

Hamrlik (with Markov out i doubt they move him but i hope they do)

Lapierre (although was good in a few games, if you look at his overall work he was very inconsistent)

Resigning Moore is a must. Pyatt Moore and Moen is an excellent checking line.

I think you go with Pouliot Gomez and Gionta (good during regular season, it's a sink or swim year for Pouliot) put him with good players for an entire year.

Cammi needs a new center and winger obviously with size.

The 4th line will have a a combo of possibly White, Pacioretty, Lapuerre if not moved.

They need an actual fighter and tough guy. (Shelley is out there, a player like that)

I am also a beliver in movign a goalie, i think Price will be better in the long haul nut i don't care which one they keep

Defense is set until Markov comes back (i would try to move Hamrlik)

O'Byrne Spacek

Hamrlik Subban

Gorges Gill

Carle

[Easy Ryder]

Off season.

Taylor Hall for Price, Markov, Pouliot, AK and Gorges.

[Wamsley01]

Those contracts are not that bad. Gomez is clearly overpaid but the others are fair market value. Would you have rather had Kovalev at 5mill for his 30 points? Give me a break. Everyone who was brought in DID there job. It's the leftovers that didn't step up.

So players who need to be gone are:

Metro

Mara

Darche

The kosty Bros

Pleks

Hamrlik (with Markov out i doubt they move him but i hope they do)

Lapierre (although was good in a few games, if you look at his overall work he was very inconsistent)

Resigning Moore is a must. Pyatt Moore and Moen is an excellent checking line.

I think you go with Pouliot Gomez and Gionta (good during regular season, it's a sink or swim year for Pouliot) put him with good players for an entire year.

Cammi needs a new center and winger obviously with size.

The 4th line will have a a combo of possibly White, Pacioretty, Lapuerre if not moved.

They need an actual fighter and tough guy. (Shelley is out there, a player like that)

I am also a beliver in movign a goalie, i think Price will be better in the long haul nut i don't care which one they keep

Defense is set until Markov comes back (i would try to move Hamrlik)

O'Byrne Spacek

Hamrlik Subban

Gorges Gill

Carle

After watching the last 3 years of playoff action and seeing Osgood (2), Fleury (2), Turco, Leighton, Nabokov, Niemi, Biron and Huet all lead a team to the Conference Finals, I am not so sure that elite goaltending is essential to win a Stanley Cup.

Since 2006 20 goaltenders have made the Conference Finals and outside of Miller in 2006 and Ward in 2009 I don't think you could call any of them elite, certainly none of them outside of an over the hill Hasek in 07, Giguere in 07 and 2009 Ward had any history of success at a high level.

So I am no longer stressing about the goaltending. I still think Price will be better, but I think if the Habs

create a strong enough team that Halak can win a Cup.

It is going to come down to contract. Price will be cheap and offer up the possibility of offering huge value

for low cost, I can't see the Habs ditching this project with such an affordable cap hit.

Outside of Walsh pulling a terrible PR move I expect to see them both back.

[brobin]

If we can sign Pleks at a price that we wouldn't mind him at the 3rd center (or a 2a/2b fit) then fine. If we are going to drop big bucks, then I say go for Marleau. I have usually be hesitant on Marleau, but this year he finally came around in the playoffs. Get him with Gomez and company and I think he would be great.

Dump the Kosts. Trade a goalie for a winger for the top 2 lines (probably need more then a goalie, but you know what I mean).

if we are going to trade Price, send him out west where we don't haunt us forever. Same with Halak.

On D, I hope we can dump at least one of Hammer / Spacek. Free up some money.

[huzer]

Replace Plex with Leblanc!

I'm as clueless to how this offseason will go as to how clueless I was about the regular season would go on the ice. I fully do not expect a 50% roster turnover again this season. I'm curious to see how things play out, though. If PG can find a taker for the K brothers, that would be great. I'd say none of the impending UFAs will return, with the exception of maybe Moore. Plex, if he doesn't overprice himself, but who knows.

As shown in the playoffs the Habs also need to get meaner on the back end. We don't have a single defenseman that plays with an edge. The team may have been built "from the net out" as another post mentions, but it seems the blueliners were skipped over. Despite our years of heavy D drafting. Maybe Emelin will help, if he actually does make the jump, but I'm not holding my breath. With our without Markov, I don't see our D as a strong point. I'm also not in the camp that thinks Subban will automatically be with the team for all 82 next year, either. Hopefully I'm wrong.

[nhfarber]

Id love to see us go and target someone like tomas holmstrom from detroit. We've been missing the front of the net physical presence for far too long, and this guy is the best in the biz.

[rafikz]

Marleau and Iginla

And Toews

And Dustin Buff

And Pavelski

And ...

[brobin]

Imagine if Gainey had managed to get Geroux sp? out of Philly for a goalie, or maybe a goalie plus a part... That kid looks to be a winner. Never get him now.

The cap sure makes things tough on a GM, which is why I hope they don't overpay for Pleks, or Halak. Like it or not, we already have a few contracts like Gomez that are too high, we can't afford to blow money any more. The key is going to be finding players who at least earn their salary, or better yet, deliver more.

I wonder how you dump Spacek or Hammer? Is there a team out their who just wants the leadership and experience? Even so, I suspect you would have to sweeten the pot to get the deal done. We don't have a lot of sugar left in our bowl...

[kenadian]

Get JM to look at game tape (from OTHER TEAMS) to see how an agressive/high tempo overall gameplan (agressive forecheck, pressure on their D, playing the body and playing hard/fast EVERY shift rather than skating to the puckholder and not even touching him) is hard to play against....if only it were that easy

[BTH]

If we can sign Pleks at a price that we wouldn't mind him at the 3rd center (or a 2a/2b fit) then fine. If we are going to drop big bucks, then I say go for Marleau. I have usually be hesitant on Marleau, but this year he finally came around in the playoffs. Get him with Gomez and company and I think he would be great.

Dump the Kosts. Trade a goalie for a winger for the top 2 lines (probably need more then a goalie, but you know what I mean).

if we are going to trade Price, send him out west where we don't haunt us forever. Same with Halak.

On D, I hope we can dump at least one of Hammer / Spacek. Free up some money.

But why would Pleks sign for that little after putting up first line numbers? If we're going to keep him, it'll be for something like 5 million.

I would take Marleau over Plekanec any day but it's easier said than done. Letting Plekanec walk is a huge gamble seeing as there's only one replacement on the market and several teams are likely going to be competing with us.

This is what our team would like with the swap:

Cammalleri-Marleau (6M)-Kostitsyn

Pouliot-Gomez-Gionta

Pacioretty-Moore-Moen

Pyatt-Lapierre-White

Markov-O'Byrne

Spacek-Subban

Gorges-Gill

Halak

Price

We're still short a top 6 forward since Kosty and Pouliot are both .5 of a top 6er (same for Pac, I guess). I would try to package the Kostitsyns for a slight upgrade. I'd say Frolov but he comes with baggage too.

I don't have much hope that next year's roster will be an improvement on what we have now. But with the emergence of Pouliot, Pacioretty and Subban, that could change. As usual, we're banking on improvement from young players, and as usual, we'll see mixed results.

[Wamsley01]

Imagine if Gainey had managed to get Geroux sp? out of Philly for a goalie, or maybe a goalie plus a part... That kid looks to be a winner. Never get him now.

The cap sure makes things tough on a GM, which is why I hope they don't overpay for Pleks, or Halak. Like it or not, we already have a few contracts like Gomez that are too high, we can't afford to blow money any more. The key is going to be finding players who at least earn their salary, or better yet, deliver more.

I wonder how you dump Spacek or Hammer? Is there a team out their who just wants the leadership and experience? Even so, I suspect you would have to sweeten the pot to get the deal done. We don't have a lot of sugar left in our bowl...

You can buy out Hammer for a minimal cap hit 1.375M over the next 2 seasons this summer.

That pays for all of Pleks raise right there.

[KEEP26]

i would keep Pleks for the right money....i hope we can get him for 4 mil-5 mil, on 3-5 year deal..

I like to add 2 big fowards..Ryane Clowe ,Ryan Malone type guys...if we must part with a goalie..so be it...but this is what we need more then anything..

Dump the Kosts and Hamrlik for sure..

Pyatt-Lapierre-White well be a good fouth line..but they all got to learn to drop the gloves a bit..its the third line iam a little worry about...

lines

Ryan Malone-Gomez-Gionta

Cammalleri-plexs-Ryane Clowe

Pouliot- Maxwell -Moen

Pyatt-Lapierre-White

Markov-O'Byrne

Spacek-Subban

Gorges-Yannick Weber

this is what i like to see but dont think it well happen..not sure if the money would work..

but i think we could trade a goalie for Ryan Malone..

trade gill and somthing for Ryane Clowe..sj needs to dump cash and gill give them a guy to help replace Rob Blake...

[BCHabnut]

You can buy out Hammer for a minimal cap hit 1.375M over the next 2 seasons this summer.

That pays for all of Pleks raise right there.

You can also keep Hammer and.........looks around nervously......trade Markov....

[dlbalr]

You can buy out Hammer for a minimal cap hit 1.375M over the next 2 seasons this summer.

That pays for all of Pleks raise right there.

I get a different number than that when I calculate it - $1.833 M per year for 2 years, that ~500k makes a bit of a difference. Heck, I wouldn't be overly upset if they bought him out and let Plekanec go, frees up a lot of space, opening up some trade avenues in the process.

As for what I'd like to see in the offseason, that'll be the focus of an article on HW rather than me just putting it here...no idea when that'll be though.

[Wamsley01]

I get a different number than that when I calculate it - $1.833 M per year for 2 years, that ~500k makes a bit of a difference. Heck, I wouldn't be overly upset if they bought him out and let Plekanec go, frees up a lot of space, opening up some trade avenues in the process.

As for what I'd like to see in the offseason, that'll be the focus of an article on HW rather than me just putting it here...no idea when that'll be though.

I thought it was cap hit divided by 2 to to get 2.75M, but it is 2/3rds because Hammer is above 26.

Either way, it is still close to $4M to spend elsewhere.

[Dalhabs]

If we get that much from buying out Hamrlik I'd do that in a heartbeat. Not that he is useless but he is VERY overpayed.

[Habsy]

Anyone catch that picture on RDS? It really hit's you, how the hell did we wind up with the Ottawa Sens front office? I actually wasted a few minutes of my life to listen to Gauthier and Martin speak this afternoon. I nearly fell asleep at the wheel. I hope they can handle the tough decisions that face this team.