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LD: what will happen? What should happen? What could happen?


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From the Athletic:

 

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A source suggested to me Thursday that Bergevin has inquired with Philadelphia on left-handed D Shayne Gostisbehere. He’s not alone. After acquiring blueliners Matt Niskanen and Justin Braun over the past week, the Flyers have gotten a number of calls on Gostisbehere. GM Chuck Fletcher is telling teams he’d rather keep him but obviously will listen. Gostisbehere, 26, has four years on his contract at a modest $4.5 million cap hit. Honestly, he’d be a perfect fit with the Habs, but obviously it depends on the cost, which no doubt is high.

 

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3 hours ago, tomh009 said:

From the Athletic:

 

 

 

It'd be nice, but I still think the likeliest outcome is that Bergevin does nothing to address LD other than dumpster-diving and patch-ups.He'll just shrug and say the price is too high. Or that we have an internal answer coming (eventually) in Romanov. Or whatever. This would fit his established pattern when it comes to dealing (or rather, not dealing) with glaring roster holes. 

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Even he must know that Weber and Price is getting older and that if he wants to have a chance for a cup he better get the pieces needed while those two players are still elite.

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1 hour ago, Dalhabs said:

Even he must know that Weber and Price is getting older and that if he wants to have a chance for a cup he better get the pieces needed while those two players are still elite.

 

You'd think so. Then again, you could have said the same thing about the situation at C when Pleks was the go-to guy. Instead he twiddled his thumbs until Pleks's game cratered and we were left with zero quality C. So we'll see what happens.

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12 hours ago, The Chicoutimi Cucumber said:

 

It'd be nice, but I still think the likeliest outcome is that Bergevin does nothing to address LD other than dumpster-diving and patch-ups.He'll just shrug and say the price is too high. Or that we have an internal answer coming (eventually) in Romanov. Or whatever. This would fit his established pattern when it comes to dealing (or rather, not dealing) with glaring roster holes. 

 

You're probably right, but I think that since MB's job might actually be on the line if MTL misses the playoffs, we might see something different this time around.

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1 hour ago, lazy26 said:

 

You're probably right, but I think that since MB's job might actually be on the line if MTL misses the playoffs, we might see something different this time around.

 

But the Habs are a pretty good bet to make the playoffs. Not a lock, but a good bet.

 

Personally, I think Molson's main goal is not really to win the Cup, but to have the Habs perform respectably enough that he doesn't get egged in the street and can fully enjoy the millions that roll in. And I suspect MB's main goal is to less to win the Cup than to keep his job. Respectability is the key to that. And that's all a lot of fans want too - just look at how happy Habs fans were with a team that missed the playoffs last year. The bar is low and MB has a pretty good chance of jumping over it. Hence, there is no urgency to make a risky, bold move or two to try to vault the club into contention. Just wait around for prospects to evolve as Weber ages, ease Weber out to pasture, tell the fans the next wave is gonna be great. Rinse and repeat.

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The other argument is that the league has unprecedented parity and the playoffs are unpredictable. The CBJ approach is risky and doesn’t always pay off. 

 

A long-term contender would be my goal.

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10 hours ago, tomh009 said:

The other argument is that the league has unprecedented parity and the playoffs are unpredictable. The CBJ approach is risky and doesn’t always pay off. 

 

A long-term contender would be my goal.

 

Actually I agree on the long-term contender philosophy. What you do is build an elite team and then rely on probabilities: all things being equal, an elite team is more likely to win the Cup than a Cinderella team. It's no guarantee, but you stack the deck in your favour.

 

But I also look at Weber and Price and how the team has done absolutely nothing with them. MB says he doesn't believe in a 'window;' and I just don't understand this logic. What I see from MB is a guy whose main philosophy is 'make the playoffs and anything can happen.' That's not building a perennial contender, it's building perpetual respectability - or mediocrity - without actually winning. 

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Yeah, there is absolutely a window for each player. The window sizes vary, and some players drop off more slowly than others. But Price and especially Weber will not play at their current levels for ever. To be a cup contender, I would say that roughly you should be finishing in the top two in the division (top eight in the league) to have a decent chance at conference finals. Barely scraping into the playoffs is no more a contender than we were this past season.

 

I'm cautiously optimistic that Bergevin 2.0 has learned something. But we'll know more once the dust settles from this summer's trading and UFA season.

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From a Flyers-related article on the Athletic, they are thinking that a Gostisbehere trade is increasingly likely. The Flyers are very short on cap space, maybe $4M remaining after RFA signings and still need a backup goalie and some help on RW. They are overly heavy on LD talent and Gostisbehere is expensive to be on the third pair ($4.5M).

 

We can hope ...

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As mentioned earlier given his age and modest cap hit, Gostisbehere won't be cheap, especially if there is interest from other teams.  I have never been sold on Jake Gardiner, excellent skater but mediocre defensively in my opinion.  I would hate to see the Habs overpay for Gardiner but undoubtedly someone will.  The Habs LD will likely look a whole lot better in a couple years (assuming Mete and Romanov continue to develop) but what to do until then?  

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If a trade for Gostisbehere doesn't happen, then I'm good with 6-7m for Jake Gardiner. There is no reason to go into this season without addressing the LD, with all of the cap space and assets we have. 

 

Here's a thought, I wonder what the odds are that Karl Alzner remembers he is an NHL player and can actually contribute to the team. 

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2 hours ago, Chris said:

I may be mistaken but Romonov is a left shot D that plays the right side. 

 

In the world juniors he did anyway. 

 

You are mistaken.  He played LD in cska and at the world juniors.

 

Josh brook was a RHD who played some LHD at the WJC due to canada having more righties than lefties.  He playe rd in moose jaw (and some rw in the last 10 minutes of the third period of games that moose jaw was losing)

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1 hour ago, illWill said:

If a trade for Gostisbehere doesn't happen, then I'm good with 6-7m for Jake Gardiner. There is no reason to go into this season without addressing the LD, with all of the cap space and assets we have. 

 

Here's a thought, I wonder what the odds are that Karl Alzner remembers he is an NHL player and can actually contribute to the team. 

 

Alzner.  0

 

The game has passed him by.

 

Which was the fear from the day he signed.

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5 hours ago, illWill said:

If a trade for Gostisbehere doesn't happen, then I'm good with 6-7m for Jake Gardiner. There is no reason to go into this season without addressing the LD, with all of the cap space and assets we have. 

 

Here's a thought, I wonder what the odds are that Karl Alzner remembers he is an NHL player and can actually contribute to the team. 

 

 

Its not necessarily that he can't possibly find some confidence to be an NHL 6th/7th Dman at some point, somewhere, but the odds are heavily stacked against him and his play style. Worse though, is he has no chance at all of bumping Mete, Kulak, and Folin out of the line up, so other than some catastrophic LD injuries here, it is mission impossible.

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1 hour ago, Neech said:

I'm becoming skeptical that we'll address our gaping hole at LD; more likely we'll overpay for some second-liner in the UFA market.

 

Welcome to the nether regions of the soul...

 

I'm not even sure he'll overpay on a second-tier solution. I think patch-ups like Ben Hutton are the likeliest outcome.

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Hutton (or Honka) and Leskinen are good additions, but I don't think they'll really be able to make a big impact in the effectiveness of our D corps. At least not in this coming season.

 

I'm still hoping for Gostisbehere or Gardiner, but it's been awfully quiet in the Habs' press department for the last month ... not even any RFA signings announced.

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