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Zowpeb

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Zowpeb last won the day on July 5 2019

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    Ontario, Canada, Earth, Milky Way
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    Hockey: Habs<br />Baseball: Blue Jays<br />Football: J E T S<br />Basketball: Raptors<br />Soccer: Arsenal

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  1. I think they clearly struggle with development - players we draft later, who spend more time in the minors, tend to do okay because they come in more ready for their role, the length of season, have physically matured, etc - they are also not often expected to play top 6 roles. One of Montreal's problems is the same that a lot of large market teams have - they don't have a plan for the high end talent when they are in the NHL. Those are typically younger skill guys and we never seem to have a coaching staff that will give them some leeway to learn at the NHL level. You also can't stick those kids in the AHL for 3-4 years and hope they develop skills against mediocre competition. The organization can't abide having a bad season so we get mired with barely make the playoff level rosters - filled with 2nd and 3rd liners who can grind out just enough wins. The Leafs over the past 30 years are a good example (until recently with their youth movement). I'd rather a team suck for 2 years, miss the playoffs and retool into a contender rather then be the 11th to 16th team into the playoffs for a decade...Habs ownership wants the playoff revenue and fans are blinded into thinking "anything can happen with "Price (or insert current Habs goalie name here - because legends)". Let's turn young talented player A into a checking line forward seems to have been the Hab's mantra since the 1980's... Who was the last Habs coach that actually did a good job with young talent and developed them? I'm going to say Pat Burns but that's a long way back and I may be foggy about it.
  2. PM me the details…if I can commit the time I will. If I can’t, I won’t sign up to be a ghost team…that just hurts the pool. Been, what, over a decade? Glad to see it’s still rolling…
  3. It would be funny if it wasn’t sad how many fans defend this guy. He’s been awful since before coming here…and done nothing but play politics to protect himself since.
  4. I agree with this. This is 100% on Bergevin’s head…I could care less if he wants to use an offer sheet but if you want to play in the deep end then you better know how to swim. Bergevin is, and has been, amongst the worst GM’s in the league going back to before we hired him. He lucked into last seasons playoff run and it probably saved his job. The offer sheet to Aho was too easy to match. So they gained nothing but fostering the ire of Hurricanes ownership and GM. Then Bergevin left himself open by not extending KK. They need to resign KK and figure out the cap…and sign the young guys to extensions to prevent this (if you were them, would you decide to wait for your own offer sheets now - particularly since they may be in this situation cap wise again). I fully expect Bergevin will do the opposite and let him walk and also try another offer sheet on the Hurricanes next year. I doubt he even gets our young guys extended before doing it. He’s that special kind of fool. This after the Chicago news and his lack of owning those issues and then the cluelessness with this years draft. And after the loads of evidence that he has no clue how to manage player assets. He is not a GM or a leader. He should be a scout…that’s his only skill and he’s no better then most. Just get rid of Bergevin already.
  5. There is zero chance that they would trade Gourde for the 30th pick, some fringe players let alone retain salary...LOL It seems clear that the Kraken are going after the UFA market...I expect they will push hard for Landeskog and Danault. That solidifies a top line (Landeskog, Danault, Eberle). Assuming Hall and Grubauer resign with their teams as expected...I think they'll also look to sign Coleman, Palmieri and a goalie. That "and a goalie" would be something like one of Andersen, Bernier, Mrazek. I think they'll want a veteran platoon-mate for the goalies they selected...I don't think they risk an entire season with 3 "youngish" backups who haven't really played platoon level minutes in the NHL beyond maybe Vanacek. That effectively rounds out lines 2/3 and their goaltending and still likely leaves them nearly $4M under the cap...and means that if they take Beniers/Guenther in the draft they don't need him to be a top 6 player out of the gate. I expect they'll flip a d-man they selected for a draft pick too...probably Soucy but I could even see Giordano getting flipped (just a hunch because even though Giordano was at the draft, I didn't get the sense from his moment on stage that he was happy or impressed). If Giordano they'd likely want to sign another top 4 dman...if Soucy it'll be for cap room and whatever pick they can get (I think Soucy is solid and could be a 2nd pairing guy for some teams, but he's a LD who likely gets asked to play RD, likely gets them more value in picks and clears out nearly $3M they can use elsewhere). I think the entire draft and lack of "deals" to take on salary and flip guys was to keep room for the UFA's. Not doing deals and not going after UFA's and doing a slow build will seriously tick off Giordano, Larsson, Oleksiak and Gourde...and signal to the league that they're a crap management group and not a place you want to end up.
  6. Managed to be at the game. Stuff that jumped out to me: Chiarot and Petry looked very shaky in their own end through the first two periods. The Habs D is really questionable overall. The Habs spent a lot of time fumbling around loose pucks and just struggled to make crisp passes out of their own end and into the neutral zone. The D also kept getting trapped by forechecks and they ended up cycling the puck poorly. Domi can be a real force and this team needs to get him another quality, scoring, line mate to feed. It was an exciting game but, frankly, they didn’t win it...the Leafs lost it because they played a back-up, have questionable D of their own, they came off a back to back and Kapanen is a moron. Glad they were able to capitalize and super glad to see them beat the Leafs. But lots of work ahead for the team.
  7. First off, define "near future" - to me, based on the current club, that means 3 years from now. 1) Recognize that there is nothing wrong with a couple years of losing to rebuild - there is nothing wrong with a full reset if the plan and culture is there to build off it. 2) Create a first class player development system 3) Improve on the scouting and drafting 4) Hire the management and coaching staff that have the tools to accomplish the above - the current team is not who we should trust to accomplish this - anyone who thinks otherwise is ignoring the results - be rational not emotional. 5) Trade current assets to facilitate the youth movement - trade high-cap stars for picks/prospects, then trade for guys who have 2-3 year cap "weights" in return for more picks/prospects, then use cap room to acquire assets that could become trade deadline candidates to contenders within 1-2 years - to this to get more picks/prospects. Build the pipeline as rapidly as possible and align prospect arrivals with a lot of available cap room. Use all the picks to trade up to improve on the ceiling of the picks/prospects being acquired - stop trading down to acquire more noodles to throw at the wall hoping they pan out - this isn't baseball. With luck the team gets a couple top 5 picks of their own as they rebuild AND they can use excess picks to trade up and get, ideally, a couple more top 5 picks within 2-3 years... 6) At the end of those 2-3 years, as prospects start to make the club and perform, go harder back into the FA market to acquire the 2-3 stars needed to put you over the top. Don't play for mediocrity and "making the playoffs". Winning consistently in sports is about managing diminishing returns - both managing the diminishing returns of aging stars (don't be caught sentimentally attached to high payroll players) and understanding that winning consistently means spending time/money on all facets of the organization and being rigorous on measuring/improving always and that, to be at the top of the game, it costs a lot more dollars to get only incremental improvements. 7) In 5-6 years you start "re-tooling" by trading aging stars for more picks/prospects and continue to keep the prospect pipeline full. Use that cap room to re-sign in-house "stars" and/or FA's to compliment them depending on the cap at the time. 8) You gotta be lucky along the way. But your luck improves if you do the right things, at the right times and for the right reasons.
  8. The comment on not buying UFA years is irrelevant. Signing an RFA to an offer sheet is effectively offering a younger player a UFA level of contract...you just also have to pay out some picks as a “penalty”. Frankly, if you expect to be drafting in the 20-30 range I don’t see why folks get their panties in a twist...how many 1st round picks of the Habs (or most teams) in that 20-30 range ever turn into the equivalent of an 80-90 point forward. I think it’s shocking that more teams don’t use offer sheets more often. Given the Habs inability to develop players effectively, and that they can afford it, they could use this quite well.
  9. Some may recall, but Carbonneau was considered a great defensive prospect but was also a high scoring junior prospect when he was drafted - 182 points in 72 games for the Sagueneens in 1980 and had 94 points in 77 games his last year in the AHL. Sure, the QMJHL had some pretty absurd offense numbers those days but that's still good for 23rd best all time there (Lemieux holds the record at 282 points in a single QMJHL season - lol). The Habs developed him mainly as a checking line C and never really gave him a chance to develop his offense. He's the best of his era in that role. He was also a leader on the team and, despite the role, did contribute on offense despite rarely having line-mates that could score much. He also set the club record for short handed goals in a season twice. 3 cup rings (captain for one of them), 3 Selke trophies (and he unquestionably deserved more - 83, 84, 85, 86 and 90 are the years he should've won the Selke, or at least 2-3 of those years, beyond the 3 he did win in 88, 89 and 92). Worth noting for those that don't remember, he also won the Jack Adams in 2008 as coach of the year for the Habs...wasn't right that he was fired the following season. I don't see this as marginal at all...the Habs of the late 80's through early 90's were generally strong well rounded teams that really had no "superstar" offensive players - they were well balanced teams. We're talking about an era that pumped out 100 point a year players all over the league and I think the only one they had in the 80's was Naslund in '86. Carbonneau was the lynch pin of the defensive style they played...well, beyond Roy in net...lol.
  10. I don't agree for a couple reasons: The Habs had plenty of cap room, he represents a strong upgrade even if RD isn't a significant need, there are no FA's worth signing and no trade targets that provide equivalent return without giving up a lot. The question is whether this would have represented the best use of current resources and assets to improve the club. Frankly, they could have done this and looked to move Weber out in the not too distant future (as he continues to age and his contract becomes an albatross)...and probably looked to move Subban in a couple years as he enters the final year or two of his contract. We just gained a bunch of value dealing Shaw - that was a good trade...this kind of deal would have been a very similar thing. We didn't do it so the offer sheets are intriguing tactic. I give Bergevin props on the Shaw deal, I give him credit for making a run at Aho (even if he wasn't aggressive enough - though they probably match either way). I think he should make a big offer to Marner - $12.7M a year range...using up cap room on band aids is becoming tiresome.
  11. Haven't posted in a long time...saw this trade and had to ask...I'm curious what the team looks like if Subban comes back. Only 3 years left on the contract and it doesn't look like the Habs would have much difficultly in managing it under the cap (which is sadly a testament to the lack of high end talent on the club, as well as a lack of high end young talent driving up their contracts, IMHO). Santini and Davies would've been the Habs giving up a fringe d-man and a fringe prospect...and with their additional picks next year they could probably have matched the Devils on picks. Sure, I know lots of folks love or hate Subban but my main question is, over the next 3 seasons, would having Subban make the Habs a better club without taking much away from their ability to mange the cap? I'm actually surprised that scenario really hasn't been discussed already...
  12. Given the Karlsson trade I'd say the deal looks alright. So hey, we have a better GM then Ottawa...even if it is a pretty low benchmark. For the record, as a fan, I'm appalled that Bergevin wasn't fired at the end of last season. Why they want this guy, who has turned in a terrible performance as GM (the Pacioretty deal aside), to lead a rebuild is just beyond me. They had a clear opportunity for a fresh start. It makes it clear that Molson should be turning the reigns over to someone else.
  13. I'd trade Price. His value is still high, it won't be in 4 years after the Habs allow him to be peppered night in/out. He might get hurt along the way. He might, and I'd say likely will, become vocally disenfranchised if the rebuild takes as long as I'd expect...if he demands a deal, he hurts their ability to trade him for anything of value. Get the value now to speed up the rebuild. Draft some goalies next year, and/or trade for one if needed when they're getting competitive. You don't need a superstar goalie to win the cup. Keeping him to compete years down the road is crazy... Weber won't be traded till he shows he's healthy and productive. When he is then I'd trade him too. These two mean the Habs are likely not picking top 4 in the next 1-2 drafts. They want to rebuild then get more picks and ensure 1-2 top picks to grab a true future star. They'll also then have cap room to fill spots around the young talent...and extend them. Of course it also means they need to get to get their player development systems into full gear.
  14. I was very afraid of the return when I read the headline given most of Bergevins deals...maybe it was my low expectation but this is a solid deal. Look how much Vegas traded for Tatar not too long ago...It'd also be really nice to flip him for that now. lol
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