TurdBurglar

Arizona relocation could be announced as early as Thursday or Friday.

Until Hutson is NHL ready, I don't see the left side changing much with Matheson, Guhle and Xhekaj as primary LD. As for RD, it'll come down to who grabs which spot. I don't see Savard, Barron or Harris here much longer. Savard is slowing down as you pointed out and Barron/Harris just seems to be a 3rd pairing guy. Would much rather give ice-time to the queue of higher skill-ceiling behind them than play them for the sake of keeping them, only if those players are ready. Ideally, I would love to see Reinbacher and Guhle paired together, as I see them spending many seasons paired together. I would love to see the addition of a younger Savard-like RD acquired to slot in beside Hutson in the long run, or that's possibly what the Xhekaj RD conditioning could be about as well. I want to stay cautious about saying Xhekaj being a staple top-4D, realistically he will probably top out a bottom pair Gudas-type guy, but still holding out hopes I really do see in the next 2-3 years a tough decision being made between which 2 of Matheson, Guhle and Hutson to keep. From a management standpoint, it's a great problem to have.

Multiple sources saying Arizona is in preliminary talks to move to Salt Lake City.

That seems overly strong. With “all that’s gone down,” it was between the teams, not KK and Montreal. I may of forgotten something but I don’t believe KK spoke bad about Montreal or his departure, so I don’t see why he would be blacklisted from playing for Montreal again. Not that I think he ever will for completely different reasons.

I heard or read somewhere, and I can't remember where, that Carolina may entertain the idea of buying out KK. It would be a crazy buyout though, 6 more years @ $4.8m on his current deal. It would save Carolina $4m per season for the contract duration and cost about $850k for 6 more years after that, according to capfriendly

Evans was very noticeable in a good way.

Going to be in house for this one. If there's one last game they need to win, it's tonight. Going with an Oilers fan.

Will update as more becomes available. Montembeault to start. https://x.com/CanadiensMTL/status/1767952557601669248?s=20

Not necessarily. This plight of the PP for a few years now is only having a single threat, Weber and now Caufield. PKs neutralized the PP by dedicating a player to that threat. With another threat on the other side of the ice the PK can’t dedicate a player to stoping the left circle one-timer. If they do, they risk being flat footed on the PK, beaten down low or opening the slot. All of which create more threats, which open up Caufield again. It’s how all good PPs function. The more threats on the ice, the more open the biggest threat ultimately becomes.

I think the biggest difference is last year Caufield was on fire on the left side one-timer. This year, he's cooled off so the team has to look for other options. For development of the whole team, that's a good thing, especially if Slafkovsky becomes serviceable as a right side one-timer.

Didn't see a GDT and the game was started. Currently 3-0 Montreal, Primeau in net.

The Montreal Canadiens acquired forward Jacob Perreault from the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for forward Jan Mysak. As per TSN. Looks like a 1-for-1.

I think the only names that are in the mill in any way now, are Allen and Savard. Both of which have another year on their deal, making less need to trade by Friday and for teams really interesting, it hurts their value. The only one Hughes is actively shopping I believe is Allen or Primeau. Have read over the last couple of days Hughes is saying he's ok with carrying 3 goalies to the end of the season. That's probably posturing though.