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After a few trades (over in the trade prediction thread), here's how the Habs ice up next year: Pacioretty - Duchene - Gallagher Carr - Galchenyuk - Yakupov Danault - Plekanec - Byron Lessio - Mitchell - Flynn Markov - Subban Pateryn - Petry Emelin - Hanley Price Condon

To Habs: - Matt Duchene - 2016 3rd round pick To Avs: - Mike McCarron - Lars Eller - Nathan Beaulieu - 2016 1st round pick

I guess we can agree to disagree... one point of clarification, I was not referring to the entertainment value of Scott punching out an opposition player, but the entertainment of the story itself--although I would make an exception if we were playing Boston. In fact, I am sorry that MTL got involved in this whole sorry story at all, but not playing Scott when it doesn't matter would make Les Canadiens look worse, IMHO

My only "Yay Scott" is an FU to the NHL. - Create an All-Star Game voting where fans can vote for anyone - They vote for John Scott - Arizona trades Scott to Montreal where he's sent to St. John's, all while Bergevin acts weird about it all like he was told to take him for the good of the league - Scott, who at one point didn't want to play, changes his mind. - NHL executive tries to shame him into not playing by bringing up his daughters and telling him he'd be basically embarrassing them to go - Scott has his NHL all-star moment but still doesn't play a game in the NHL until now, even when the Habs picked up Mike Brown on waivers to punch people I'm against fighting in the NHL and would prefer it gone or at least far more penalized so I have no love for enforcers or goons. But I don't like to see a human being's life be messed around by the league just because their own decisions might make them look bad. I also don't like this club trading for him for no reason and then trying to bury the shame in the minors when the guy is getting major attention all around.

The 'feel good story' for Scott was the all-star game. While I concede that giving him a last hurrah in the NHL is a nice idea in principle, the truth is that he does not belong in the league in the first place. His entire role is to punch guys in the head. Other than that he is a speed bump. So I don't see why he deserves a 'last hurrah' in particular. Why him and not, say, Chris Higgins, an actual hockey player? Do any of us really have an emotional attachment to John Scott? And why does he deserve a 'thank you' (MT) and not some other veteran who has toiled in obscurity in the AHL without making a fraction of Scott's money or enjoying a fraction of his unwarranted fame? As for 'entertainment,' I used to enjoy fighting and enforcers, but I'm totally past it, in this era of concussions and brain-damaged fighters. These guys are liabilities on the ice - and increasingly liabilities in law. Anyway, it's not like I'm in a frothing rage about it. But John Scott has no business wearing the CH, and the fact that this is happening is a sad indictment of how wretchedly low we've sunk this year IMHO.

The top player stuff gets up my craw mostly because: - 25th overall picks rarely become superstars in the history of the NHL draft - Nobody puts the same pressure on de La Rose as they do McCarron when they were selected nine spots apart. Heck Fucale gets treated with the patience one should be treating McCarron with since he was expected to be a first round pick but because we got him in the early 2nd instead, it's all on Big Mike. - If McCarron had the skill to be a consistent top six scorer with his size he never would have dropped to the final five choices in the first round. He would have been taken in the top five and treated like the second coming of Eric Lindros (or at least a poor man's Lindros) - When McCarron does find his game he will more likely be the type of guy who has third line skill but gets played on the top PP unit because of his size and ability in front of the net, enhancing his statistics into a top six forward. He won't be expected to take the defensive shifts of a top six player, nor will he be expected to take the carry load for offence at even strength. He's going to make his mark as a PP player and bump the fourth best winger on the team out of the PP rotation. And that all is perfectly fine with me on where he was drafted and what he brings to the table. For some, they obsess over the fact he was a first round pick and it's silly when the Habs basically had three draft picks in a 15 spot space. - The biggest McCarron hater here was crazy about J.T. Compher at the draft, and openly complained about us not selecting him when we could have had him at de La Rose's spot. Compher is still not in the NHL, which is fine, because... he's only 21! Something that does not extend to McCarron apparently.

He's 21. Mike Ribeiro at the same age had two points in his first 19 games. Gotta be patient with players. I honestly do not expect McCarron to find his offensive stride into the league until he's 24, 25, when comparable guys like Ryane Clowe and Bryan Bickell found their game.

Stamkos value just headed south. Blood clots are nothing to fool with. I wanted him but now I take a pass.

Pateryn in the top 4 ( and on his off-side) Hanley in the top 6? Yikes that defense is attrocious.