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What gives you the impression that this management is afraid of Mailloux. Was it that they called him up to play the final game this season, and got almost no media backlash for doing so? Where does this narrative that HuGo is afraid of how the media will react and trade him? Is this again just making things up out of whole cloth to take shots at management?

If you can't find a trade up partner, then trade the fifth pick for a young gamebreaking forward. If you still can't find a trade partner, make the pick and take the best forward on your board (unless a defenceman is SOOOO much higher that it makes no sense to pass him up. If the two players are close, take the forward). We need elite talent, not more picks.

Exactly right. He might be better than Petry was at the same age, but many defenders were better than the 21 year old Petry. The growth that Petry took to become a top 20 level defenceman in the NHL at his peak is not normal and is not repeated by all D in his range at age 21.

I have no interest in trading down. I'm more about trading up. For most teams i'd say trade down but not the Habs. We have lots of good prospects but lack a top end forward prospect. We don't need to trade down for more good prospects, we need to find a great one.

Brian's background/analysis to that question was: Even with the cap set to rise by more than $1MM this time around, there will be teams looking to move out some salary. The benefit would be more future than current as they’d likely be compensated with a draft pick but if they’re not in a spot where they think they can push for a playoff spot – which would be a lofty goal – then they wouldn’t be concerned about that. If they don’t want to go into offseason LTIR, it might be worth them trying to dip out of it altogether. They currently have about $78.6MM in commitments, per CapFriendly, with Barron and Arber Xhekaj being the only two RFAs on the roster who could command a seven-figure contract. That would still leave them room to try to add a piece while also staying under the cap ceiling (meaning Price would be on regular IR), allowing them to bank money for in-season flexibility or to try to avoid incurring a seven-figure bonus overage for the third straight year, a move that would help them cap-wise heading into 2025-26. As usual, he is spot on ... absent any trades in the days to come, the Habs have some pending UFAs (Armia, Dvorak, Evans, Savard ... even Pezzetta) that may be in play come the deadline; having cap flexibility to retain salary (one slot left) or take-back "money" in-season will likely be very enticing ... I expect it will have to be a significant "payoff" to take on a contract and go into summer LTIR.

This is the entire point of a discussion board. To share ideas and opinions and debate those ideas and opinions. I agree with the idea that Bergevin tried to use the Canes roster/cap/financial liquidity to get a bargain. But that’s my problem. Bergevin never addressed our lack of forwards because he always looked for bargains. Hughes solved our centre problem immediately and he did so by paying the required cost. Bergevin was trying to get Aho for cheaper than what he paid for Dvorak! All of this is water under the bridge and this board has had endless discussions about Bergevin’s competency. If we want to rehash the Bergevin talk then maybe we need a new thread.

I've always believed that the offer sheet Bergevin made was the right one. He tried to expose Canes ownership's liquidity issues. They did their research and thought the risk/reward was there. They obviously did not want to part with higher draft picks. So in my view it wasn't a low ball offer. Bergevin's mistake was that he should've known he had a target on his back and protected himself accordingly. Which he didn't. And there in lied the problem.

Boston won Game 1 with carry-over energy beating rust ... and Florida won Game 2 with rest over exhaustion ... on to Game 3

The trade below was posted in the draft section. I think this trade makes a lot of sense if the guy Montreal wants at 5 isn't available and Calgary wants Buium to build their defense around. If this trade happened, I would then package the Winnipeg and Calgary picks along with either Harris/Struble and trade them to San Jose for the 14th pick. Then take the best forward available with the 14th pick and there will be a good one at 14, maybe someone who falls unexpectedly (Eiserman?) or take a Sennecke or Greentree I can see a lot in this for San Jose. They already get their stud building block forward in Celebrini plus a good young D in Harris/Struble plus 2 additional 1st round picks in a pretty good 1st round. Montreal will still be able to draft a really good forward at nine. One of Helenius/Catton/ Iginla/ Sennecke will likely still be available. I do like trading down if the player Montreal really wants isn't there. Of course depends on the return.