Habs Fan in Edmonton

Tonight we get to cheer for Arizona and Seattle. Seattle is in tough against the Avalanche but they are playing well right now. If there is any chance at all for Arizona to catch Montreal then they must beat Chicago.

When I see how bad the Flyers are doing a little tear forms in my eye as I think about how bad Bobby Clarke must be taking this. Breaks my heart.

Cap space is precious. Obviously Philly didn't use the cap space they gained very wisely or they wouldn't be such a bad team. I will be very very surprised if the Habs don't beat them Thursday.

Philly has made some bad decisions. They gave Arizona a 2nd round pick in this year's draft to take Gostisbehere off their hands. So far Gostisbehere has 44 points for a bad team plus Arizona will have something like the 35th pick in a good draft year. Philly also threw in a 7th round pick. Arizona gave up nothing but some cap room. https://www.fiveforhowling.com/2021/7/26/22589805/arizona-coyotes-win-big-in-trade-for-shayne-gostisbehere

Plus Seattle has 2 games in hand again, bottom 2 is looking more and more probable. You are right, not likely but can always hope Arizona pulls off a miracle.

I can now stop cheering for New Jersey as they can no longer finish ahead of the Habs due to the tie breaker (ROW).

Great question. It's times like this when the rest of the players must realize that they need to give just that little bit extra to make up for such a big loss. It is a challenge, no question.

You can't accuse Seattle of tanking, they have been playing very well lately. Signing Matty Berniers has really helped them, he looks like a keeper. I expect they will pass Philly who is just awful right now. Now that I have said that, watch Philly take out the Leafs tonight. NOT!

I'll second that. Only 6 games left, waaay too late to go on a run.

I am sure a lot of men's beer league teams would be interested.

As long as they can put Weber on LTIR then it doesn't affect their spending room, I see that. I don't know what hoops they have to jump through to make sure he qualifies for LTIR, probably cleaner if you can get rid of the contract entirely assuming the cost to do that is not prohibitive.

You have to give those Canucks credit. They are not going away, looks like a huge win for them tonight.

That is a huge win. Finish bottom 2 and they draft anywhere from 1 to 4 plus #34 in round 2. And we get to cheer against the Flames in the playoffs.

Huge wins for Seattle and Jersey although Jersey was likely far enough away anyway. A huge loss for Vegas in an almost must win for them. How could they not come up big in that game? Didn't expect Arizona to win and they didn't.

A lot of teams regretted not taking Bossy, Montreal did take Napier at #10 which was a pretty good pick as there were some slugs taken before him. They also took Langway at 36 which was a great pick so not a bad draft for the Habs. Obviously though, Bossy was by far the best player taken from that draft.

Good point. It's also hard to have too many good defensemen. There are a lot of holes to fill.

If they draft Wright or Cooley that is probably true, depends on how the lottery balls fall BUT you had a vision so we are good. LOL

On another note I have been doing a lot of reading on the 2023 draft and it looks terrific, a lot of really good centres, I think 6 of the top 8 players listed are centres. And it's not just Michkov and Bedard but Adam Fantilli looks like a beast. I know others have mentioned that the 2023 draft looks great. Hopefully Florida wins the cup and they have a huge letdown next year.

If you look at purely stats, DD's record was 8-30-7, St. Louis is 12-15-4 I think that's a big difference, plus St. Louis lost Toffoli, Lehkonen and Chiarot through trades getting back nobody that helped him this year. I felt bad for DD because he was dealt a bad hand but the Habs have been clearly better under St. Louis.

Most certainly would not make that trade. And I agree about the first round as teams rarely if ever trade their first round pick for a combination of picks in later rounds.

After looking at the previous chart, I am not sure how accurate it is. For example the Habs have 3 x 3rd round picks. If I add up the values 177 (66, their pick) + 162 (76 Anaheim's pick) + 122 (93, Carolina's pick) it comes to 461 which is the equivalent of the 14th overall pick. I think the Habs would make that trade in a heartbeat, don't think the team with the #14 pick would.

I don't think the previous chart was readable.

I saw this posted on another site. It gives the theoretical value of each pick. I guess it helps determine the value of each pick you have in case you want to trade up or down. Of course the other team would want to have to do it. Purely theoretical but interesting.

I agree, one of my favourite players but it was one of those tough decisions that had to be made especially given the return they got. I am cheering for him in Colorado. Hopefully HuGo can work some magic on the other contracts in the summer. Gallagher will be a tough one to move.

I like your vision. How accurate have your other visions been?