Habs Fan in Edmonton

That's the issue with an Edmonton trade, Oilers don't have enough cap room otherwise it could be a fit. I could definitely see Pulijujarvi as a piece coming back, still think he has great potential and would be comfortable on a team with other Finns. His english is poor.

Agree, I really don't think Price is the least bit interested in going to New Jersey, if he's leaving Montreal then he would want to go to a contender and the Habs would likely have to take a contract back. It's a really complicated trade to make, I just don't see it happening but you never know.

Maybe, if they bring back Mario Tremblay as coach.

I expect MB will get a lot of phone calls. They have some excellent veterans who would give any playoff team a huge boost. They need to find a partner that really really wants to win this year to get maximum bang for the buck.

I don't think there is much doubt they will be sellers at the deadline, the big question is how long before the deadline will they make that decision.

I think Primeau is certainly the key to their long term prospects but his development would be much better with a veteran goalie to tutor him.

Good question. He has been pretty frustrated this season.

Yup, now if Kovalchuk goes on a tear he might be pretty valuable to a playoff team.

I don't think they will do anything rash. Realistically any hopes of a playoff spot are pretty much gone. They would have to go at least 15 games above 500 the rest of the year to have a chance. Not going to happen.

I am starting to get the feeling that maybe this isn't their year.

Is Lehkonen developing a scoring touch. Am I dreaming?? Please don't wake me up!!

I don't think anyone here is trying to give MB the label as busiest gm. It's always about quality of trades not quantity.

That's a lot to give up. I would only give up that much if I was convinced that the #1 pick would turn out to be a McDavid or Mackinnon. Lafreniere is good no doubt, had a great tourney. Will he be a game changer in the NHL or just an excellent top tier player. Time will tell.

Romanov makes the 1st all star team at the world juniors for the second year in a row. That's pretty impressive!

Living in Edmonton, there are bad memories of that draft. If you look at that draft (2012), there are so many that didn't make it. Not only did Edmonton take Yakupov #1 (complete bust or you could make the case for bad development), they ended up trading a #1 pick (turned out to be Barzal) and a #2 pick to the Islanders for the #4 pick in 2012 (Griffin Reinhart), another complete bust. Chiarelli made some bonehead moves but that one really turned out bad. Kovalchuk was pretty much a zero risk move, he seems really determined to do well, I was impressed with his interview. I hope he proves everyone wrong. I agree with much of your post.

I think that's a very fair post. I think the only difference between your outlook and mine is that I am trying to focus on what MB should do going forward? Who is available to help the team and what is the cost? You spend a little more time looking back. As much as I admire Gainey the hockey player and person, his trade of McDonagh and Higgins for Gomez was a head scratcher.

What mistakes. He got Armia for virtually nothing because he had cap room. You could say drafting Galchenyuk was a mistake at three but it was a crappy draft year, does anyone remember who was drafted one and two? I think it was just time for a change for Max Pac and he got a great return.

I agree, I am good with the road being travelled right now. I am not sure what fans expect MB to do at this point in time. The last thing I want him to do is to sacrifice the future to get a little better now.

He got Domi last year, he got Armia last year. I think those 2 additions definitely improved the team last year.

You don't think they were competitive last year? They were very competitive this year (except for the last 10 days). I could care less whether he calls it a reset, rebuild or retool. I just want MB to make good decisions going forward so they can compete for the cup again.

Fans can jump on and off the bandwagon pretty quickly. I think most on this board were pretty optimistic after winning 3 of 4 on their western road trip. They looked to be in pretty good shape. Then a bad 10 day stretch completed changed the narrative. Last year they had 96 points!! Most years that would get you in the playoffs. I thought they were a pretty exciting team last year but some here make it sound like they were awful. Much work to do but I honestly believe they are headed in the right direction.

For me I try and focus on what he should be doing now. We can't change what he did 3 or 4 or 5 years ago so I am not going to dwell too much on it. I like what he has done the last couple years (except for the Sergachev trade, maybe that will turn out but I am doubtful, Alzner signing was a bust). The reality is that MB is the GM, he seems to have support from Molson to take a long term approach and I hope he makes the right moves to build something sustainable. We can complain about the past but we can't change it.

I don't think anyone on the board is acting like MB is the best GM in the world, based on the success of the team he is not. I just get tired of the continual bashing where some posters constantly berate him for every failure without giving him credit for the good things he has done. I personally think that he has smartened up the last couple years and now we have a good prospect pool and good young players coming up, we didn't have that before. There is hope now, I don't think there was much hope a couple years ago, or at least I am much more hopeful about their future, can't speak for everyone else.

I hate to be this way but I think Team Tank is the way to go now. Consider me a member. A horrible 10 days losing to all the teams you need to catch. No way they catch Tampa or the Leafs and there are just too many teams to crawl over for a wild card spot. This team isn't good enough or healthy enough to get that hot. Maybe I will look back at this post a couple months from now and be embarrassed that I gave up but I doubt it.

If we were a better team he would not have started in Montreal. I agree that a year in the AHL is a good thing. Fleury spent a year there and it obviously helped him a lot.