xXx..CK..xXx

The reason he’s not being talked about in grandiose terms is because his name has been involved in rumors for quite some time, as well as the fact that the organization hasn’t done him any service when it comes to recent comments surrounding his future with the club. A name like Matt Duchene took a hit once he fell out of favour within his organization. I understand that I’m currently discussing a topic with people who have very little positive to say about Matt Duchene, but he ended up doing quite alright last year after having been moved, despite having taken a few jabs, and that’s when everyone got quiet about him. Despite public view, which is similar to the public view on Pacioretty, Sakic did quite well with such an under appreciated player being quite readily available to the league. Hopefully we can do the same as I’m certain there are many GMs who would appreciate Pacioretty, needless to say. While it’s certainly possible, I’m not convinced that Pacioretty was actively being shopped with great desperation at last year’s deadline. Bergevin hasn’t convinced me that he without a doubt has such a clear plan from year to year. In short, just because Pacioretty is (apparently) going to get traded “as soon as possible”, this does not mean that it was the clear cut sentiment of the organization to do the same thing at last year’s deadline. This, despite the media having said so, as well as many fans having had the expectation that he would get moved. What may very well end up happening is what happens to so many players out there, and he may just eventually get traded at the deadline due to the reality that he’s an impending free agent. If that’s the case, then people talked about him being shipped constantly, well in advance, without anything transpiring. If you ask me, that’s demonstrative of a player having generated even more buzz than your average joe around the league.

He’s under valued amongst many Habs fans as well.

For myself, there's a difference between winning and entertainment value. If a team is winning, they can still be boring to watch but at the same time it's still enjoyable due to the outcome of winning. I think perhaps about some of Jacques Martin's playoff teams as a coach of the Habs. On the other hand, there can be such a thing as a losing team who is still exciting to watch; one you're willing to root for. This is similar to how Vancouver may be viewed, based on your description. I've never been one to watch hockey solely to watch the kids of our future. The only time I personally enjoy doing so is during the NHL preseason itself. Once the season starts, I always hope that we have a team who can compete on any given night. In order to do so, a team needs veterans. Vancouver may have more excitement for the future, but I sincerely believe we have a better team than them right now. From my perspective, I think a neutral viewer who doesn't have any affiliation with either the Habs or Canucks, or a disdain for either team, would say that the Montreal Canadiens are a better team. I'm disappointed that the off season didn't go as I personally had wanted. If the Habs become even a 7th to 10th place team, I believe that even one signing of substance (outside of Plekanec) may have helped. If the Habs do end up in this range, I will also be interested to see how Kotkaniemi faired versus other potential candidates who were available with the 3rd overall pick. If we are a bubble team in the end, an NHL ready top 3 overall pick could have had a positive impact in the locker room immediately. This is not meant as an attack at Kotkaniemi as I look forward to having him on our team, whether now or in the future. At this point in time, we still have Pacioretty. If he's traded prior to the season for solely futures, I would have to believe that it will be a strong indicator of what the organization's plans are for this year, if it hasn't already become clear. At that point in time, depending on our standing in the league as well as the return, it will certainly be difficult to watch the remaining part of the season. On the other hand, if the Habs do get off to a patented hot start, unlike last year, and Price starts off the year well, I'll be looking forward to the return of Weber and once he returns, I'll be watching because of him and Price. I do also look forward to seeing Domi and will be viewing Drouin like a hawk. I found that he had even less effort than Galchenyuk seemed to have a reputation for. The last two interesting storylines are actually once again kids, in that I have high expectations for Scherbak, in general, and am interested to see if Mete gets any more offensive stats this year.

When it comes to professional coaching, an F- is synonymous with being qualified to perhaps think about rather being a recreational coach. Perhaps MB can think about GMing at the recreational level. With that being said, I still quite like my Weber Habs jersey. We won the first game I ever wore it, and as a result the jersey remains in my Avatar since I made a bet (with only myself) about it.

I’m hoping Price can rebound and have a solid year with us and wouldn’t mind seeing him stay here long term. Weber isn’t getting traded any time soon due to his injury status.

Danault was at the FIFA World Cup final game in Russia pretty much right when this news was announced yesterday so I had a feeling he wasn’t much involved in the talks. I’m indifferent on this deal as I see Danault as a third line center as well. I was happy to see he was all good after taking the shot to the head from Chara last year and in that sense it’s nice to have a player who wears the CH on his sleeve/head as much as he does. I blame him unfairly for the reality that we don’t have better centers on our team, in general. If Plekanec has this crazy resurgence which actually makes Danault our third line center behind an evolved Drouin and a resurgent Plekanec, I’m happy with what I see here. There might be one person on here who thinks that both Drouin and Plekanec can fill my request here however which leaves me at square one of my sentiment.

Not enough

Welcome to the Jedi side.

Alright, now how many teams are legitimately interested in putting in an offer for Pacioretty for that “right price”?

Trading Weber would really depend on the return. I find myself once again in a quandary when it comes to discussing Pacioretty, Weber, etc. because people are saying we should trade them without realistically proposing a deal that makes sense for both teams. Weber is not untouchable, but facilitating a rebuild would not be my priority when it comes to trading him. I would want a more than NHL ready defenseman coming back, along with prospects/picks. If that’s not available? Quit thinking about moving him.

I must admit I have respect for Lou Lamoriello so that’s a preface to my statement here but I find it somewhat amusing in a sadistic way towards the Habs that after losing Tavares, Lamoriello has gone out and taken a flyer on players like Filpulla and Kovar. Perhaps both will be a bust, but they are low cost options for a team who lacks center depth. Rather than trade Weber or Pacioretty to fill a need, those are the types of signings I would make as GM until the youngsters in Kotkaniemi and Poehling are ready to take the reigns. I really feel that we should have added a center outside of the obvious Plekanec this off season. I don’t believe Filpulla was a popular signing in New York, and I doubt that he would have been a popular signing here, but with Filpulla and Kovar, one can at least see that Lamoriello attempted to tackle the problem right away.

This would make sense if Price and Weber were legitimate anchors on the team. With Weber and Price we know what we have. If we ask for an NHL ready goaltender as part of a package in return for Price, he’d better be a goaltender worthy of being a top 10-20 overall pick in a draft. While we’ve had perceived issues when it comes to a lack of a top line center (Gomez was for a year) on our team, there are teams like Philadelphia who have had trouble when it comes to finding a goaltender who can be a backbone of their team. For all the theories about how Price’s goaltending can be matched, Michael Leighton also didn’t bring a cup back to Philadelphia. They haven’t won a thing. Steve mason, at one point was a “young, NHL ready goaltender” and I believe he’s spent some time on Philadelphia in the recent past. Trading Price doesn’t speed anything positive up, in my opinion. It comes to mind that you’ve been annoyed with how having Price on the team has helped management sell our team as capable season after season and as a result perhaps you want him gone to hide that illusion. Either way you look at it, our team would at the very least be temporarily worse after having traded Price. To some, that may be a positive thing because we would “finally see” the holes in our lineup without Price masking them, but I don’t see it as a positive. In in any case, Price had a bad season last year. If he keeps up his less than stellar play, I may begin to question if he’s worth keeping around. His next contract starts this year though and he’s almost obviously not going anywhere this season. With Weber, we hear about Bergevin’s ego but let’s keep it simple and remember that he’s currently injured. People know what he brings, of course, but it’s hard to imagine a team who is attempting to be competitive trading for him while he’s out. At least for fair value. I loathe the thought of trading Weber, and it’s not simply because of him but it’s because of the state of our defense without him. We’re talking about a youthful defenseman coming back in a package, along with other things in return for Weber and we truly believe that we don’t have any other availabilities up for trade in order to acquire a youthful defensive prospect who may be NHL ready? Let’s trade: Lehkonen Pacioretty Gallagher Byron Hudon Shaw before we trade Weber or Price As a matter of fact, let’s trade Petry Alzner Benn Lernout McCaron Drouin Domi before we trade Weber or Price. For any reason.

If you trade Weber and Price in order to fill team needs, you create holes in other areas. Holes that could (arguably) never be filled.

There are benefits of trading any player of such quality but it doesn’t mean you have to trade them. Context is everything in that one day people are saying we should keep Weber, and then the next it’s appareantly mainly Bergevin’s ego which would be the sole reason Weber wouldn’t be traded. Of course age was always a factor which was brought up about the trade, but Weber getting these specific injuries was sincerely out of Bergevin’s control. Yes, the Habs were bad last season (without Weber for most of the season) but people are forgetting how helpful Weber can be. I certainly hope we keep both Weber and Price, and would be happy if Pacioretty signed an extension with the Habs. Pacioretty makes the most sense to move, however. As for the question at hand, I think it’s clear that Bergevin has not attempted to patch things up this off season but it’s still unclear what his expectations really are. I don’t personally think he thinks that making the playoffs is actually out of the realm of possibility. The trade deadline will be when the action falls depending on our place in the standings, and Weber will be back by then.

Any season our team has done well in the recent pas, it’s been because of Carey Price. Despite consistently having weaker offense than other contending teams, we still made the playoffs. How many times did we hear that “we’d be 31st in the league if we didn’t have Price”. Our teams in those instances may have been better on paper than what we have now for next year, especially since Markov had some decent years in his 30s, but if Carey Price plays up to standard, it (winning the draft lottery) won’t happen. The leafs had iffy goaltending, as well as other holes prior to getting Matthews. I don’t know any more than anyone else what the future holds but I see us drafting 7th-12th next year.

I get it. It’s just never going to happen for us so it’s a little cumbersome to see fans hoping it will. I guess I take the expression too literally but sometimes I believe that people actually think it’s a realistic expectation; that we’ll actually end up drafting first overall. I wish losing for Hughes were so easy.

What’s up with Lose for Hughes? Your post seems sensible until the last part but if you rationally think we probably won’t make the playoffs (which I agree with) do you rationally think the Habs will actually lose for Hughes? Whether on purpose (obviously not) or not on purpose (unlikely to end up with 1st overall pick).

I haven’t voted yet. Why did you have to put “can” and not “will”?! Tough choice now. I believe they “can” but I believe they “won’t”. We’ll see what happens come the annual prediction contest because I once said “I will never predict the Habs to miss the playoffs in this competition.” But I want to win!

Almost no team goes into a season with a plan to draft 1st overall the following year. Come February and March, this may begin to happen, as a team realizes that it’s at the bottom of the pack, but remember this (REV-G’s) articulate post when the Habs don’t actually end up with a top 3 pick next year. It will just be forgotten. People keep throwing out that first overall, or top 3 number like it’s surely coming however regardless of how one views the current state of affairs, it’s so unlikely to happen. As for addressing needs, this is also overblown. While the Habs are addressing needs, other teams are acquiring players of the same position as well. Currently, we’re banking on some young players to be part of the elite of the league at a position of need but as an example, we would be banking on it even if our first pick this year was Barrett Hayton. I’m looking forward to loving Kotkaniemi but I don’t see that addressing needs just automatically makes things great. Other teams have centers as well and some of them are already well proven. Time will tell.

This is going to be one of the most frustrating seasons. 1) People are already talking about draft picks. Losing will be twisted into something positive every game it happens. In the end, if things go bad, we’ll still probably end up with the 7th overall, and the organization will draft someone only 18% of the fan base wanted. For a year we had to hear the excitement about it, however. In reality we never failed for Nail, nor did we fall for Dahl. We’ll hear Lose for Hughes and it won’t happen. Come draft day and only then, would I be happy if it did, though. 2) There are still an underrated, substantial, amount of people who still believe we can come close to making the playoffs. If this is the way it plays out, which at this moment I cannot see, there will always be questions as to why “if” we were able to come in 7th or 8th in the conference, or god forbid even higher, why wasn’t anyone outside of Plekanec acquired, or anything else? If people actually believe we have a chance, imagine what we’d be like if anyone was actually brought in to help the team without losing assets. Domi’s good, lost Galchenyuk. Armia is great. Not enough. 2b) Defense? Nothing. Everyone always said we’re solid on the right side but I feared what would happen if either Weber or even Petry went down. I do believe that we have some sort of gem in Juulsen but it is still too early. Then? There’s the left side. (Mete will be better)

Looks like the last one was against the Habs. They even have the jerseys.

Here’s to hoping Price is a lifer on the Habs ?

Just because someone is young doesn’t mean they deserve to be played out of position within the lineup. If you’re not projecting him to be a top 6 center, then there’s little reason to move him up the lineup simply because he is young. Despite the movement to youth, Plekanec is still more suited for a third line role than De La Rose. The other young players you listed who moved up in the lineup have had more upside than De La Rose. Even Danault. What you’re currently saying is similar to saying let’s play Petry on the third pair, ignore Noah Juulsen, and play Brett Lernout on the second pair because he’s young. In addition to Plekanec, Matthew Peca is higher on the depth chart than De La Rose. You said you didn’t know much about him, but he is. Teams usually construct their lineup based on depth charts and chemistry. Right now our depth chart based on all factors combined is Danault-Drouin-Plekanec-Peca-De La Rose. I think what’s being overlooked is that despite the fan’s impression of the direction of the team, the coaches and players will enter the season trying to win. While Plekanec’s offense dried up last year, there is still a slight chance it goes up this year and regardless, even 6 goals is more than we should expect from De La Rose in a given calendar year. He had 1 goal and 1 assist in 10 games during his ‘helpful’ run with Sweden. Add to that that Plekanec can still shut down opposing team’s players and he will not see 4th line minutes next year with the current forwards corps we have.

Andy Sutton Ryan Smyth Shawn Horcoff Ales Hemsky Nikolai Khabibulin (age 39/Dubnyk played most of season) or Shea Weber Brendan Gallagher Max Pacioretty Jeff Petry (Rookie on that Edmonton team) Carey Price The first 5 were the first wave of Vets during Edmonton’s transition to youth. It didn’t work for them. I think ours are fine. Who are we replacing them with?

Just realized this was probably our “big” left handed shot defenseman signing of the off season.