xXx..CK..xXx

I really liked him but most of my favorite moments of his were against the Bruins when Lucic was on the team. Now they're both out west. This has been a rough off season for our back end. The good news is that now that it seems as though we have to pick up a defenseman, we have the opportunity to upgrade our defense from what it was. The player we acquire is going to have to be someone better than Beaulieu or Emelin though. Those were both of our test runs on the top pairing prior to Markov being placed there so I'd like a solution. My personal opinion is that we now need a top 6 center but a top 2 left shooting defenseman. If we get that top 2, (easier said than done) our defense is fine.

I'm alright with losing either of them even though I like both of them but we better be putting that cap space to good use. We're a worse team as soon as we lose either of those players regardless of the cap implications. I actually think losing Plekanec will/would have a bigger impact than people realize and possibly more than losing Emelin. Hopefully I'm wrong since he wasn't good last season but does Danault now become our shutdown center?

He's all serious now.

I see the argument from people but I wouldn't be able to get behind trading Price either. I can't think of a return I'd be happy with outside of Crosby and I'd probably react worse than people did after the Subban trade. I understand the cap and all that but it's still not enough of a reason for me personally. I really hope he's a lifelong Hab as I don't think our chances go up after losing him. Can we win without him? No doubt about it but who knows how long that route would take as well. I truly believe that losing Galchenyuk would be the most "recoverable" of the 3 losses other than the fact that he's the youngest. Let's just keep all three however and either sign Jumbo Joe or trade for Eric Staal without losing Galchenyuk or Pacioretty.

I think when all is said and done, Eric Staal might be the biggest upgrade on Galchenyuk (if we think of him as a center) out of players who actually might be available out there. Eric Staal on the first line and Galchenyuk on the second line would be fine with me. Galchenyuk had a similar points per game average as Mikko Koivu, Claude Giroux, Evgney Kuznetzov, Jason Spezza, Logan Couture, Kyle Turrris etc. out of players who are listed as centers. Would those be centers who people would consider a top line center on our team? He also has a much better point per game average than players like Derek Stepan and Patrice Bergeron. Galchenyuk can be a top line center but it's true that he's basically a borderline 1st line/2nd line center as he was actually 30th in the league point scoring per game average amongst listed centers. I want another top 6 center as well simply because Plekanec regressed/may not be here but he doesn't necessarily have to be top 3. As for our defense, I was upset with losing Sergachev and Beaulieu but our defense can still get by. In my opinion we need a little bit more speed and youth back there but Markov's ageing process has been comparatively slow and while I want it to be better I actually think a top 4 of Markov,Weber,Emelin and Petry is serviceable. Perhaps Jerabek is better than I realize as well. This begs the question, which one is a bigger need between a top 6 center and a top 4 defender? Longterm we do need both but if the season were to start tomorrow, I would still go with the center as well. Especially if Plekanec is gone, despite his regression.

I don't love it either and have stated so but I do think Drouin has the potential to be a top 10-20 scorer in the league. You heard it here first. If that does actualize, the trade isn't too shabby. It's going to have to happen though because I also personally have relatively high expectations for Sergachev unlike some other posters here.

I'd rather trade Galchenyuk. I seriously can't agree with the other side on this. Pacioretty is one of the few players who have a defined role on our squad and people would trade him over Galchenyuk who has been thrown all over the place and never been trusted in a role. People are literally saying they'd rather keep someone who ended the season on the 4th line than our 1st line winger. Whether or not we agree he should have been on the 4th line is besides the point. I rarely use this expression but it's easy to be an armchair GM and coach here without thinking about how our actual brain trust view these players. This is not to mention much of our current core voted Pacioretty their captain. I'd like to keep both but I would trade Galchenyuk over Pacioretty as long as it's not for terrible value. Since I'm not convinced we would get fair value, I agree that I don't want him traded. I guess the same thing could be said for Pacioretty. I would include Pacioretty in say a Tavares type return trade, I just don't see that happening out of the blue. Pacioretty is older but has proven a lot more than Galchenyuk. The modern NHL is tough on old players but I do see him being able to put up 30 at an older age simply as a result of his release. That's not going away any time soon.

Pacioretty-Drouin-Radulov Lehkonen-Galchenyuk-Gallagher Byron-Danault-Shaw Martinsen/Hudon-Mitchell-McCaron Markov-Weber Emelin-Petry Jerabek-Benn Price Montoya I'm thinking no Plekanec means one new defenseman as well so this is just with what we have today.

I personally think Pacioretty deserves to get paid, yes. He's on our team so people are undervaluing him. On another team, he would look better than Ovechkin or Rick Nash. Fine, those two players aren't in the peaks of their careers but I don't think it's smart to trade him right now. Any player who he'd be worth trading for would have a hefty contract as well. He does go through cold streaks obviously but putting the his captaincy aside, he's such an important player to have. I don't think he's absolutely a guaranteed shoe in to always be cold in the playoffs. Our team as a whole hasn't gotten it going in the playoffs now some time. If and when we have a deep run and Pacioretty is on the team, he'll have been a big part of it.

I like Plekanec more than most but let's lose Plekanec to Vegas and sign Thornton to a deal as an UFA. 2 years @ 6.5 mil. Too much? I assume you'd have to pay since other teams might be in on him. Problem solved for a season.

Trading Pacioretty is a ridiculous thought. We're getting complaints about lateral moves left and right and that would be one no matter who we get in return even if it was a center. If you were to considering trading Pacioretty, it would have to be one of those Tavares, Toews, Kopitar types coming back or multiple players. Trading Pacioretty for almost anyone eliminates the win now mentality. Pacioretty is of a relatively unique mold whereas like has been stated Galchenyuk and Drouin are similar types, for instance. We should keep both Galchenyuk and Pacioretty for the start of the season and go from there.

As things stand right now, I'm fairly confident that at least one of Drouin or Galchenyuk would be in our top 6 as a center next season. There's still a lot of time for things to change as well.

It's true that I don't know much about Beauvillier so I can agree with what you're saying. If we get a #2 defenseman as well as a top 6 forward, I'd start to listen.

I think he really is capable of being our first line center. That's also on a team that needs top 6 centers so he should be valued even more. My opinion is also not what it is because we need top 6 center(s). He had 6 game winning goals last year and even ended the playoffs with something like 3 points in his last 4 games while no one took notice. As an organization we clearly don't value him that high, so it's probably best not to deal him away. I'm not trying to bring up Duchene specifically again but just as an example, I would have preferred that type of a deal than trading him for a defenseman, soon after trading Beaulieu away for only a 3rd rounder. There's a decent chance Leddy and Beaulieu end within 5-10 points of one another next year and we just traded him for a 3rd rounder. Sergachev will likely get some points as well. I think it's because of the trades we've already made that I wouldn't trade Galchenyuk unless it was for a heavy duty defenseman coming back. I'd rather trade him for a legitimate top 6 center if we were to trade him at all and I still wouldn't necessarily love it.

I have a bad feeling about this for some reason. I don't want to see him gone for a defenseman unless it's Doughty, Burns or Hedman. Off the top of my head. Letang or Karlsson would do.

I was going to mention Leddy the other day when someone mentioned a rumour about Hamonic. Leddy was up there in points last season for a defenseman and is a more reasonable expectation than Hamonic. I wouldn't trade Galchenyuk for him though. I like Drouin a lot but I don't feel good about Galchenyuk, Beaulieu and Sergachev for Drouin, Leddy and a 3rd heading into next season.

Yeah but he seemed to always speak highly about his teammates as well, wanting the best for them. It's all good. The Sabres will like him and at the same time we likely won't miss him too much in the end.

Let's trade Galchenyuk for Sergachev and Beaulieu. Would be a pretty good return.

https://www.nhl.com/canadiens/video/postgame-nathan-beaulieu/t-277437414/c-44914203 Never seen that interview before but it was the first one I found from last year. It seems to me that he tends to say the right things. Not only that, but he's matured a lot over the years. I get the impression that he really was a team player and I'm not sure many people have that perception of him. As I said, this happened due to the dispersal draft so it is what it is but him and Sergachev gone leave more question marks than we had, for now.

I liked Beaulieu. I don't believe all that hot headed stuff. Anyone who listened to him in interviews would have seen that he has a good hockey mind and is actually a team player. He's one of the rare breed who drop the gloves at the right time as well. Theres no doubt he'll be a top 4 defenseman. This is simply a result of the dispersal draft. It's not easy to compare his value in this situation to what his regular value would be because of that reality. I still don't like it though.

One has to think that Yzerman knew what he was doing in that Drouin was traded specifically to the Habs. I do think he probably got the best return he could have gotten when it comes to gaining a prospect who doesn't have to be protected for the draft. As for Galchenyuk and Drouin, they probably are very similar. They were both drafted 3rd overall and separated only by a year. I hope we keep them both as we can have a decent top 6 with them both in the lineup. Finally @Lovett's Magnatones @hab29RETIRED I understand that Nashville had a good year this year and expected to hear about it but it's besides the point. Weber has his good qualities and it's fine to build a team around him. I had more written but there's no need to start it up here. I'm also pretty sure Sidney Crosby and Jonathan Toews both belong to that prototypical old boys club and they've been doing just fine recently counting their rings.

He was on the team that took Pittsburgh to 7 games this year and I think there's a little something to that. He is kind of an Emelin replacement so I agree with the above. If Emelin is gone and they eat salary, I'd consider it. But then again, I also like Emelin.

If Weber would have been on the Predators this season, he would have been their leader on the back end throughout the playoffs. There's no doubt about it in my mind. Before I hear comments about leadership, I just mean that the team would have relied on him on the back end. Subban shut down players this post season great but I watched the games with an open mind and I wouldn't really have called him their leader. From what I saw, Ellis really took the bull by the horns this season in the playoffs, admittedly not as much in the final. Call it whatever it is but they are different players and there's not necessarily anything wrong with the old boy's mentality as long as Canada keeps winning championships. Weber is currently a great player to build a team around and we are lacking those types of players. Pick on everyone else but the slags on Weber are unwarranted.

How many other teams are offering Vegas similar things though? They have a large pool to select from and Plekanec at 6 million may not be the most attractive of those options. This type of thing is new to me but it seems as though a lot of fans are looking at it from a Habs-centric point of view.

He also played a lot of wing last season. I'd like to get someone who is actually a bonafide center at this point but he can put up the points. I had him last season in fantasy and it was only because my time ran out on my pick. It's the only round it happened, and he turned out to be one of my best players... Including players players like Jumbo Joe. I feel like having too many options might be a bad thing though. Are we going to go through a season flip flopping Galchenyuk, Drouin and Schenn from wing to center or are we going to have a defined role for them? Probably a better problem to have than only one of those players being on the team though.