GHT120

For the curious: Mike Johnson 2007 Bryan Smolinski 2008 Robert Lang 2009 Jay Leach 2010 Ryan O'Byrne 2010-2011 James Wisniewski 2011 Colby Armstrong 2013 Thomas Vanek 2014 Manny Malhotra 2015 Victor Bartley 2016 Christian Thomas 2016 Zach Redmond 2017 Nicolas Deslauriers 2018-2019 Cale Fleury 2020-2021 Chris Wideman 2022 Expect the choice relates to the last player to wear the number before 2007 ... Richard Zednik, who wore it from his acquisition in 2001/01 through 2005/06 ... a fellow Slovakian ... Juraj has a CHANCE to become the best player to ever wear #20 as his regular number (Beliveau wore it for one year, Pete Mahovlich IMO the best "regular").

He will be 30 entering the 23/24 season ... much will depend on how the youngsters progress this season ... if the plan next summer is for 23/24 to be a playoff year (see below) then it definitely makes sense ... it also depends on term, AAV and, the great unknown, cap status next summer ... cap status in terms of the 23/34 cap ceiling, the projected cap growth and whether Price is an ongoing burden. playoff year: by this I do not mean whether or not the team is trying for a top 10 pick in 2024 but rather whether HuGo are making roster/cap decisions based on a goal to make the 23/24 playoffs or continuing to build longer-term.

Huberdeau makes some sense ... Panthers add goal scoring and physicality but give up a QUALITY winger to do so ... the bigger price may well be Weeger ... he was 2nd (regular season) and 3rd (playoffs) in TOI for Florida defencemen last season ... that is a big hole to fill ... but they were already over the cap so they moved out enough money to sign Tkachuk. From Calgary's perspective, it will be a quality return for this coming season but overall it will depend on whether they can extend either player, or get significant assets for them in a trade ... and with the loss of both Gaudreau and Tkachuk from the top 6 is this still a "Darryl Sutter" team?"

I don't know that I would automatically assume they are worse ... Tkachuk brings a different style that may greatly benefit them. They obviously face some cap/ roster challenges ... Bobrovsky is an albatross of a contract ... unless there is a season-ending, LTIR injury somewhere on that roster, I expect they may well consider significant salary retention if they can get Sergei to waive his NMC ... not many other places they can save the, at least, $3.4M they need to become cap compliant ... Reinhart, Hörnqvist (8 team NTC), Bennett and Verhaeghe seem to be the other trade candidates.

Or just strip it down to "W"

Slafkovsky gets #20 ... Wideman switches to #6 (which he actually has worn for most of his pro career). Dach is #77 Dadonov #63 Matheson #8 (in Florida he was #19 but obviously not here).

Like the books would ever show a profit ... that was supposed to be the deal with the TD Place development by Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group (Redblacks owners) ... magically..........

Calgary was a 111 point team ... their best season since 1988/89, 2nd best ever ... trading Gaudreau was almost certainly never an option ... Treliving was (IMO) stuck, even if he knew JG wasn't coming back.

I believe this is the last season of Brad Treliving's contract, so there is no chance if he is hoping for an extension ... but if he feels like he is going to be pushed out the door then maybe a tiny, tiny, tiny chance.

CHL has the benefit of adapting to the North American ice surface and style (and in a WORST CASE scenario an emergency call-up) ... so I'll vote CHL (as if my vote has any impact) ... ALSO ... perhaps it's not surprising that in SWEDEN there is a lot of talk about him playing in the SHL.

Sadly ... nicknames aren't what they used to be ... these days almost any player whose last name starts with MONT is likely to be called Monty

Link?

He just loves posting for clicks.

In a market where, albeit it taking account of his injuries last season, Pacs is given away for free (even a small bonus - undrafted 6/7/8, RHD Dylan Coghlan - for taking him) I expect Anderson would fetch either one or the other of your suggested returns, maybe with a second lesser piece, at best.

Exactly ... slightly tongue-in-cheek

Perhaps a perfect Petry replacement to support the rebuild, for ONE season

Ideally 22nd in the NHL or worse. 🤞

In this trade market it might well take a 2nd rounder to get a team to take Armia, or be a PACS-ish deal ... so Dvorak for PLD just doesn't work. I would do that deal in a split second, without a second thought ... which means it is completely one-sided for the Habs ... a reasonable "hockey trade" usually makes fans from both teams think before agreeing ... there must be a Habs fan posting on that Jets forum ...

He is a great story ... I don't have any illusions about his challenging the Habs top defence prospects ... but won't bet against him carving out a spot down the line (likely 6/7, maybe topping out as a #5).

If places were reversed, I wouldn't let PLD go for Dvorak, a mid-to-late first and a B/C level prospect ...if Winnipeg decides it is time to rebuild it will take more in terms of pick(s) and prospects and if they remain in "now" mode it would take more "current talent" than just Dvorak. The benefit of such a deal is that a new contract can be a bit cheaper as it buys out two RFA years rather than signing as a UFA ... but a question that comes to mind is whether it is certain that PLD is a centre ... I've read/heard reports he should be a LW ... that impacts his value.

That would be sweet ... CapFriendly showing it as $2.1M per year for two years. EDIT: They've corrected it ... $1.1M x 2

Something we likely will never know is whether Mrs. Petry had any intention of coming to Montreal ... if not, then they could well have been facing last season all over again.

I prefer to have hope, but not expectations. IN GENERAL, the disappointment/concern around Slafkovsky seems to stem from either not believing in/likiing HuGo and therefore doubting their selection ... AND/OR ... because they didn't select Wright ... the former is etched in stone until the results are in ... the latter is from expectations ... well, Galchenyuk had similar size to Wright and a similar "year before draft eligible" season (AG was hurt his draft year) ... Sam Reinhart was bigger and had a better draft season ... so too was Dylan Strome ... all were expected to become legit, top echelon 1Cs ... point being that, as is often pointed out, drafting is not a science and expectations are not always useful ... unlike McDavid/Matthews/MacKinnon, (a) Wright's name does not begin with an "M" and (b) by draft-time Wright was not a consensus #1. Projections are the business of scouts and teams ... but for fans it is all guesses ... I'll judge JS based on what he does in the next few seasons, and until then hope HuGo were right.

I do too ... but suspect that would take bad seasons from both Knight and Bobrovsky.

OR ... even early-ish in the season if a team that loses a significant RHD and wants to ensure they don't fall back in / out of the playoff race ... basically whenever a good trade is available ... I think HuGo know that in a cap-restricted trade market, if you have a good offer, it isn't worth risking losing it to try to ek out a little bit more (unless there is an actual bidding was going on).