GHT120

To fully understand, I looked at the CBA I (below is re-formatted) 10.1 - Unrestricted Free Agents (c)(i) - Group 6 Free Agents ... Means any Player: - who is age 25 or older ✅ - who has completed three (3) or more professional seasons, ✅ - whose SPC has expired and: (i) in the case of a Player other than a goaltender, has played less than 80 NHL Games ... ????? Hence:

"Groundhog Day" returns and the possibility of Bedard or Michkov next summer disappears ... IMO the reward for the pain of this season is not just this coming draft but the opportunity potentially/hopefully to have top 7 picks (or better) in consecutive drafts since 1980 (Wickenheiser) 1981 (Mark Hunter).

Or both

TSN and Sportsnet PRAYING nothing happens until deadline day.

But only ONE is a bit of a surprise ... JP played 22:09 last game. OR Totally unsubstantiated conspiracy theory ... there is a pending trade and H&G decided it was OK for him to practice if it was non-contact ... 😉

Jeff Petry is wearing a no-contact jersey at practice. He's day-to-day with an upper-body injury. Jake Evans, Paul Byron, Joel Edmundson, Jonathan Drouin and Christian Dvorak are also practicing with no-contact jerseys. Jake Allen is back at practice as well. https://twitter.com/CanadiensMTL/status/1500963218239467522?s=20&t=4kxq4_E-S1T4TW-ds4pWcg

Personally, trading Toffoli pretty much convinced me it is a rebuild ... not a tear-down rebuild, but a substantial rebuild.

He was willing to fight ... but not so successful in this case

Unless another team hires Mike Milbury, not certain anybody could get a good return until Dvorak gets back on the ice and produces at least to the level he did in the desert.

Entirely my bad on Power ... apologies

Well ... Owen power decided to return to U of Michigan this season 😉 😊 And who knows whether Yakupov, or even Lafreniere, would have benefited from another year in junior ... BUT ... I completely agree that it would be VERY unusual for a #1 over-all pick not to make the jump ... I just hope that if it is the Habs with that pick they do it because the player is ready and not because they feel they must.

I totally agree ... unless Dvorak gets back in the line-up for an extended period this season and plays as we had hoped entering the season there is not even any real value in trading him ... especially as 22/23 is likely to be another "top 10 draft lottery" seasons ... he needs a chance to show whether he could/should be part of the medium/long-term plans, and at very least rebuild his value.

I think very few if any think it is a guarantee ... after decades of mostly "anything can happen" they are just overly anxious to chase elite talent ... MY issue with some "tanquistes" is that there is no sense in tanking just to get the chance at the/a top pick ... Galchenyuk and KK are perfect examples ... this season is not IMO a tank (by my definition that is pre-planned) ... it is just a terrible season ... not certain there are any "franchise/generational" players in the 2022 draft to make this pain truly worthwhile ... but there seem to be in 2023 ... which is why I don't want this to be a quick re-tool ... there needs to be structured rebuild rather than a Hoffman/Dvorak/Savard/etc. patch job ... and I don't think you necessarily disagree.

The difference strikes me that the hockey development work is very "micro", developing specific skills ... while player development is more "macro" as it focuses on the overall development of the player, which includes things beyond specific skills.

Even a broken clock is correct twice a day?

6th most faceoffs on the 'Yotes ... so not a BIG chance So a potential 1C in Laval?

Perhaps throwing a "wild card" at the 67s, someone for whom they would not have a "book" ... but he looked convincingly deserving ... maybe he has the skills but isn't able to express them in real time game action.

Just hope that he is not a one-man operation.

It wouldn't seem to fit a rebuild/tool of the defence ... unless the plan was for him to play on the right-side ... the Habs prospect depth is in LHD ... also, unless the Hab's was by far the best offer, at 31 in May he might want a team closer to Cup contention ... or a city with neither state tax nor snow.

His full season stats place him 10th in 5-on-5 TOI amongst regular Hurricanes forwards (minimum 10 games), about as far behind 9th as he is ahead of 12th ... so 4th line is not a recent occurrence.

One can only hope.

Then it was that the Soviet Union didn't allow players to leave, which may yet happen now ... but it Russian/Belarusian players are banned the workaround might be for them to defect, or at least immigrate to North America rather than just getting a work permit.

Wonder if we will have another era of "defecting" Russians like back in the Mogilny/Fedorov/etc. days.