GHT120

Wild Hypotheticals (just for some fun) #5 for #8 and right to swap first-rounders in 2024 and/or 2025 I'd stay away from the Flyers, Briere seems to be on an early "winning streak" #5, #31 and Dvorak for #10, #25, #29, 2024 2nd and Marco Scandella* Edmundson to Laffs for #28 * - Blues apparently want to get rid of Marco ... he is a 2024 UFA and I do seem to recall him playing some right-side when he was here (one-year stop gap) ... Blues reportedly want/need a 3C.

I agree ... I suppose he potentially could block Beck or Mesar if they have an outstanding training camp but get sent back to the OHL because there is no room ... personally I see both back in junior regardless of whether or not Monahan had signed.

Especially when the team is circling the drain.

The old "4 out of 5 Dentists agree"

Agree ... also don't see Dvorak, or perhaps even Evans, being around in a couple of years and no young centres ready for NHL IMO.

Pending any trades, the Habs have 13 NHL contract forwards at the moment (per CapFriendly) ... it includes Pitlick and Pezetta but doesn't count Belxile, Ylönen and RHP who all played 30+ games last season ... or Farrell who joined the team for the end of the season ... let alone any of the other youngsters/prospects ... it will be interesting to see if HuGo can make enough moves to have room to consider even trying to sign Gurianov.

Safe travels.

This clip is from a few months ago, but Dan Robertson (former Habs radio play-by-play, current Jets play-by-play) had some interesting comments on PLD (starting around 6:40) ... until injured he was borderline dominant every night, terrific player, strong on the puck, welcomes contact, absorbs hits, hard to get puck away from him, takes a few too many penalties but also draws a lot ... recently heard another interview with Robertson where he said similar things and also praised PLD's defence, team play and that he is hard to play against every night. Perhaps not just about the points.

Per Puckpedia, Moliver is not a very busy agent ... FOUR clients ... Igor Shesterkin, Evgenii Dadonov, Pavel Dorofeyev and Timur Ibragimov.

Kelly Buchberger Hockey Stats and Profile at hockeydb.com There is only one Kelly Buchberger listed ...no idea why his year in Laval wasn't worth listing

With CC et al at the Grand Prix ... now its hanging out with David Savard

The Hockey Hall of Fame’s selection committee announced on Wednesday that seven more will be inducted into the hallowed halls as the Class of 2023 this fall, headlined by a trio of netminders. Goaltenders Henrik Lundqvist, Tom Barrasso and Mike Vernon will be joined by Caroline Ouellette and Pierre Turgeon, as well as Ken Hitchcock and Pierre Lacroix in the builders category.

But are they ... “I’m not going to tear down the roster,” he said. “For us, there might be a few bumps in the road ahead, but we’re going to try to get better and make the roster better every day.”

Even if that is true (tend to agree), would the Ducks risk it ... CBJ or SJS trading down with 'Yotes or caps would also be a serious threat.

Of course that would be putting their fate in someone else's hands ... if, for example, they traded with the Habs, and CBJ and/or SJS were to believe the Ducks want Michkov they would threaten to take him, or even trade with Arizona Washington (rumoured to have interest) to try to get assets to not do so (or to flip picks) ... it could cost most of whatever the Ducks got to tarde down (or even more if somebody hires Keven Costner) I believe the "Yzerman approach" that they refer to in the 32 Thoughts is that you just have the cajónes to take the player you want wherever you are drafting.

His point on Price was that because of Price being on LTIR last season, there were $1,170,000 in bonuses earned last season that had to be carried over against this season's reported $83.5M cap ceiling, leaving the Habs $82.33M in potential cap space. ***IF*** HuGo were willing to keep Price on regular Injured reserve this season and live with his $10.5M counting against the cap they could avoid the potential $4.21M in bonuses this season having to be carried over to 24/25. CapFriendly is showing the cap hit for Habs' roster, at $84,759,166 (including the bonus carryover and the last season of Alzner's buyout) ... that is with only 20 roster slots filled, meaning a 7th D and the 13/14th F still to be added ... so to keep Price on the cap would mean moving out $2.42917M plus whatever the remaining 2-3 roster players cost ... and not making any trades that were not money in for money out. Moving Edmundson would seem the most likely move but that would leave just over $1M in flexibility, likely just an in-season cushion at best, and still needing the extra Ds and Fs ... so they would likely have to pay to get someone to take Armia and/or Hoffman to make keeping Price on the roster work. Doesn't seem practical to me.

Agreed ... but I don't believe there has been a post suggesting using the 5th just to get rid Gallagher.

The comment cited above can be found starting at 3:55 of this 32Thoughts podcast (actual comment at about 4:55). THAT would certainly shake up the draft ... with all their recent signings, one might wonder whether Columbus could be enticed to trade #3, to the Habs or someone else ... at least in part, Jarmo Kekalainen traded Josh Anderson because there were issues with Torts; wonder how Babcock (rumoured to be the coach-in-waiting; for TO contract to expire) feels about him ... part of a possible "Fantilli trade"?

Dangerous to use what has turned out to be a bad trade as the basis for valuing that player in a possible trade ... not certain Dvorak could bring even a solitary first on the open market at the moment.

I seriously doubt that Hughes signs a player who wanted to be in montreal so much that he forgoes an opportunity to hear offers from other teams and then immediately trades him ... bad for future business.

Dalhabs original proposal was Gallagher and the 5th overall for PLD ... not 5th to get rid of Gallagher

And *** I *** would prefer to spend it on USEFUL players ... not overpaid, broken down veterans.

And the AAV of a 25-30 goal scorer ... and it isn't likely to get better as time goes on.

Even if it also gets rid of Gallagher?

So if they want him, hope and pray he doesn't sign an extension anywhere else and that the 2024 bidding war isn't too bad?