The Chicoutimi Cucumber

I mean…if we think that Newhook is actually a serious, legit option at C, then for sure our C depth picture changes. Otherwise, see below. Yeah…in terms of natural C, we’re looking at Suzuki Dach Evans Veleno AHLers Assuming Newhook is NOT the answer, then at this juncture we seem to be going with a “quantity” approach to the bottom 6. Hope that one of Veleno, Kapanen, Beck - or maybe even some rotation - affords credible NHL minutes. At face value, the list above is pretty terrible after Suzuki.

The good thing here is Seattle has an abundance of C, implying that he might be a victim of the numbers game and perhaps can do a credible job as #4C. 🤷‍♂️ He seemed to be doing OK in Detroit for a couple of years before going downhill.

A surprisingly realistic list.

Good post. The thing is, with MM we probably have one of the league’s better (maybe one of its best) defence corps. Subtract him, and suddenly that advantage goes away for just the reason you state. So, yeah. Trade him for that C if the unicorn appears. Other than that, well, lean into our competitive advantage at D.

If only Pittsburgh had some C to trade 🤔

ahahahahahahaa nice

I'm pretty confident that he will assume the proud mantle of Jeff Petry and Mike Mattheson: an indispensable puck-moving defenceman who eats monster minutes and plays a critical role in driving the team's transition game, all the while being demonized by significant chunks of an ingrate fanbase for occasional defensive miscues. 🤷‍♂️ This goes back decades among Habs fans.

The best reason for going hot and heavy after Kyrou would be if he can play C. The internet seems to frame this as one of the attributes on his bingo card - "can play C" - but his career high in FO has been 15. So, purely a W. Now he's clearly a productive player in his prime and would help this team, but I don't like any of the rumours about the return. The only thing I can think of that makes sense is MM - if we see him as redundant on a team with two elite puck-moving D ahead of him on the depth chart. I wouldn't trade either Reinbacher or Guhle for him, that is for sure.

While it's possible that Dach rebounds and that Newhook flourishes at C despite being a W, my strong guess is that we're gonng to need a bottom-6 C - a Dvorak replaceent - no matter what happens with the 2C position. Even if Kapanen (or Beck) start strong, they will be at high risk of fading, as rookies often do over the meatgrinder of a full season. In short, I expect HuGo to be working the phones hard for a grinder C by December.

I’ve never seen a team troll another team - for years - the way Carolina does the Habs. In a weird way, it’s a sort of compliment: the Habs are so iconic, so untouchably powerful and secure in their stature, that a backwater market like Carolina is motivated to troll them just for sh*ts and giggles, feeling like Frodo going up against Morder.

Certainly there is no immediate rush.

The thing is...unless I'm missing something, with Dvorak gone, right now we are required to use one of Newhook or Kapanen at C. (Unless Beck is ready). I know that we're talking about two different things - #2C versus bottom-6 C - but the wider point is that our C depth, which was bad last season, is even worse at this juncture. We can certainly limp into the season crossing our fingers at C, but we may end up having to do something, especially if one of the C gets injured. Thats why I rather like the idea of splitting the difference and getting a bottom-6 C who can maybe be credible as a #2C for short bursts. But yes, I understand cap concerns, market limitations, etc.

Hope is not a plan. Like everyone else, I want Dach to succeed. At this point, though, that is a long shot. We need at least one more C. And if that guy is a player who can legitimately take a turn in the top-6, at least for limited spells, so much the better.

Interesting that our prospects all appear to be kindergarteners

That was interesting, especially Peter Longo’s dissenting opinion. (Personally, I trust HuGo’s judgement; they decided that Reinbacher will become better than Mailloux and duly moved the latter).

This has always been my philosophy, and that’s why I’m generally leery of “leaving room” on your roster for unproven kids - they should displace vets on the bottom-end of your roster - as well as throwing kids like Kotkaniemi onto the team fresh out of the draft. (KK is a good example of a kid who seems to have been f**ked up by unearned entitlement much too early in his career). I find our management team has generally been more comfortable than me thrusting kids into the fire. The main consequence has been the tendency of those kids to suffer significant injuries, which I suspect has to do with their not fully understanding how to protect themselves at this level. That said, HuGo have not, so far, misjudged which players are actually ready and able to play effectively in the NHL. They tried Mailloux and sent him down; they’ve given Xhekaj chances but not been afraid to send him down either; they identified Hutson as ready and were rewarded. The dilemma of Laine is the eternal dilemma of the one-dimensional player who does that one thing really well. What he does is shoot the puck one the PP with insane skill. BUT he has the talent to do much more. If, for example, he were to come to camp 100% in shape, motivated, and confident, he could become a devastating all-around offensive player like he was early in his career. At that point I wouldn’t sneeze on him for failing to back check.

Ehlers seems to have the same profile. Not a guy who likes the dirty areas or the meat-grinder. Reasonable ticket, but you do have to wonder about signing a guy who’s 29 to a 6-year deal. It’s possible you’re going to regret the back half of that contract, especially for a player whose game doesn’t have much “jam” and therefore is unlikely to “contribute in other ways” in the manner of, say, Josh Anderson. Still, it’s Carolina. I’m sure he’ll enjoy getting to the Semi-Finals annually and will make a solid contribution.

Indeed

As I posted elsewhere, this feels wrong, but PK was (rightly) never gonna have his number retired, so 🤷‍♂️

Great research question. For somebody, LOL. Size helps and you can only go so far as a team of “Smurfs” (remember 2010?) but I continue to think it is way overrated as an indicator of individual player success. Maybe I’m wrong.

I guess we’re not in on Ehlers, eh?

No, because the centre market just doesn’t seem to be there anyway. There’s a shortage of top-6 C in the NHL. And as someone or other pointed out, the rising cap + a down draft year meant that most teams want to add NHL talent, not hoard draft picks, as they might have done in past seasons. Everyone thinks they’re “two players away” from their organizational goals (whether those goals be winning the Cup, becoming top-tier contenders, making the playoffs, or being “in the mix”). Besides that: we made the team better overall and now MM becomes a realistic trade chip. So it’s not as simple as “we’ve shot our load and have no more assets to move.”

Yup. As for the topic of this thread, maybe one way to think about Bolduc is that he’s really the Heineman replacement. And as much as I liked Heineman, Bolduc is a bit younger and has shown more offensive punch while also apparently bringing a good all-around game. I always pulled for Mailloux as a human reclamation project. And I’m very pleased the Habs did not fall into their historic organizational trap of just dumping a guy who came with heavy PR baggage, but instead focused on developing him and then made a proper hockey trade for hockey reasons. My guess is that he’ll become an NHL regular, but will he be more than a bottom pairing guy with a boomer? At this juncture, I think HuGo have earned the benefit of the doubt when it comes to assessing talent.

Granlund for three years at $7 mill per, to Anaheim. Seems like a good deal to me, mostly because the term is not insane. Oh well.

Thanks. I often rely on Habs EOTP’s depth chart for memory jogs about who slots where…looks like it steered me wrong this time. The lines you sketch look better than I thought, but Armia/Dvorak still seem like significant losses especially on the PK.