The Chicoutimi Cucumber

There's been little doubt about that for a while. I hope we don't sign him. He's a 25-goal guy expecting to be paid like a 40-goal scorer. Boeser has his limitations, but I do have a hard time seeing management's strategy in letting him walk. It's not so much that they didn't trade him at the deadline - that was probably an ownership thing - as the idea that they're better off without him. Presumably they feel they can upgrade at W, but Kane is nothing more than a band-aid. The fact that they are supposedly looping back with Pugh Suter about maybe re-signing him suggests to me that Rutherford-Alvinn may have misread the overall cap/trade/UFA/landscape - over-estimating how easy it will be to replace guys they've deemed expendabe - but we shall see.

Ahahahahaaa, Vancouver never disappoints from a sheer entertainment perspective. I enjoyed listening to the ranting and raging on the radio this morning. Personally, I’m in the minority on this: I think they’re likely get a motivated, focused Kane at the end of his contract, and they got him for nothing except cap space. I understand the concerns about locker room culture, but with Miller gone, I don’t think you can treat them all like porcelain dolls who will break just because a teammate rents a Rolls. To my mind, the real issues are age and health. But there again, they gave up almost nothing for him, so if he’s lost a step or is injured all the time, big whoop.

Very long, but other than that it seems like he’d be perfect 🤷‍♂️

At the end of the day, the goal is to improve your team. If a "winger with pop" does that, then great.

Well…maybe Chicago was onto something in unloading him? Conversely, some kids just do take longer to figure out the offseason stuff than others. This is one area where it still seems to be a bit like the old days; notwithstanding plans provided by the team, players are left mostly to their own devices and it doesn’t always work out. Or maybe his injury recovery messed up his conditioning process. 🤷‍♂️

Well, a resurgent Dach would be a game-changer, but only a fool would count on that. I get that drafting is key and that teams need draft capital, but frankly fans and media get waaaaay too excited about draft day. Most of those picks are going to come to diddly-squat.

Yup, it’s gonna be a bloodbath. 🤷‍♂️ The only guy I would be willing to break the bank on (i.e., heavily overpay) is Tavares on a short-term deal (2 years). Like most fans, I will be disappointed if (when?) the Habs come out of UFA season mostly empty-handed, but as I posted a while back, you’re better off waiting for new possibilities to open up, than to make a deal in a seller’s market that f**ks up your roster and cap structure for years to come.

Such a shame about Dach’s knee. You need some baseline level of luck, and we didn’t get it there. It all depends on our assessment of Mailloux, but I’m a “bird in the hand” kinda guy. Three draft spots - meh, not worth losing a significant asset for IMHO. Frankly I would not do any of the deals Alfredoh moots above.

Two cases stick in my mind, from back in the day, where teams were ridiculed for “crazy overpay” but ended up looking crazy like foxes: one was Chara, the other was Mark Streit, over whom the Islanders were openly laughed at, but who ended up being really quite a strong #1D for them. I’m sure there are others…but for every case like that there are a dozen bloated contracts that look appalling as they age. TBH it’s term I worry about more than cap hit. And my guess is that if we lose out on Granlund/Tavares it will be because we weren’t willing to lock in for crazy term.

I’ve thought of that too…could be a major competitive advantage for us, given that he’s at an age where family considerations are apt to weigh pretty heavily.

I think there is going to be a lot of massive sticker shock to a lot of fans - and some GMs - on July 1. Those GMs are going to be the ones left standing around dazed with no signings. I hope HuGo are working with a realistic sense of the marketplace and preparing accordingly.

Zegras for spare parts. Yeah, I'm surprised we weren't in on that, but what can you say? In HuGo we trust. Between Michkov and Zegras PHIL isn't afraid to take chances on players with red flags, that's for sure. By contrast, our management group has been more risk-averse. We'll see how it plays out.

4 X 8 is fine for Tavares. It'll look dubious on the back end, but good value in UFA terms. Suter would be a good signing - a Dvorak replacement but with greater potential to play up the lineup. But I worry more about overpaying in term and salary for middle-roster guys than for someone like Tavares, who still produces at elite or near-elite levels.

No question in my mind that Tavares would be the crown jewel.

Hahahahahahaha, no offence, but in pure hockey terms, taking Suter over Tavares is bananas.

Lots of red flags around Zegras, but assuming that we're better without him than with him kind of depends on what we'd be sending the other way - no? If it's another Harris-for-Laine type move, I can get on board with that.

Tavares is a stud. PPG C with size and experience. Yes, he is old, and no, he doesn't have a ring. But he would make our team way better, be an excellent C for Demidov, and arguably elevate us to "outside contender" status. Assuming that he is available and doesn't demand insane term - two big assumptions - what's not to like?

When did McCann last play C on a regular basis? Could we acquire him and use him there, or has that ship sailed? Seattle seems to have a surplus at C, so perhaps his move to W was a result of that rather than his inherent weakness in the role?

Yup, as long as the term isn't insane, I'm happy to pay up. He'd be a fantastic band-aid.

He has sucked since about January 2024. He sucked after JT was traded, and he sucked in the Four Nations when JT was not on his team. It's those last facts that really give me pause. In addition, there are red flags. He has complained about injuries that Tocchet believed a player should play through, and the team has expressed concerns about his practice and offseason habits. Analyses have documented a serious decline in the number of speed-bursts in his game. Possibly connected to the tendonitis in the knee he's whined about. Believe me, I get it: he bounces back and presto, you have a tremendous, top-10 NHL C. But 11.6 for seven more years for a player who has sucked for a season and a half, and who has all kinds of red flags, is very high-risk. Our rebuild isn't perfect; we have some organizational holes; but I'm not sure we're in the position where we need to take that big a risk. I'm trying to think...maybe if we shipped back some bad contracts to Van in return? But Gallagher and Anderson are off the books in couple of seasons, and frankly both of those guys brings way more jam and overall value than Pettersson has done since his game collapsed. So even on that basis, I'm not sure I'd do the deal.

Absolutely. It’s a high-risk, high-reward move - something I’d expect from a Buffalo, say. It’d be a reasonable gamble for them, but we seem to be on much more solid footing and don’t need an Hail Mary play. And Van is unlikely to retain salary.

Rosolovic is intriguing...first I hear of him in this context. I think he's closer to the mark than Suter, who had an outlier year. I'm OK with a 'tweener' (assuming no massive overpay). That leaves room for Dach to move up, in the unlikely event that Kirby recovers his form, and gives us flexibility to upgrade later on if need be.

Regarding your concerns about C, I’ve had similar thoughts. It’s fine to want a C, but you can get into real cap trouble, or lock yourself into a faulty roster structure, or lose assets on a huge trade overpay , if you get sucked into “plugging the hole NOW” in a horrendously bad seller’s market rather than being patient. I’ve said before I’m good with re-signing Dvorak. Strengthening the team in other areas and going into the season with Newhook/Dach as #2C options is not great, but has to be weighed against the long-term ramifications of bad moves this summer.

I wonder if this is a bit like the Carrier deal…a trade that has a lot of teams thinking “we would have topped that offer”