The Chicoutimi Cucumber

Very little will happen. We will not be sellers. I believe there is a good chance Bourque will go, though, and if I had to bet on a "name" player coming to us, it'd of course be Parenteau. Most likely more of the same, minor tweaks.

I'd like Edler too. He is better than he has played this season and is a classic candidate for a "change of scenery." Slot him into the top-4 and hey presto, we're good. But what would it take to get him? Probably more than we want to give up. Van lusts after Tinordi.

Pittsburgh's pretty much gone all-in on Fleury, haven't they? I don't see them changing horses in midstream given that their man - who I wouldn't want anywhere near the CH, incidentally - has played well this season, seeming to validate their decision. What other teams are in or close to the playoff mix but suffering from inadequate netminding? Ottawa? Washington? Philly? I'd say Minny would have the most urgent need.

Murray gets beat down low and has terrible advanced stats. To many fans that means he is disposable human garbage. Not to me though! - I will take the physical element he brings any day, especially on a team constructed the way ours is. Now whether he gets over-used due to mediocrity in our D-corps is another question.

How anyone can NOT want to see Jagr in a Habs jersey baffles me. All-time great player...yeah, we don't wanna see that on our team. Now admittedly, I'm not saying we should give up much for him. Bouillon would be about right.

I remember Soetart during Roy's first season...they basically anointed Roy the #1 despite his infuriating tendency to let in howlers at the worst, momentum-crushing times in a game. Used to drive me nuts that they played Roy so much relative to Soetart. It's a real shame they didn't staple Roy's ass to the bench every time he made a massive gaffe like that - who knows, he might have actually amounted to something.

All I can say about him is that, considering how much the Habs could have used a big d-man over his time with us, and how little ice time he actually got, he must really blow chunks. Oh, well.

Machine, I have never been a "punish the player for mistakes" kinda guy. I LOVE to see Subban and Galchenyuk taking chances and displaying their skills. Of course, there has to be some bedrock commitment to responsible play - I'm not going to excuse stupid penalties or ridiculous, needless risks and neglect of defensive play - but we seem to have come to the point where a lot of people in hockey react negatively to any flashy display of individual skill. "Stop dangling and just pass the puck!" "Dump it in instead of trying the cute play!" Etc., etc. This is great advice for average players, but it's absolutely horrible advice for truly gifted talents like Subban, who has been repeatedly attacked for making plays that ONLY work when he does them. I cannot believe that Mario Lemieux or Denis Savard had to put up with this kind of crap. Gallagher is crazy, it's as though he is the ultimate product of every coaching fantasy. Hustle like mad every shift? Check. Drive the net relentlessly? Check. Make the smart play every time? Check. Screen the goalie every chance you get? Check. Every single team in the NHL would LOVE to have that guy. Hell, in Vancouver his name comes up all the time as "one that got away" from the Canucks draft net. He is basically the perfect hockey player, except for his size.

Bunny and Hayward have to be the big winners here, because they used to play so many games. Both of those guys used to exceed the 30-game mark - edging close to 1A territory while backing up all-time great NHL goalies. Budaj is a "pure" backup in getting, like, 17 games per year. That amazing thing to me is how happily he seems to have settled into this role, considering that he was playing 50+ games per year with the Avalanche. There's always something admirable about a guy who accepts his role and doesn't bitch about it or moon over what might have been, and instead recognizes what a privilege it is to play in the league and make millions.

I agree with Machine - if we can replicate the level of play we attained in the first 15 minutes against TO, we will not only win lots of games, we will become genuine contenders. I'm not sure what happened there, but for a while it was like watching Chicago or St Louis, one of the REAL NHL teams. Then, of course, the Leafs adjusted and the world returned to normal. Nonetheless, maybe that can offer a good reference point for MT and the whole group going forward: "if we do it like this, we can beat anybody..."

Subban was a MONSTER. I love how much this guy wants to dominate in big games and in rivalry matches. None of this grim determination (Pleks, Gio) or wilting under pressure (Eller?) for him - there's a sheer joy to how he plays that makes him fabulous to watch. How many NHLers play the game with that kind of pure love of what they're doing? Gallagher is always a handful, but he seemed especially spirited tonight as well. A fair bit of ragging on Bourque on this thread. I've said it before, he is a paycheck player. He will do the bare minimum necessary to stay in the lineup and get a regular shift. It's really that simple.

The Habs are a good organization with a lot of quality pieces. I think it's still to early for decisive pessimism OR optimism about the management team. Therrien should be fired within the next two years, but as long as we do not make long-term personnel moves to accommodate his whims, that's not negativity, just a simple statement of probability. If you are looking for a competitive team that can beat any team on any given night, and give most teams a good playoff series, then you have every reason to be optimistic. I am not especially optimistic about our making the jump to legitimate, serious contender because everything I've just said describes almost every Habs team since 2008.

Eller is an interesting case, one to separate the "experts" from the amateurs. Zoot Suit needs to decide, based on the presumably in-depth analysis and surpassing hockey sophistication of his organization, whether this guy has it in him to be a top-6 C or not. If he does not, then we absolutely should trade him while there is still a view around the league that he does have potential. What I don't want to see is us "settling" for a 30-point checking C because he's good defensively. F**k that. We need serious talent, not more dime-a-dozen bottom-6ers and borderline cases. If we can flip Eller for a player with a higher offensive profile, we should do it - unless the "expert" assessment is that he will become a legit top-6er.

Markov wants to retire a Hab and doesn't want to go elsewhere. That should ultimately work in our favour in negotiations, not against us. Draw the line on a well-compensated two-year deal (while, of course, emphasizing that, if he is still going strong in two years' time, a 2-year extension will be a very realistic possibility). Sheesh. In a way, I'm glad that MB has shown himself to be a negotiating hard-ass. It should inoculate us against lunacies like a 4-year deal for Markov at $6 mil or anything like that.

O'Reilly will be a super-hot commodity coveted by every team in the NHL. You can forget about the Habs acquiring him for anything short of a massive return that would make the fanbase apoplectic. Parenteau, though, seems realistic; Roy doesn't like him, Zoot Suit obviously does. I'd like to see that happen, it could be a good fit, assuming the return is reasonable.

Regarding Subban's piss-poor play, Ferraro was remarking that the time-change from Sochi is such that none of the returnees are back on North American time - they're hungry at the wrong times, tired at the wrong times, awake at the wrong times, etc.. That's a useful insight, and probably goes a long way to explaining unusually erratic play from PK. He should return back to his usual standards once his body's adjusted.

Well, focusing on the big picture - Maguire seemed absolutely certain that the Habs are interested in Kesler. That, therefore, is probably solid information. The other stuff was his own estimates of what Montreal "should" have to give up for Kesler and quite likely reflects nothing other than his personal opinion.

Hopefully Berezin is as good an agent as he was a player. If so, expect to see Markov sign a 1-year deal for the league minimum

Further to dlbalr's point, Kesler is the type of player Macguire always has a hard-on for - big, edgy, net-driving C. To hear him fawning about Kesler's value, you'd swear the last three seasons never happened. That said, you have to give to get. If you were Gillis, would you trade a core guy for Eller straight up? I didn't think so.

Pierre Macguire is reporting on Vancouver radio that the Habs are very, very interested in Ryan Kelser. He says that the price will be AT LEAST Eller + Tinordi and, in fact, more than that. Interesting.

Price and Patches are NHL veterans. Galy is hard to assess. That leaves White. Whoop-de-doo.

Yeah, that's a pretty convincing case. I will make two points to qualify it: 1. We don't have to replace Markov with a comparable defender; any top-4 defenceman would allow us to run a "platoon" defence corps, tiding us over for a couple of years until Beaulieu is ready to eat serious NHL minutes. Meanwhile, we'd have added a significant top-6 or top-4, nearly NHL-ready prospect to our system (this being the acceptable return on Markov); 2. I'm heartened by the analysis that we have nearly completed the "core" of a contender within 3 years. But I still think that is questionable, given that this team has almost no top-6 wingers. And even if this analysis is correct, we're looking at arriving as contenders by the time Markov is 38. But just "being a contender" does not mean winning a Cup. If we see Year Three as the "end point," then keep Markov; if we see Year Three as just the beginning of an extended period of being perennial contenders, then we see Markov as a transitional figure unlikely to be integral to a future Cup. In which case, we become more likely to consider dealing him for a prospect who WOULD become integral to that future. All that said, I like this piece and it's convincing enough that I'm not going to be upset if we don't deal Markov.

Sure, maybe with elite wingers, Kesler could become more than he's been in Van over the past few seasons. Montreal has a grand total of ONE winger who could be considered "elite," and that guy is grafted at the hip to Deharnais. So: not a good fit, at least not if you're counting on Kesler to be more than that 50-point guy I'm talking about.

I have always agreed with Hal Gill's assessment: "you don't 'fix' PK Subban." Unfortunately, he has been saddled with a coach who seems to think his mission is to do precisely that. It's incredibly frustrating, and while I don't believe this will be the end point, I would not be shocked to see the following scenario: PK struggles, his relations with the coaches worsen, pretty soon he becomes a "problem" and hey presto, he's gone - to the satisfaction of many fans who will by then have grown tired of Subban messing up. As for whether Subban is worth $8 mil, the question is ridiculous. Of COURSE he is. He is a superstar, and the only people who can't figure it out seem to be our management and coaches. Therrien should be asked one very important question, which is why NONE of our young players have shown any progression this season and why, indeed, several key players - Subban, Eller, and Emelin - have clearly regressed under his tutelage. (And don't give me this "Eller's defensive game has improved" crap. If I wanted 3 points in 30 defensively-responsible games I could go out and sign Glen Metropolit). If he cannot make our youth better, then he should be run out of town on a rail, period.

Interesting to note that, according to that report, his "salary demands" are scaring teams off. This could just mean that interested teams are too close to capped out, but it could also mean that his demands are perceived as too high, period. I would not accept one 1st-round pick for Markov, especially considering that the pick is likely to come from a top-15 team. A serious and close-to-NHL-ready prospect has to be part of the package. What's going on here, anyway - teams are suddenly getting responsible when it comes to deadline time? At the very least, MB should try to create a bidding war and see what we ACTUALLY can get.