The Chicoutimi Cucumber
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Posts posted by The Chicoutimi Cucumber
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I don't see how. Bottom line, he is no longer on the team. Who cares what he does from here on out? He could score 50 goals and it wouldn't change that fact he was playing no better than Pouliot is now when we traded him.
Give me a break. If we traded away a 50-goal scorer for a player we later cut loose, that would be a damning indictment of our asset management any way you slice it. Of course, there were special circumstances behind Latendresse's demise here, but this 'la-la-la-I-can't-HEEEEAR-you' philosophy is just delusional. Anyway, so far that trade has been pretty even, so we're dealing in hypotheticals.
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I thought it was Price/Plekanec. Either way, once again would prove that sometimes you need to be lucky.
Damn, Bob was desperate for a C. Between these Tampa rumours and the eventual Gomez deal, the league clearly had us by the shorthairs. That's EXACTLY the mentality you don't want to have when you're shopping around. It's like begging a car dealer to please sell you that used Chevy Optra.
BlueKross is right. If we're willing to go 'platoon,' we *could* find a number of options in terms of replacing Gomez, especially if you keep in mind that he only got 38 points last season. Almost ANY alternative would represent a significant offensive improvement to a team that was pretty damned good last season. In one sense we're in a win-win here: don't move him, we have a reasonable chance of a bounce-back season and a very good chance to move him next summer; do move him, you open up tons of options cap-wise and at worst end up with a lateral move at his position, relative to last season.
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If Pouliot was 21 and in his second season, sure you'd re-sign him. Pouliot was drafted back in 2005 and made his NHL debut in the 2006-07 season and will be 25 to start next year. He now has over 350 games of pro (NHL/AHL) experience. I agree that there's a little upside left but if you qualify him and give him arbitration, his cap hit will be heading towards the $1.5-1.75 M mark simply based on his draft position alone. For what he has brought to the table, that's too much which is one of the reasons why they are letting him go. As for Engqvist, I would have him penciled in with the Habs for next year barring other players being signed and bumping him back to Hamilton.
Well, the whole thing is a bit of a bummer. First, we acquire him in exchange for a Québécois power forward who is problematic but nonetheless scores 25 in 55 with Minny...then he teases us with a nice run with Gomez...then he reverts back into his default position of 'enigma'...then we (apparently) lose him just because his cap hit is skewed as a result of his high draft position. The Benny Pouliot story is a frustrating one.
His most likely future is probably playing in Europe after bouncing around the NHL a little more. Still, there remains a chance that he will click either as a productive player in some no-pressure market like Florida, or as a decent role-player. But really, Latendresse is the wild card; if he finally discovers the value of physical fitness and returns to his 2009-10 form, it's going to be a pretty excruciating state of affairs.
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He puts up decent numbers as a 3rd liner. We should be looking to increase our piss poor goal total from last year, not diminish it.
Well, as dlbalr notes, we shouldn't panic just yet. Beyond that, if he is cut loose, we should wait and see who they hire to replace him.
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Here is the latest on the Habs' QO situation:
Confirmed offer received:
Confirmed no offer received:
Alexandre Picard
Benoit Pouliot
Unknown:
Dustin Boyd
Mathieu Carle
Nigel Dawes
Josh Gorges
Kyle Klubertanz
Tom Pyatt
Ryan Russell
Frederic St. Denis
Yannick Weber
Ryan White
The deadline is 5 PM EST. I wouldn't be surprised to see Boyd and Klubertanz let go as both have gone overseas and are near their UFA year anyway. Dawes also is KHL bound but as he's younger, the Habs may hold his rights. There also has been speculation that Pyatt will go unqualified.
Great work as always...I'm surprised that they're apparently getting set to part ways with Pouliot - ?
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Absolutely but he'd also bring a larger cap hit and a much longer-term deal. Couple that with what would instantly become a pressure cooker that we've never seen in the modern era and it's a disaster waiting to happen. There's a reason that Lecavalier has been on the block several times before and that no one has made a pitch for him, he simply has too long of an albatross contract. At least with Gomez, it's only 3 more years.
Well...there WAS the terrifying rumour that Gainey had offered a package including Price and Subban for Lecavalier and that the deal was only nixed by Tampa ownership...
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It's also unlikely that Eller will be healthy to start the season so if they move Gomez (for player(s) that don't play C) and decide to promote from within, we could be looking at Desharnais as the #2, Engqvist at 3, with one of White/Pyatt moving back to C temporarily to start. Yeesh, that's scary.
There can be no question that if they do move Gomez. they'd need to add another serviceable second-line C, or at least a third-line C with a plausible claim to top-6 ice time. You can't go into the season with THAT up the middle.
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Milwaukee it is, to be announced tomorrow. http://twitter.com/#...026930176434176
Cunneyworth has long been my pick to replace him but given what I was reading a while back, it seemed as if his preference (and Montreal's) was to stay with the Bulldogs. Probably for the same reason why Muller is now leaving too, more guys seem to get promoted from the AHL than poached as an NHL assistant. I'm sure we'll see some names tossed out for speculation soon enough. Allow me to toss Peter DeBoer out there.
EDIT: Well, he's gone. Thanks for all your work, Captain Kirk.
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I always liked Gomez, but there is every indication that he has not bought into Martin's system - which could in fact explain his wretched performance last season (i.e., he's on one page, his linemates in any given game are on another). My theory is that he will only bounce back if he is prepared to buy in. Is he? We won't know until next season.
A Gomez who birngs his 'A' game is an elite playmaker with a tremendous rushing/transition game. A Gomez who does not bring his 'A' game is one of the worst second-line C in hockey. In either case he's overpaid, but in the latter case, he is a truly ridiculous waste of cap space.
If there is interest, I think he should be traded. His contract is the single biggest barrier to the Habs becoming a truly elite team. The problem consists in finding a replacement. In another thread, I discussed the possibility of a platoon (e.g., Connolly-Eller-Desharnais all spelling each other off). Brook Laich would be another possibility, not an elite offensive player but perhaps a better 'fit' than Gomez.
In the end, I think I'd prefer that the Habs move Gomez and then work on replacing him, than keep Gomez and hope he works out. The benefit of that cap space would allow us to, say, re-sign Wiz, or be ready to add almost any player(s) we like going forward. The risk is that we throw away a chance to contend in 2012 because we don't have an answer for the second-line C position.
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The language policy is stupid. But that's Montreal for you. It's not only a hockey team, it's also a business, and the business has to be able to speak the language of its customers. If Captain Kirk does leave, we'll just have to hope that Gauthier finds a good, strong replacement. Hardly anyone is indispensable, least of all assistant coaches.
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Hammer is sadly unappreciated by Habs fans, it seems. He's still a legitimate #4 defenceman - a #5 on bad nights - and will presumably get paid like one. The idea that he could command less than Gill is, frankly, comical.
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But is quantity a worthy replacement for quality?
It's an intriguing question! If you add an affordable replacement for Gomez (say, Connolly) you can get a de facto platoon going with him, Eller, and Desharnais. You're relying on depth at a position to drive all those players to excel, and also to spell one another off as each gets injured or slumps. In theory this could work. But there's no doubt a reason that more teams don't go in this direction - presumably you lose the chance to form cohesive line combinations, for instance.
Still, a dude like Connolly is interesting to consider. Assuming he has some gas left in the tank, you're getting a guy whose offensive production at least matches Gomez's when he's healthy, but who is guaranteed to miss 20-40 games per season with injuries, which drives his value down. So you're saving money, adding talent, AND leaving some openings for DD and Eller to get some time in the top-6.
Anyway, I doubt Gomer Pyle will be unloaded. There are plenty of bloated contracts in line ahead of him waiting to move to teams seeking to hit the cap floor. Spacek is a more realistic dump IMHO.
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Habs trade 77 for 97 and 108 (which is actually their own 4th). Montreal has 3 picks in the 4th round now.
Looks like they're hoping for some later-round gems.
Their pick makes sense given the depressing loss of Ryan MacDonough in return for Gomer Pyle (i.e., good young defenceman for a bag of pucks). As for drafting, all the evidence suggests that the Habs have done well in this area and poorly in the area of player development. But Gainey blew up the entire organization in this respect in 2009, so rather than thinking in terms of continuities, we should see that as Year Zero for player development.
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I can't wait for the Toronto media to blow him up into the second coming of Bobby Orr
Factoring in the loss of Kaberle, this seems like a lateral move. -
The difference between what Philly has done and what the Habs did in 2009 is that we destroyed a core of players that had conspicuously failed to deliver the goods on the ice, and replaced it with a core of proven veterans with Cup rings. Philly did something approaching the reverse of that, shattering a team that had made the Finals and replacing it with kids just out of kindergarten.
Elliotte Friedman was on the Team 1040 in Vancouver this morning and he basically confirmed Wamsley's suspicion: Ed Snyder's an old man desperate for a Cup and commanded Holmgren to sign Bryzghalov at all costs. Whether this ownership intrusion extended to these specific moves is a unclear, but Friedman implied as much, and for one of the all-time-tough SOBs in the sport (Holmgren) to break down in public really suggests that something has gone off the rails in Philly.
I sure hope so. With them in meltdown mode, the biggest single obstacle to the Habs coming out of the East would be removed.
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Hmmm. Good that they signed Markov, but you can't exactly say that this deal is a bargain for the Habs either in term or in salary. Maybe Markov wanted major security (say 6 years) and this represented a big concession. On its face, though, his injuries seem to have been fairly irrelevant to his bargaining position.
In the unlikely event that he is significantly damaged goods, everyone is going to be ripping this contract by Year Two
But like I say, good news. Now let's sign Wiz and go after the Cup!! -
You guys are totally doing what you say is bad to do with our Habs.
You judge with 0 inside infos. They've just been swept by the Bruins, it always cause trouble in an organisation that is supposed to be a contender. Who knows if Richards and/or Carter were unhappy ? Same for Pronger or Giroux.
True. But all we can go by is the knowledge we possess. And by those lights, this was a questionable deal if your goal is to contend now.
Richards and Pronger have butted heads before, so you could be quite correct. But having dealt one of the league's blood-and-guts all-around players and a 40-goal scorer, they're now relying on a guy with 8 games NHL experience (Schenn), another who has never scored more than 40 points (Simmonds) and an enigmatic youngster who frustrated Columbus (Voracek).
Add in the draft picks, and Philly is set with young talent for years to come. But does this make them better for next season? Maybe - but only if everything breaks their way.
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I can always see the argument for acquiring young talent, and Philly will still be a good team next season, but on reflection this is an absolutely bizarre move for the Flyers. Richards and Carter are only 26 - not even in their primes - and key parts of the core that took them to within one goal of the Stanley Cup only a year ago. You do NOT blow up a Cup Finalist that is nowhere past its prime. What a crushing indictment of that organization's total incompetence at developing or acquiring adequate goaltending. It looks to me as though Holmgren caught the Glen Sather disease of deciding he Absolutely Had to Have Player X and wound up going off the deep end in order to get him.
This is great news for the Habs. The one team that irrefutably had our number has shot its own foot off.
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Philly traded Carter and Richards today!
Mind-blowing. Presumably it's maneouvering to fit Bryzghalov under the cap, but holy macaroni.
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Holy crap, Philly unloading carter AND Richards!!!!
The first has been rumoured for a long time, but Richards?? Whoa.
(Naturally, the Habs can't manage to acquire either guy, despite their being a great fit for team needs
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We can only hope to get a Bettman point.
Thank you Gary! I'm thinking of that stupid Ottawa Senators inaugural game, where a piece of crap expansion team managed to eke out a win over us through sheer emotional hyperdrive. This is only 'pessimism' if you draw wider conclusions from this hypothetical defeat, which I wouldn't. -
Yes, re-signing him is a no-brainer. Whether we should sign him at $5.something for 2 years or lock him up long-term at a slightly cheaper hit is a bit of a fine point, really. The NHL no longer allows obvious scam contracts (e.g., lock him up until age 50 at bring his cap hit down to $2 mil). So you're only going to realize minor cap savings by signing him until age 39. The real issue is whether we will lose him as a UFA when his contract expires at age 34. I don't see this as a serious risk, since he clearly is committed to playing here and as likely to win a Cup here as anywhere else. In two years' time, we will have a better bead on the extent of his health and any decline in his performance, so it's a reasonable move by the organization to seek a short-term deal now, if possible. But you know, if they lock him up I wouldn't rip out my hair either.
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Years ago, when the Habs were annual contenders, I used to notice that we had more grudge matches/rivalry games per season than anyone else. Quebec? Check. Leafs? Check. Boston? Check. Calgary? Check. Hartford? Check. Buffalo? Check. Philly? Check. When Ottawa showed up, they considered us 'rivals' as well. Check. Any Original Six team? Check.
Even now, despite 20 years of mediocrity and thus little opportunity to build up playoff grudges, teams still get up to play the Habs, the team of myth and fable. And our recent resurgence means that Philly and Boston, once again, genuinely hate our guts.
This has its pros and cons. The 'con' is that you're going to lose games strictly due to being unable to match the intensity of your opponent. For instance, back when we were elite and the Leafs were total crap, they used to beat us a disproportionate per centage of the time, because they'd be totally hyped for the game and our guys would snooze. You're also at heightened risk of injury with all these grudge battles. When you're a so-so team, all this becomes really aggravating.
The 'pro' is that, if you have a good team, all these challenges make you better. You're accustomed to playing at a high level in high intensity games. This makes you a battle-tested squad come playoff time.
Of course Winnipeg wants to draw us for its opening game. When all is said and done, there is only one Greatest Franchise in the History of the Game. And it's us. For better and worse, it's a compliment. Take it in that spirit. But yes, we'll likely lose that game.
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We sometimes forget that winning teams usually have a surplus of talent. Look at Vancouver, sitting Keith Ballard. I see nothing wrong with having guys fight it out for their roster spot.
All Purpose QO thread
in Habs & Hockey Talk
Posted
A ridiculous analogy, but why waste time arguing about it. I look forward to seeing who the Habs replace him with, in any case. There does seem to be a lot of depth forwards going unqualified, so we may be able to identify a clear-cut better fit.