tomh009

Would be nice to do the same for Suzuki.

Scandella, Kovalchuk, Thompson and Peca moved so far. No major transactions yet, though.

We paid nothing to get him, he helped the team and scored a bunch, and we end up with a 3rd. It’s clear win, albeit a small one.

If they had added Petry and Tatar to the package, I'm sure they could have asked for a second rounder! 🤣🤣🤣

Given that both Scandella and Kovalchuk are now gone, I think we are clearly in the selling camp.

Too bad they couldn’t come to terms. We now have 12 picks in this year’s draft.

Technically a former Zamboni driver; he's the Marlies' building operations manager now. And an (occasional?) practice goalie for the leafs.

At least they had an NHL goalie.

Super happy for him.

Awesome for Ayres to get an NHL appearance though!

Tkachuk ... he may be a great player, but I really am happy we picked Kotkaniemi instead of this guy. I just wouldn't want to see him wearing a CH sweater. Sorry.

A puck-moving defenceman, of sorts!

A bad defensive play once again. Shockingly, it was the Sens, not the Habs -- and Domi tucks it in!

At this point no one is using the LD injuries as an excuse for where we are. It’s just the reason why the Habs had to recall Alzner — and the Rocket had to dip into the McGill roster.

Yes, it’s possible that he will be an 80-100 point guy. Too early to tell yet, though. At the time if the trade, I would not have expected that.

Tied at one halfway through the game. The two teams scored a minute apart early in the second, Alain scoring for the Habs.

Since Price, the only top-five picksare Galchenyuk and Kotkaniemi. Sixth through tenth picks rarely have real elite prospects available.

Ones that turn into 80-point players aren’t any more common, either, so prying one loose from another team is difficult. Why have we not had top scorers on the Habs for a very long time? At least partly because some of the very few times we had top draft pick we focused on goaltending.

They don’t even have 12 total between Montreal and Laval.

That’s not the strongest defensive line-up. Hope Primeau can hold down the fort.

Everything I have read about him says he's a good guy. We just overpaid him, I can't blame him for taking our offer!

Yes, adding a80-100 point guy would sure be nice, But there were only 27 80+ point forwards in the NHL last year, and 15 of 31 teams did not have one (eight teams had two, and Tampa Bay had three). So picking one up is by no means easy, everyone is looking for them and no one wants to spare one. That's why Panarin was a hot commodity a year ago.

Some additional perspective from The Athletic's story on Alzner this morning:

Kovalchuk is 36, but 0.57 PPG isn't entirely washed up. A late second-round pick has less than a 25% chance of becoming an NHL regular -- and several years later at best. In the meantime, Kovalchuk can help bridge the gap until Caufield et al are ready.

All of this. Yes. And if the situation warrants, we can rent him out at next year's deadline for a pick.