tomh009

Duh, I thought it was Kinkaid but it turns out that I was actually looking at Lindgren’s contract. Sorry. 😥

it seems that they gave the goal to Evans (who also assisted on the Fleury goal) with assists to Hudon and Kotkaniemi.

He is still under contract for another year.

The fourth line still gets a lot of minutes in Laval, does it not?

Alec Martinez going from LA to Vegas in exchange for 2020 and 2021 second-round picks. 32yo LD, 1g+7a this year, one year left on a $4M contract. https://www.tsn.ca/vegas-golden-knights-acquire-alec-martinez-from-los-angeles-kings-1.1445304 LA now has 11 picks in 2020 and either eight or nine in 2021.

That (speculative) line-up would actually give the Rocket a serious #1 line.

Julien is a good coach. But given the team's lackadaisical play in the third periods, as an example, I do wonder whether his relationship with the players has broken down. If we were to switch coaches, Gallant would be a very good choice. I don't think Bouchard is quite ready yet for a step up.

Agree that Kovalchuk would be a short-term solution. From an age point of view, Domi is a keeper. The question is whether he is a good fit for the team. I’m personally undecided on that.

Most prospects take more than one year (after being drafted) to mature. Goalies and defencemen even more so. That's why they are called "prospects". That said, it looks like this year's draft has nine very strong players to choose from, so at the pace the Habs are playing now we should get a very good prospect in the first round.

Yeah. It makes no sense to me to not have that discussion. Having that enables you to make a better decision.

If Bergevin succeeds in signing Kovalchuk to a short contract this week, I think all three should be expendable, as long as the price is right.

Pollock was a giant among men. But I do believe much of the opposition (other teams' GMs) are now better, too, than during his era.

I think Julien is a good coach ... but surely this is a coaching issue?

They got one. Tied with the Habs now, with three games in hand.

Yeah. But goaltending nothing to write home about, either.

And on today's episode of Ripley's Believe It or Not: https://twitter.com/The_Creasy/status/1229406070210211840?s=20

Absolutely the right move.

Detroit is 3-0 vs the Habs this season. Also 2-1 vs the Bruins. Not many other wins, though.

That's three second-round picks in this year's draft, and 12 picks total. Too bad, I liked Scandella, but you can't turn this deal down.

A nice article from 2013 here, starts off with the McCarron pick and a thrown laptop ... https://www.habseyesontheprize.com/2013/7/7/4486444/canadiens-habs-draft-nhl-debriefing-evaluation-philosophy-timmins-bergevin-mccarron A bad pick -- but was it a bad pick made because everyone was complaining about the smurfs?

Agree that he shouldn't have been. Just saying that another GM, too, might have been foolish enough to pick him in the first.

Back then, there were many other GMs looking for big, gritty centres, too ... not many of them foresaw the game changing the way it has.

OK, props to both of you for making a very valid point.

I would tend toward the roster not being strong. While the Habs have a great prospect pool, most of them have not yet made it to AHL (and Suzuki skipped it altogether). Who do we have in Laval that we hope will have a long-term NHL career? Kotkaniemi Poehling Primeau Evans (currently with Habs) Brook Fleury (only eight games this year) That's five by my (personal) count, others here may count differently. Marginal cases for Leskinen, Vejdemo, Hudon, maybe Olofsson. Juulsen and Teasdale injured so have not had any impact this season. I don't think that's an AHL contender team, regardless of the coach.

Subban was traded for Weber, who was clearly elite. Sergachev was traded (as a rookie) for Drouin, who had scored 53 points in 73 games and clearly had elite potential. McDonaugh was traded (as a prospect) as part of a package to get Gomez, who had scored 70 points for the Devils and was clearly elite. I don't think that's "peanuts" -- even if not all those trades worked out the way we hoped they would. I do note that in all three cases we traded younger players for older ones. That's the "win now" mentality that did not get us anywhere.