tomh009

There is a big range between a discounted contract and a gross overpay. A player will make some kind of value judgement between teams based on a combination of money and other factors.

Signed to a cheap AHL contract to be a backup--but Dobes is not doing any better.

The string of minor penalties has not been quite as bad as before. First four games they picked up 10, 20, 20 and 10 minutes in minors; in the last four it's been 10, 8, 12 and 8 (plus a penalty shot). Hopefully that's a trend that will hold.

I think the key will be goaltending. Thompson has one of the best GSAx ratings in the early going (based on only five games though) and Montembeault hasn't had a lights-out game yet. For sure, the Habs are not the favourite, but they could be in with a chance if Montembeault plays well--and they stay out of the penalty box.

Yeah. We'll see whether the numbers converge at all as the season goes on. I like Topdownhockey (Patrick Bacon) but a +9.8 for Allen in four games sure feels high.

Treat the GSAx numbers with a grain of salt, as there is no absolute truth to the "x" number, different stats sites will have significantly higher or lower numbers there. For example, Moneypuck is much more conservative. Here are their numbers for Boston: And the Habs: So, 10.7 GSAx for Boston, rather than 14.7--and 2.9 for Montreal, rather than 14.7! Naturalstattrick has 11.1 for Boston and 7.14 for Montreal. Who is correct? Or at least closest to reality? That's a great question ...

There is a difference between acceleration and top speed, though. I suspect Newhook will accelerate faster than Slafkovsky, but maybe Slafkovsky's power will allow him to ultimately reach a higher speed?

A few quotes from Mesar, from the local paper:

The Habs are now ranked 12th in the league for power play (22.6%) and 20th for penalty kill (75.6%), in spite of the early struggles. Who saw this coming? Yes, yes, still early and a small sample size ... but the special teams have actually looked better, too, in the last few weeks.

Laval's goaltending is struggling so far this year: Mann and Dobes are 61st and 62s (out of 66!), respectively, in the save percentage rankings.

I believe that will need to wait for the next CBA renegotiation.

Biggest ovation of the night when he failed to score on Allen in the shootout. 😂

Kovacevic had another great game, too. He and Matheson shut down the Jets' top line. And 23 minutes for Kovacevic (25 for Guhle). Kovacevic is a late bloomer, but he's looking like more than just a placeholder.

Yeah, pretty marginal. One the other hand, the Jets' too many men should have been a double minor, with two extra guys on the ice! 🤪

Maybe he will ... and maybe he won't. But at almost $5M/year he would need to be significantly better in order to provide good value, and that he has not yet shown. Would the 27th overall pick have been more valuable than Dvorak? Unclear as yet, it was a late first-rounder in a relatively weak draft, so it's unclear whether we might have been able to draft an impact player at that position. And the Habs would have needed to find a short-term centre for the team somewhere as well, usually don't find them on the waiver wire.

I think this is true for most teams. By the time a top player hits free agency, he has made a significant amount of money already, and what most of them really want to do is win the cup, so you need to be a credible cup contender (or possibly soon-to-be-contender) in order to be attractive. Pure home-town discounts really are not common? I really doubt Tavares would have been so keen on the Leafs without them having Matthews, Marner and Nylander on the roster.

I would really be encouraged by a 14th-best power play--if only we were 37 games into the season rather than just seven.

On a full-season level he has yet to exceed Dvorak's output. At 10% higher cap hit than Dvorak, he is no bargain.

Better yet, Quinn Hughes. But that really is water under the bridge.

The fastest X goals stat isn’t really meaningful since three-on-three overtime has been around less than ten years. Still, anyone that says we don’t have a skilled winger is not watching the same team.

It was very sad to see them losing to the Ducks tonight. 😂😂😂

Ahhh … I can see that it might piss him off.

Why did he start this particular fight?

Matheson cannot be a mentor?

A mid-first rounder for Barron plus Mantha's salary dump? Is that good value for the Habs? That means that Lehkonen + Mantha's salary would get us a first-rounder and a second-rounder.