tomh009

Well, Halak will also be available ... 🤪

Young, very promising goalies that are available for trade are unfortunately pretty hard to find. This would need to be a #3, and the team would need to be super confident that their two starters are capable and healthy for the long term. Not many teams would willingly trade away a likely future #1 goalie. If Price cannot play next year (and beyond), I expect we'll be at #2 or some variation of that. If Montembeault is the backup, and plays maybe 30 games (I wouldn't expect Allen to handle much more than 50), we'd probably see 5-10 weak games by him. Or sign a UFA goalie, leveraging the Price cap savings. A fair number of UFA goalies available but the good ones will cost significant money. https://www.capfriendly.com/browse/free-agents/2023/caphit/all/goalies/ufa?limits=gp-10-90

True. But that would mean effectively operating with a $72M cap when other teams have $82.5M.

As long Price doesn't go on LTIR next season ... 😓

An interesting proposal! How is Romanov's English these days? I recall it was pretty limited when he first arrived.

Which looks to be an improvement over a certain player who accepted an offer sheet and scored at a 35-point pace this year. That said, Bergevin’s gamble on being able to replace Danault didn’t work out. Not with Dvorak, and it surely wouldn’t have with Kotkaniemi, either. Now, if he had signed Danault and let Gallagher walk instead … in hindsight.

Leafs blow out Tampa Bay, Carolina blows out Boston. Didn't see those coming. Goaltending is surely a factor, too.

Welcome back, Alfredo!

What? The season isn't over yet? I'm taking a break from watching hockey for now. Maybe later in the playoffs, but not the first round at least.

Also, Gallagher gets no respect from the refs.

If Cooley ends up at 1.1x Wright, or 0.9x Wright, I'm OK with either one. I don't need the Habs to get the absolute best player in the draft (no one knows 100% at this point anyway), we just need a solid first-line/first-pair player.

Would he still be a viable player for the Rocket for next year, on an AHL-only contract?

Edmundson will be 30 at the end of his contract, and, apart from this season, has not missed a lot of games due to injury. I could see Hugo extending him beyond that, if Edmundson doesn't ask for unreasonable term.

Right. Neither Petry or Letang is really going to help us be a contender in the long term, what either one would provide is veteran leadership and stability for the young D-men for the next few years. But, unless Hugo is able to extract a king's ransom for Petry from somewhere, we'll end up with less cap space and still an aging D-man on a three-year contract. At which point I wonder whether it's really worthwhile, or might it make more sense to just keep Petry?

For how many years, though?

I agree -- I expect that Hugo would be able to negotiate a non-trivial asset in return.

That sounds about right.

I did forget about the contract slot. But if Price and/or Byron is also on LTIR, moving Weber's contract won't really help with the off-season LTIR, will it?

Is the game streaming somewhere?

If Price goes on LTIR, there is really no point trying to move Weber's contract. Once you are LTIR, the restrictions are the same no matter how many contracts are on LTIR. If Price and Byron both end up there, the cap situation suddenly totally changes complexion.

Kemell can shoot -- and skate -- too. I don't expect that he's a top-three pick but he does still look good. Three goals (including OT winner) against Canada.

I have to believe that, too. He played on a 49-goal pace (!) with St-Louis at the helm. Now, goalies will study him, as will opposing D, so it won't be as easy, and I'm not expecting him to score 50 a year. But certainly 30, and maybe he could be a 40-goal guy. Which would be awesome indeed.

3 D 1 RW 1 G in the top five. Maybe we'll need some more F prospects soon!

Both Bergeron Jr and Pastrnak Jr available to be drafted! 🤪

I think he can play in Laval but unless he really tones that down, I can't see him cracking the Habs' roster. Tough enough already with the new D prospects we have.