tomh009

Yeah. But just “feels like” and “my sense” so no actual insider info. We’ll know in three days, though.

Ahh, did not look so deeply!

40-point pace last year, too — and at a very team-friendly cap hit of $1.5M.

Assuming it’s not just TB that’s willing to pay two firsts…

In case this was addressed to me ... my view is that Lehkonen is valuable (though not irreplaceable), and while we have many other wingers, they are not quite the same. What I have proposed is that Hughes/Gorton should see whether they can sign Lehkonen to a good contract before trading him away. And that is what it appears that they are doing. That doesn't mean overpaying, but HuGo have way more information (about the team strategy, about the Lehkonen performance and about the contract possibilities) than I do, so I will trust their judgement on this. As I will trust them on their asking price if they do decide to make a trade.

Dreger can't spell "Artturi" either! 🤪 OK, that makes perfect sense: I really expected them to explore the contract before making a decision.

All unlikely. But, all for different reasons.

So far, only Toffoli and Chiarot traded; both would have been on the older side by the time we get to 2024 or 2025. Will that be the plan? Hard to judge based on only two trades.

Would MAF be the obvious choice?

If they extend Kulak for another year or two at a friendly price, that might be fine until we are ready to transform into a contender.

Nerdville, FL! 😂

Florida cleared about $5M in cap space, and we're retaining half of Chiarot's salary so they still have space. I expect the Panthers will be doing another significant trade yet in the next few days.

Most GMs tend to think like Bergevin: anything can happen in the playoffs.

Yeah, it’s the gap between Price and the three kids that I worry about. We don’t know how long Price will play, and neither Primeau or Montembeault is inspiring confidence at the moment. Hopefully Burke can help guide one or both to step up a level in the off-season.

Ed Wheeler also ranked him eighth in his prospect review a few months ago in the Athletic. He was a bit more pessimistic about the potential, though, basically seeing his ceiling as a bottom-six forward. Regardless of how well he turns out, I think HuGo did well on this trade.

Looks good but … goalies are voodoo and it’s a long, long way from Ohio to the Bell Centre.

Yeah, it’s a credible assumption. We just won’t know 100%.

The question is less of Dauphin than of Poehling: has he reached his ceiling or not yet?

Dauphin can play C and appears to be at least as good as Poehling. And then there is Pitlick (Rem), too. That's five centres (not counting Perreault), so I should hope we can get a credible 3C and 4C from that bunch, at a minimum.

No, not a terrible return. But we are not short of 3C/4C guys. If we acquire another centre, it really needs to be someone with solid 2C potential. Otherwise I'd rather spend all our credits on D.

I think Vegas is second only to Habs on the injury front this year.

I wonder whether it's really that Ducharme was so bad, or whether it's that St Louis has enabled Caufield. A lot of NHL coaches believe in their systems, and want the players to fit into those systems. This clearly didn't work with Caufield and Ducharme's system. But St Louis' approach really seems to be to allow the players to do what they can do best, and then build his system/concept around those players.

Habs hold down eighth and ninth in rookie scoring at the moment. Caufield … and Pitlick! I do expect Caufield to finish in the top six at least.

Now tied for 10th in rookie scoring.

No argument on the bad early goal on him. But that was also $6.5M worth of D in front that didn't bother with defending. As with the second goal. I just saw no effort on either play.