hab29RETIRED

You can't cmpare a guy that was injured for the bulk of the season to someone who played for most of the season. A guy with a long term major injury is not going to come back and start putting up points right away. I'm not saying Drury is a good contract, because the GOmez and Drury deals were the start of Sather's insanity in throwing stupid money (REdden, Rosizaal, or whatever his name was), but Drury was at least a leader and isn't the perimeter player that GOmez is and is/was their captain. The only saving grace for Drury is that at least his term is around 2 years less then gomez. Having said that, I think the rangers will probably eat his contract next year as well.

Wasn't Drury injured for a big chunk of the year? I don't think drury is worse value then gomez and I can't think of any contact that will be worse then Gomez next year. From a term perspective the only worst contracts are Lecavalier, but for the next 4-5 years at least he is a better cap hit than Gomez. The other one from a term perspective is Pronger and that's because he was over 35 when he signed, so hopefully he'll have to retire before the end of his term and the flyers will be stuck with his cap hit.

I've been saying the same thing since the day the damn deal was made and heard nothing but how Gomez deserved a chance and then later how critical Gomez was to be able to sign Cammi and Gionta. For the past two years I've heard nothing but how great of a skater Gomez is and how effective he is in gaining the zone. Doesn't seem to matter that he usually coughs up the puck after gaining the zone and is a useless perimeter player.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, the habs should try and lock up Price long-term, 7-9 year deal, pay him $4M for the first two year extention and average out the remainder at a $5M cap hit. Same thing with Subban - lock him up for 10 to 12 years at $5 to $5.5M average salary. Both are studs and both should be studs for a long time - I don't see Price as Jose v.2 - Frankly, i wasn't that big of a fan of Theodore and said he should have been moved after his MVP season then signing him to the contract the habs gave him. I was even more pissed when I heard of the Kovalchuk rumours (not sure how true the TSN rumours were, but if they were true, that non-trade is almost as bad as the Gomez and Roy trades. Anyway, I'd like to see the habs lock both up long-term. Why sign them to two year deals and risk having to pay more then $5M in two years time. If the habs ownership don't grow a pair and be willing to eat Gomez's salary in 2011-12, they better dump him in 2012-13, by then having Spacek and dumping Gomez would free up $10.7M which would pay for Subban and Price.

Do you honestly think its even possible to sign anyone to a contract that would bring worse value then Gomez???? I mean, there a lot of options for signing or trading for a $3.5M centre that could bring 30-40% more production for less then half the cost of GOmez. I doubt if there is a worse value contract in the NHL then Gomez (that hasn't already been dumped into the minors/overseas). Just how difficult is it to replace a centre who had 7 goals, 38 points, was a -15 and then in the playoffs demonstrated he couldn't win a facoff if his life depended on it. THe way people are afraid of dumping gomez with no options, you would think Gomez was a 50 goal, 100 point player. Hell, given the same ice time and linemates, I think Eller or Desharnais could surpass Gomez (even though, i think Desharnais is better suited to be a winger). IF the habs ownership was willing to eat his contract next year and then move him the following year, when his salary may be movable because his cap hit is considerably lower then his actual salary, there are LOTS of options the habs could pursue via free agency or trade and be in a better position then they were with Gomez. If ever there was a case of additon by subtraction, Gomez is the poster boy for it. Hell we gave away SK74, Grabs, Lapierre and Ribeiro for less then a bag of pucks and I heard nothing but they were necessary addition by subtraction moves, and then I see this constant love and fear of moving Gomez??? The guy has been useless and shown nothing but a downward trajectory. It hurt enough seeing McDonough eating up 18-22 minutes with the rangers and hurts now to see Higgins playing the type of role the Habs could have used against the Bruins, yet people are afraid of moving Gomez, becuase they don't think there is another viable option?????

We are paying $1.5M for Moen, I'd rather move Moen and pay Jagr double that.

I know he isn't a UFA, but have read the Islanders will probably trade his contract before the draft. At $550k, I'd imagine there would be a bidding war for him.

Well, I hate to beat a dead horse, but if we could bury Gomez in the minors we could afford to pay for Jagr. Forwards: Cammi-pleks-Jagr Gionta-Eller-maxpax Desharnais-ufa/laich-ak46 White-ufa/halpern-Boyd/other Hamilton option Defencemen: Markov-emelin Subban-gorges Wiz-weber Gill Goalie: Price Nabakov Of course to afford this lineupaim order to be under the cap we would have to bury Gomez in the minors AND find a sucker/creative way to dump Spacek

I'd love to get him, but he would have to be cheap and Jagr and cheap usually have not gone togetherl

i hope the habs finally do sign this guy - I won't be holding my breath until its official though. Anyone know the seriousness of the ankle injury - ie. sprain vs. break?? It would be pretty cool if we can find a way to dump Spacek and have a D consisting of the following: Markov-Emelin Subban-Gorges Weber-Gill Diaz I'd like to inject youth and speed into this past year's slow/old D core that we had. If we can also fit Wiz into lineup and have Gill as the seventh Dman, with Diaz as a potential platoon from hamilton, we would really be set. Having a pairing of a solid offensive Dman on each pairing with a solid defensive partner who is also capable of moving the puck AND also having a defenseman on each pairing who isn't afraid to play phyiscal would really give us one of the best D's in the league

typical Bruins crap at the end of the game against TB. Isn't there supposed to be a rule against that crap in the last two minutes. There NEEDS to be suspensions for that kind of crap - Lucic would be a repeat offender many times over for that nonsense. BUt of course with their heads up their aXX will never take action against this type of BS and naturally with Coli Campbell's son playing for the Broons, there is no chance in hell of the NHL doing the right thing

I think over the past two years, I've made it pretty clear how much I liked Sk74. The issue with him was the same with a lot of hab prospects, rushing them through, before they were mature enough to be on the big team and then the team doing a lousy job of dealing with a kid they rushed.

O'Byrne's -18 isn't much different the Wiz's +/- the islanders. The Avs fell of the face of the earth in the second half. EVERYONE on that team sucked. I think we got a decent prospect from him, but we can't keep up shedding our defensive prospects - particulary ones that have the potential to be strong physical net clearing forces. Particularly when it seems every year we are shedding draft picks for defensive rentals. I also think O'Byrne is going to go on to be at least a solid #4 type dman for the Avs. I'm not sure if Bournavil is going to address the same type of concern we have with all of our offensive prospects - lack of size.

You gotta be kidding me?? Brian Murray should have been fired for following up the Kovolev signing with signing Gonchar. He is pretty much washed up, is a one dimenstional old Dman. He was great Dman in his day, but he is not an upgrade. On top of that you want to throw in Weber??? Haven't we already made that mistake by throwing in McDonough AND the rights to the other russian dman (name escapes me now - guy who bolted to the KHL), on top of that. That would mean we gave up three damn good defensive prospects for the honour of taking two has been lousy contracts. I really don't understand why people are so eager to give upon Weber. I think he can be a solid #3/#4 dman with a great offensive upside in a cojuple of years. Have we not learned from giving up on O'Byrne???

I thought that for a big guy he really doesn't bring a lot of physicality. There were a lot of nights where with less ice time (since Moen was on the top 2 lines), he had a lot less hits then Pouliot and Ak46. Being one of the bigger guys on the team, he needs to be more physical then he was and I definatley wouldn't want Ryan White to play like Moen did. After his last call-up Ryan White was hitting everything in site, Moen most nights was more of a pussycat then a tiger. Not what I'd want on from a guy who should be a 4th liner getting $1.5M.

they gave him a 3 year deal??? Damn, i thought he was only signed to a 2 yr deal. Well, that adds another guy to my dump list.

Nothings impossible, but given the length of Gomez's salary it is improbable. I said back in October that Edmonton would be a good trading partner for Gomez, given that they were trying hard to get rid of Souray and they needed a centre to play between and mentor their young wingers. We could then let Souray rot away in the minors. But given that Souray only has one year left now and Gomez sucked even more this year then last year, I think the Edmonton ship has sailed. Other teams that need to get to the cap floor like the Islanders or Panthers, probably wouldn't want to pick up a guy with the term that Gomez has left.

I really don't want to give up on Ak46 - i'd even be willing to give him a 3-4 year deal. IMO the guys we need to unload are Gomez and Spacek and the guys we absolutely shouldn't be resigning are Moen, Hamrlik, Halpern, Mara and Auld. I also don't want Gill back unless we do manage to get rid of Spacek.

I'd have no issue of adding Frolov on a cheap contract. The original posting I replied to had Frolov/Harntell as a replacement for AK46.

I don't know, I think Cammi, Gionta, AK46 are all guys that could be more effective in a different system.

I hope he has the same mild concussion as Crosby. I hate the bruins, despise them, loath them. While I don't like teams that tank for a few years and accumulate #1 picks to restock and hate how the french media go ga-ga over the lightening because of the quebecers on the team, I really HATE, DESPISE and LOATH the Bruins. Did i make it more clear how much I HATE the bruins??? Just like I hate the flyers (for the same reason as the Bruins), I was hoping the flyers would knock the bruins out - and rooting for the flyers is not easy - because they are almost as dirty as the bruins. But as I said after the bruins knocked off the habs, the big bad boys from boston pretty much had a fairly easy path to the final 4, because the flyers have no goalie. Anyway, I'd much rather root for a team like TB who tanks it then root for the cockroaches from boston. I'm also hoping for a TB-Nashville final out of spite for the CBC. The habs took the bruins to seven games because they have one of the best goalies in the NHL. the flyers got swept because they played goalies that would be iffy in the AHL playoffs. I'd say sweeping the Caps is a little more convincing then beating going to the wire and beating them in 7 games. They also didn't need Roloson to steal games the same way as halak did in the habs wins.

I don't see how Frolov is an upgrade over AK46. Andrei has been much more consistent then Frolov and he plays a more physical game.

BTW, It really sucks to be in Montreal in May without Hockey. Just got in last night for a business trip, was really hoping the habs would still be playing during my trip. It sucks to be staying so close to the Bell centre and seeing trucks lined up for some other event.

I really hope Bergeron is out for more then 1 or 2 games. The Bruins deserve to lose their best player to a concussion at a critical time the way they go head hunting!!!! With the exception of the flyers, no team deserves to lose their top guy to concussions as much as these two do. I'd mention the Pens, but I think with Crosby out most of the year, karma already caught up with them for employing Matt Cooke.

I hope the habs sign both to 10-14 year deals at a reduced rate, rather then just the usual habs 2-5 year deals. Those are two guys I want to see in a Habs uniform for a LONG time!