TurdBurglar

Dvorak and Armia, totally agree, but they are basically untradeable unless you want to pay to rid the team of bad contracts on their last year. As for Savard, he's not a 1st pair guy and never has been. He's a decent 2nd or great 3rd pair shut down guy. He's effectively the same as Petry was on Edmonton before he was traded to Montreal. Therrian would play Hutson 7 minutes a game. He detested young players getting ice time and would play under performing vets over better youngsters.

In fairness, Guhle and Slafkovsky have only been out for 1-2 games and Laine wasn't apart of the team last season. Comparing the team to last year's team, there's the addition of Dach and loss of Harris, and I would agree with @Prime Minister Koivu that they are performing worse than last year. It's only early, so there's time to turn this around, but if they want to play meaningful games in March, they need to turn that around fairly quick here. Here's to hoping it's a slow start, or at some point they may have to look at replacing St. Louis and bring in a coach better suited to taking the next step with the team. I like St. Louis, but I've always questioned whether a first time coach was the best decision.

I don't understand that second goal. Clear as day someone was calling out "Ice, Ice, Ice," which is normal for an icing call. Maybe it wasn't a linesman?

It's a shame Xhekaj's defense isn't just a little better. Xhekaj does have a decent shot, and putting him on RD sets him up for being a prime one-timer option for Hutson. His defense isn't good enough to be played with Hutson for the amount of minutes they want Hutson out there for. It's something they should at least explore in short bursts though, maybe on the 2nd PP unit? Guhle would be a better option for minutes, but worse in terms of shot. Could be good for Guhle to be sent out with the instruction of rip almost every puck Hutson passes to him.

Dach and Newhook both have pass first mentality. Armia isn't the best player to play with them, as he passes first as well. Gallagher or Anderson would be better from the perspective of shooting, but both come with their own set of problems.

If a goalie is actively involved in the play, all players on the ice, except the opposing goalie are involved as well. The goalie isn’t actively in the play when the puck is at the other end of the ice, but all skaters on the ice are still actively involved. Just because the skaters aren’t touching the puck, doesn’t mean they aren’t involved.

Minutes played is misleading. While a skater is on the ice they are expected to be actively into the play. While a goalie is on the ice, roughly half the time they aren't expected to be actively playing. Paying attention, yes, but not actively into the play. As for the 75% of the total minutes, if they are only expected to be actively in the play about 50% for the time, that 75% goes way down to about 37%. It's also the equivalent of just over 61 games. Only 2 goalies broke that mark last season, 5 the season before. Where as skaters just need to break 22.5 minutes a game to pass that, something 35 skaters did last season. 82 skaters played over 35% of total minutes last season as well, so 35% isn't that rare.

I'm pretty sure the goalie salary logic comes down to games played. Forwards and defencemen are expected to play every game, barring injury of course, while goalies are only expected to play about 2/3 to 3/4 of the season. The price per game between a top goalie and a top skater are usually fairly close. McDavid is about $152k per game where Price at 60 games is about $175k per game. These numbers are based off of AAV, not actual salary.

Almost everywhere I look I see Liljergen rumours. A young RHD is something Montreal would be interested in. He also has a 2x$3m contract that Toronto is interested in shedding and Montreal can easily afford. It should be a fairly cheap acquisition if that is in the cards. Just pure speculation though.

100% there will always be a market. As @GHT120 is pointing out, if he hits free agency, he will likely have to decide between money or contending. As for Montreal offering Price a $10.5m contract, it was under the same management that signed Gallagher to $6.5m while he was declining and and unproven Drouin to $5m, amongst other questionable contracts.

If the Rangers can't find a trade due to the high contract ask, as Brian pointed out, it puts pressure on Shesterkin. Assuming he then hits free agency, he loses all the leverage he has now. I seriously doubt any other team will offer a goalie 8x$11m.

Dach has to stop trying to force the pass through the middle every time he gets the puck on the PP. Sure, it'll work once in awhile, but it'll cause a turnover and a zone exit far, far more.

Oettinger signed an 8x$8.25m extension. You'd have to think NYR isn't going to want go as high as $11m AAV for Shesterkin anymore. He's better but not that much better. It is hard to pull that off the table now though.

Despite losing, Barron probably played his best game of the season so far against Pittsburgh. LA is on the back end of a back-to-back. Should give the advantage to Montreal, should.

Good to see Matheson and Guhle taking advantage of 2 lefties on defense, you'll always have a one-timer on that right side.