Commandant

Its all about the older players. Virtually no players from CIS (or U-Sports if you will) make the NHL, while most of the Canadian Junior Team gets at least a shot in the NHL. Yet every year when Canada has their world junior camp, the exhibition games against CIS all-stars are very competitive, the CIS often wins. The CIS teams also usually beat NCAA teams cause again older. At 18, 19, vs 23, 24 its huge advantage.

He's better than Alzner but not as good as Savard, and I don't think Savard is that good. Again, the only way I take him is if the Sens are taking Armia or Hoffman.

Missaien? He was a bust, he had the same issue that many tall goalies have, weak five hole... as well as the issue many young goalies have, weak rebound control. he was always a project but never worked out.

Sure, they seem to have a bit of room on the 50... 43 on Cap Friendly, which is likely to be 44 with Slafkovsky, and becomes 45 if Mesar goes to Lava instead of Kitchener., so you can make two claims.

Chiarot wasn't even that good, but he could play top four without embarrassing himself. Assuming a prospect will become "a lot better" than him before playing a single AHL regular season game, never mind the NHL, is absolute foolishness.

I love Beck. He does all the little things right. That said, I would reward him with his ELC and send him back to Mississauga. Let him be a number 1 centre in the OHL and develop his offensive game a bit more. Its a league where he can take chances that he wouldn't be allowed to in the NHL. Mesar is a bit different cause he can go to the AHL where Beck can't, but I'd still send him to Kitchener under the same theory.

Yeah, Roy was drafted in 1983. Size has changed a lot, and its not just goalies though. How many guys were 6'6 and bigger in 1983 vs now.

Zaitsev is shit. The sens want to dump his salary. if we can dump Armia as you suggested, then yes, I would do that, just to have one year less of the contract. But I don't expect anything at all out of Zaitsev other than to be a placeholder. I'd also do the trade cause we have a surplus of wingers and not enough RD so its good to move those place holders around to where we need them. That said Zaitsev is nothing more than a place holder while kids develop. If its not a salary dump for us too, then I don't want Zaitsev.

Yeah, teams shy away from small goalies unless they are super, super special.

24 hours yes It all depends if you think he will be the best RD avaiable on waivers, or if you want to wait for someone else.

Its not just Dichow. Goalies are voodoo and we don't know which one will develop. See lundqvist, Halak, and a number of late picks that came out. The hope is one of Dobes (who i think is the best right now), Primeau, Dichow, Vrbetic, Croteau develops. There isn't one option, there are five right now, plus I expect them to keep taking one goalie prospect per draft.

Obviously I'm not guaranteeing he will make it. I'm just saying the type of player he looks like. The #62 is appropriate as he looks a lot like a Centre version of Arturri Lehkonen.

And there is such a huge jump from being an OHL overager to NHL with no AHL time that expecting Xhekaj in the NHL to start the season seems very unreasonable. If we have a minor league defenceman filling in, its far more likely to be Corey Schueneman.

Beck looks like a Danault type, so lets set our expectations at a reasonable level in terms of offence. His game will be more based on his value in playing the PK and against other team's top lines. I think Dach will be more offensive and not be in the role of playing against top lines. Suzuki is gonna be playing against the other team's top six line. Beck will be more a replacement for Dvorak.

I was listening to the Locked on Habs podcast this week and they had on one of the Locked on Blackhawks hosts to talk about Dach. Apparently Dach had respectable numbers with good linemates. Nothing world beating... but good solid numbers for an 18/19 year old when playing with Kane or Toews or Debrincat. The issue was when he was on the third line and didnt have one of those guys the numbers fell off an absolute cliff. Now of course every NHL player does better with good linemates vs poor ones but Dachs change was one of the biggest and most dramatic in his analytics. What that means is a bit hard to say. It can be read in a bad way that he cant drive play for a line. Or it can be read that this is a young player who plays better when given good players to work with and he will need that to grow as a prospect. Its really something Id have to watch him more to be able to get an eye test on what is happening to cause those numbers. But to say he didnt succeed with good linemates isnt true. He did well with top quality on his line. He just totally disappeared without it.

Arpon Basu and Marc Godin on their podcast said the Habs have been looking at other teams potential waiver exposures and are planning on grabbing at least one dman. They are making a list of guys they like who could be waived.

Who is expecting him to go to top 4 d. Savard and Wideman are veterans whose development wont be hurt if they play top 4 minutes to start. Another vet may come on waivers too. Then as they get experience Barron or Harris can take more minutes and pass those guys as the season goes along and they are ready for it. Sure this wont make for a good team but we know that this isnt a good team to begin with. The whole thing is to use the year for development of Harris, Barron, Guhle and forwards like Slafkovsky, Caufield, Dach, etc... Whether that is AHL big minutes, NHL third pair/third line, or NHL top 4.. you put them into the roles they are ready for. And the roles they start in likely wont be where they are in March.

Between David Savard, Chris Wideman, Justin Barron, Jordan Harris, and Madison Bowey, they have enough players if a warm body who can play in the NHL for one season is the criteria. They need a long term solution at the position, either through development of one of the above named prospects or a trade, but for a season we aren't expecting to compete, there are enough warm bodies to dress three RD per night.

Erik Johnson is coming off the cap after this season. They will have plenty of space from that. The two most painful moves for the Avs cap are ones that they have already made, allowing Nazem Kadri and Darcy Kuemper to walk as UFAs.

Trudeau was solid and his passing from the back is very good.

I thought Owen Beck was very impressive. Very Danault-like game from him.

Sure, I hope so too. Realistically, I wouldn't be surprised if Mesar is in the OHL though.

It would be very, very unusual for two rookies to be part of the best line in the AHL. Add to that the fact that 18 and 19 year olds often struggle in the AHL (most AHL rookies are 20) and I'd really say to adjust the expectations especially on Mesar. This is still a men's league where the 26 year old (or older) veteran journeymen who are not quite good enough for the NHL, tend to dominate.

Nick has proven already to be a mature young man. Im not worried about him dealing with being the captain.

After all the money lost due to Covid, you knew this was coming, and the reality is that once its there it's never going back. As for placement, they put it where it is prominent... front of the jersey is shown more on TV then on the shoulders. You think that if they could get double for two shoulders, they wouldn't do that? LOL. They are putting it where its making the most money. Both players and owners want this, so it's a battle we can't win. Might as well just accept it at this point.