Commandant

Being a top 4 doesn't mean you have to score goals... But yes Hamhuis is still a significantly better defenceman than Emelin and a legit top 4 option.

The team's official statement is poor performance. KHL media is saying he missed a meeting and has had a poor attitude of late. he's still been a PPG player and their top scorer, so I seem to think its attitude. (not that attitude is acceptable, just reframing the discussion).

If you want true top 4 defencemen Becoming unrestricted this summer... Dan Hamhuis and Jason Demers. I have no problem paying for a physical defenceman who prevents goals with his physicality. If you want to pay the cheap price for a bottom pair guy, Adam Pardy, Eric Gryba, Ben Lovejoy, Mike Weber, and Kevan Miller make the same mistakes as Emelin at 1/4 of the price.

The twitter account reached 1 million followers Habs planned a celebration where if you tweeted them with a hastag #canadiensMTL1M they would send you a message. Some of them were photoshops of your twitter handle on a habs jersey Some were videos from a player saying "I heard you were a big fan, thanks for following the Habs" The bot had no filters on it (or ineffective filters) So it was making tweets to twitter names that were racist, vulgar, etc... putting those names on the jersey picture, etc..

You can't compare 2.5 million over three years with 1.16 million. One can be buried in the minors and the cap hit is basically gone. The other can't.

I think you could get a better defenceman for 1.5 million, yes. I think he has no ability to make a breakout pass, he hits but gets caught running around to do it and gets out of position, he doesnt have good positioning, and his pivots and skating are bad. In short, I think he's crap and needs to be replaced. there are plenty of D who can be physical and be more effective at doing other things too.

If it was just $1 million he was overpaid, that might make sense. I'm seeing it as closer to 2.5. As for being able to knock guys on their ass... thats only useful if doing it prevents goals. In Emelin's case, its pretty clear from the stats that he's the worst of our regular defencemen at leaking goals, so his hitting doesn't seem to matter much. I'm all for a physical dman, but that physicality has to lead to actual goal prevention. Cause that is the name of the game, put the puck in their net and keep it out of yours. His hits aren't keeping it out of ours.

Bartley is up with the big club

Hes a 6/7 defenceman at best so id shit on him at 3.5 million too. Physicality is good only if it prevents goals from going in the net. Plenty of physical d who prevent goals and scoring chances and that is fine. But the stats show that emelin isnt preventing goals and isnt preventing scoring chances... in fact hes bleeding them more than any other dman on our team. Yes teams need physicality on defence but it needs to be the type of physical play that clears the crease... that changes possession... and that doesnt get caught out of position in making the hit. Thats not what emelin is bringing. Hes a liability instead.

We are not signing him for his goals but for his ability to penalty kill and to play shifts without being a liability. That's fine at the bottom of the roster. Rather pay 1 million fot his 6 goals than 2 million for 10 goals. You get better returns saving that money for top 6 talent. As for length... hes 27 so im not too worried about signing til hes 30. On top of that the majority of his salary can be buried if worst comes to worst

no he isn't. Thats not worth 4.1 million.

We play the bruins 4 or 5 times a year depending on the schedule.... We need money to pay for players to score in the other games.

This is a great deal. Its exactly what I'm talking about when I've been talking about team building. Get rid of the third and fourth liners making 3 million plus. Get third and fourth liners, and 3rd pairing D and pay them all 1.0 - 1.5 million. Fill the bottom of the team super cheap. Then you can afford luxuries in Price's next deal, Stamkos, Subban, etc.... Thats how you do it in the cap world. Pay for elite talent... save money on the places where the upgrades to higher priced players only provide very marginal returns. I want the guy who scores 40 goals instead of 25 in my top 6 and I'll pay for that. I don't want to pay to have the guy who scores 8 goals instead of 6.

Here is the difference... Lucic is a physical player where the physicality of his forecheck actually leads to puck possession, scoring chances and goals. Emelin's physicality is shown, and you can see it in the chart, to have little effect at either generating possesion, or preventing goals against. I'm not against physicality, but that physicality has to lead to goals, or to preventing goals.. cause ultimately thats the point of hockey, to put the puck in their net and keep it out of yours. Emelin when he gets running around looking for hits isn't helping the team.

Bickell = 0 goals 5 assists in 18 playoff games, and his coach made him a healthy scratch for a number of games including most of the finals... yeah thats not a good playoff, no matter how you spin it. Bryan Bickell did not "step" up in the playoffs. As for Bickell vs Pacioretty... Pacioretty has played about half as many games and has more than half as many points, his PPG is actually better. But thats besides the point and a small sample size. Ask any GM what player they would want on their team tomorrow... since Bickell makes less money than Pacioretty and actually cleared waivers recently, I think i know the answer. As for replies, whether people agree or disagree doesn't effect whether Quick belongs in the top 5 goalies in the NHL, just means those people disagree with me. As for elimination games... Winning games is the function of a team.. not one person.

His usage is in the top bar, he's getting pretty easy minutes. So no, he's not top pair worthy when we increase the minutes and the opposition... that said the point here is that he gets paid way less than Emelin, and is way better. We should keep him around as a third pair defenceman who can fill in on the second pair if injuries hit, and probably retain him pretty cheap. He isn't going to be great, and he's gonna mess up, but he's good value on the third pair. Due to age and his cheapness, we should keep him unless we get a really good offer. Emelin, i'd trade if i could. .

Re: Barberio

Petry.

the question is if Price gives you 5 million worth of play over the average starter. I believe that the shots he stops is worth that. Having price also doesn't stop you from building the rest of the team. You gotta stop paying the DDs the Ellers, and the Emelins $11.1 million for the trio though

Yes its harder to score in the playoffs.... But statistics show us that when we get small sample sizes (a lot less games in playofs than regular season), we should expect some players to score at a higher clip but still instead of a standard deviation or 2..... so that doesn't prove clutch, that just proves normal statistical noise exists in hockey, the same way it exists in everything else with some degree of randomness. Exactly. Scoring rates 5v5 don't really change in playoffs.

I'd take claude lemieux on my regular season team, and I'd take him on my playoff team. I think he was a very good player. See my point isn't to diminish Lemieux's accomplishments... in fact its the opposite. Its to point out that the idea that he was merely good in the playoffs is flawed. This guy was pretty good in the regular season and the playoffs too.

If teams aren't offering a third, I'd just assume keep Barberio cause he's young, will be an RFA, and we are so thin on the left handed dmen.

Teams win and lose series though. We are talking about who is the best goalie. it is possible to be the best goalie in a series and lose. Its just like the NFL... Dan Marino is a better QB than Trent Dilfer, but Dilfer has a superbowl and Marino doesn't. This is a team sport, basing how good one player is based on his team's wins and losses is foolish.

Thanks for twisting the words. I never said he wasn't a factor. I said he was a very good player on very good teams. One player alone doesn't win a cup, it takes a very good team. A very good team is a collection of very good players. He was one of those players and obviously a factor. He was also a factor in making those same teams strong regular season clubs.

In any model you expect a few outliers, i'm not sure if this is "clutch" or if its randomness. We know thornton had a playoff series in 2004 when he scored 0 points in 7 games against the Habs. He was also playing with a fractured sternum.. thats skewing his stats. Does that mean he isn't clutch, or does that mean he played a playoff series in a condition he'd never play regular season games, skewing the numbers. Briere is still inside the line (and this study was done in 2012). If we include future years he starts falling more to the middle. Is that clutch or is it just random statistical noise. Everything about the data suggests random statistical noise. What is clutch? Its the ability to perform under pressure. And yes, that is something that varies in human beings. I bet we see plenty of clutch in beer leagues around the country. But this is the NHL. The elite of the elite have made this league, and its even more elite to be a scorer in this league. These players have faced pressure along the way and succeeded, cause if they had the talent, but folded everytime there was pressure to make a team, or pressure to impress a scout, or pressure in the junior playoffs, or whatever, they would have wilted then. But they didn't, and thats why they are in the NHL. So expecting some players to wilt now, and others to step up, is merely a narrative that talks about a general population, but this isn't a general population, this is a population of elite, talented hockey players. Ability to handle pressure rarely makes the difference here. Instead its the talent to play the game in tight checking, low powerplay five on five situations.