Commandant

I think a lot of people are assuming that Gallagher is going to replicate the same stellar training camp he had this year, next season and force his way on the time. He might, but there is no guarantee. I remember PK Subban had a similar camp before his last season in Belleville where he was the last defenceman cut, and a lot of people expected that he would show up at the 09 camp and make the team. He came in and didn't have near as good a camp... played the full season in Hamilton (except for 2 games), came up in the playoffs and the rest is history.

Brian Gionta's brother, Stephen scores his first ever NHL goal today. Gives the Devils a 3-2 third period lead on the Sens.

If the Rangers win today, they will clinch the president's trophy. They have the ROW tiebreak with Vancouver. If the Blues lose today (either regulation or OT), the Canucks will clinch 1st in the Western Conference. There is a chance the Canucks game could be meaningless to them by the time the Blues game ends (probably around 1st intermission of the Canucks/Oilers game).

Our coach won't break up the number 1 line and try some new combinations because he's desperate to pad his resume for his next job. Even though breaking up that line would be best for the team long term, not just tanking wise, but also to see some of our young players like Leblanc, Eller, and Palushaj get better opportunities and find out how good they can be. But Randy wants to win. For that reason, I see no chance we play Mayer.

I think you missed the point of my post here. The videos DO NOT replace the scout being in the rink. We've seen Timmins travelling all over the globe. In the last month he's been spotted at Sarnia games, at Quebec Remparts games, and in Leksands Sweden viewing Forsberg. The fact that the Habs added video scouting was not to mean they'd have less scouts at actual games, but was something to be used in conjunction with actually attending games. I agree that actually being in the rink is best, and you can't replace that experience, but that was never what video scouting was intended to do, and thats not the way NHL teams are using it. If you get a chance take a look at the article. The Habs (and most NHL teams) aren't using video as a replacement for live scouts, but as a compliment to it.

Nash has exactly 1 season above 70 pts... Rocket Richard or not (and his Rocket Richard was 41 goals, the lowest total for a Richard winner ever), thats still not enough to put him in the class of the guys I've listed. He's a reliable 30 goal 60 pt guy, but I'm still not sure thats worth nearly 8 million a season and the level of prospects you need to trade to get him. I think he's overrated.

I don't think its fair to Koivu to ask him to play that role. I'd love him to do it, but I think he'll get third line offers elsewhere, and for a lot more money. I see two options for Koivu. 1) Selanne plays one more season, he stays with the Ducks. 2) Selanne retires. Saku goes to Minnesota to add some offence to a team that desperately needs it and to play with his brother. He'd easily be their number 3 centre, and the two Koivu's would be great mentors for Mikael Granlund who should come over from Finland and take their #2 job next season.

Yes we have a good core... in trading Plekanec, Markov, Subban and the 1st round pick in your trades you have stripped that core. In addition you've traded Gallagher, one of Tinordi/Beaulieu, and Eller... all guys who are growing and will be the complimentary pieces around that core. We need to continue to build with young pieces. Thats the only way to win in the NHL... build slowly. There is no quick fix available. I expect that next season we'll be back to fighting for a playoff spot, and in one or two seasons after that we can compete for the Stanley cup. How? By building around the franchise cornerstones that are a 24 year old goalie with franchise ability, a 22 year old defenceman who is already the team's best, a 22 year old winger who has already put up 30 goals, another highly drafted forward, Lars Eller a 22 year old centre whose shown two way ability. Compliment those guys with vets like Gionta, Markov, and Plekanec, and add to it a stable of young up and coming Dmen, and a few talented wingers in Gallagher, Leblanc, and Kristo, and you've got a recipe for success. Blow the whole thing up, and you've got a recipe that might work to make you a playoff team for a couple years, but not a true contender. Then as Nash and Green decline, you've shipped out all our young assets and we look an awful lot like this years Calgary Flames or the 2007 Toronto Maple Leafs. An aging club with nothing in the pipeline. Its a recipe for disaster IMO. As for Nash, again a good player, even a very good player but not a true elite one in the mould of a Stamkos, Crosby, Ovechkin, Malkin, Datsyuk, etc....

1) I don't see Desharnais becoming an 80 pt player, but I do believe he can maintain his current production. I still think he's a winger though, not a centre long term as there are just too many defensive deficiencies in keeping him at Centre. I think that once our first rounder this year is ready, it will push Desharnais to the wing. A quick look at the plus/minus of the Patches/DD/Cole line at home vs what they do on the road can confirm what I've been talking about all season. When opposing team coaches get the ability to match Desharnais against their big powerful centre, he can't control their cycle game in our end of the rink and we get dominated. 2) I'd love to bring Koivu back, but I don't think he fits with the current lineup. If Koivu came back it would mean Eller is forced to wing and our top 3 centres next year are Plekanec, Desharnais and Koivu. I love that guy, and I love the idea of him retiring as a Hab... but he just doesn't fit. I'd rather keep Eller at Centre where I feel he's more effective and where he's needed IMO.

I agree that we shouldn't have more than two small guys. I'm just saying that players who are 5'10 and above shouldn't be considered "small guys"... like a St. Louis, Gionta, Desharnais, etc... I don't put Plekanec in that same classification. Guys who are 5'10 and 5'11 don't face the same issues that guys like Gionta, Gallagher and Desharnais will face. For now, Gionta and Desharnais are on the team... on seperate lines. Gallagher starts in the AHL, and I don't see a huge problem with the rest of our size. Not at forward anyway. The area that this team needs to add size is on defence.... our forwards have plenty at this point in time.

Profile #2 from our site. http://lastwordonsports.com/2012/04/06/nhl-draft-prospect-profile-2-mikhail-grigorenko/ Expect 3 and 4 to be up before the lottery.

Yeah i listed him last for that reason. Good chance he's overpaid.

Just as a good frame of reference of what to expect from Nash. What Pacioretty did this season is what Nash does every year. Thats not a bad thing. But is it something you give up the #3 overall pick plus two excellent prospects to get? I don't. Nash is a good player, but he's not in the class of elite players and at 7.8 million per season, and at that cost in terms of trade value wise, I'm not sure he's worth it. There is a huge difference between Plekanec at 5'10 and guys like Desharnais who are 5'6. I've never seen Plekanec as a guy whose size holds him back in the defensive zone. Desharnais absolutely it does.

Overall I want the guy who will be the better player in 5 years not necessarily who will be the better player next year. You are probably right that he isn't ready to make the jump yet, but you never know, he's a gym rat and could show up to training camp ready to perform. We won't know til September hits, but again its not the main concern. I just prefer his grittier game and two way play to Grigorenko.

Grossmann resigned for four years 14 million in Philadelphia. DAMNIT he was a good candidate for us. Gotta go after one of Jackman, Allen, Stuart, Jurcina, or here is another name Jason Garrison next year. Garrison has scored 15 or 16 goals or something this year and I don't expect him to do that again, but he's a reliable defensive player too... flown under the radar in New York.

Nash has exactly one season in his career of over 70 pts... In Most seasons he produces around what Cole and Pacioretty produced this year. This year he put up less than them.

Subban is better than Green right now. Much better defensively, and Green has lost his offence even when he does play. Green has also sucked hard in the playoffs. Markov is infinitely better than Troy Brouwer. NHL 12 would reject this trade from the Habs side of things.

Not true at all.... video scouting is being added as an additional resource for these guys, not as a replacement for amateur scouts. It is quite simply impossible to have a scout at every game and video scouting is an additional resource that helps. There was an entire article about it in the 2012 Hockey News future watch and Video Scouting is now a tool that all 30 NHL Teams are using. Video scouting is the wave of the future. Instead of having old school hand written scouting notes on a player, its now all digitized and all available at the push of a button. When you've got a player like Galchenyuk who hasn't played all season, you can grab your tapes and look again at what he looked like at 16 instead of just having written notes. You can compare Galchenyuk and Grigorenko side by side and back to back which makes ranking the two of them easier... rather than looking at the notes of one scout in Ontario and the notes of a second separate guy in Quebec as the only comparison between the two. The Habs and all other NHL teams using video scouting are using it as a way to augment their regular scouts. So they can review tapes and review notes even when they are on a plane, or on a train, or in the office. During the day when no live games are being played. This doesn't mean they've stopped going to rinks, or that these videos are better than having a scout in the arena, just that its another add on to do things.

So what that he was in our backyard... we don't have exclusivity over the QMJHL... 30 teams are scouting in the Q. Are the Bruins bad scouting because we took Pacioretty out of the USHL and the New England Area, or did the Leafs ###### up more because we got Subban from Ontario? This is dumb... there are 30 teams and they are all gonna have scouts in every league. We don't get an advantage. But besides all that it was one pick, and yes he should have taken Giroux, but so should have 21 other teams who didn't take him. Every scout makes mistakes, but overall Timmins has a better track record than every other team over the same time period.

You can look at any scout and hindsight the picks and say nearly every one was a mistake. Hind sighting picks is bullshit. 20 other teams passed on Giroux too. The best way to look at things is to compare the percentage of picks Timmins has hit on vs. every other team. The studies have been done and TT is the best in the business by that ranking.

I wouldn't do any of the three proposed trades? I don't understand the desire to strip all our young players for overpaid declining players in Nash, Green, and Stastny. Don't get me wrong I'd take two of those guys Nash and Stastny but not at the prices you are paying. Those deals look like Quinn era leafs trades when they stripped the farm system for Owen Nolan, Brian Leetch, and Ron Francis etc...

Everything I hear is that they have dual needs, both Centre and Defence. For this reason they will go BPA. They don't have faith in Gagner as a Top 6 player and would like a centre with size to go with RNH. They also have a lot of defence prospects but no one they can look at as a surefire #1. So I think they'd like both, but they are going to have to make a choice. For that reason they will let Stu MacGregor (there head scout) tell them who is the best player out of Grigo, Galchenyuk, Dumba, Murray. If they get first overall, they'll go Yakupov just because he's so much better than everyone else. The only guy in the top 7 who I think they definetely won't touch is Forsberg.

Ellis won the award for defensive defenceman of the year in the QMJHL Both Ellis and Beaulieu made the 2nd allstar team too.

Lets remember those rankings from Bob McKenzie haven't been updated since January. In January Galchenyuk wasn't playing... his knee was a big question mark. Today that is no longer the case. I'd also say that Grigorenko's second half wasn't near as impressive as his first half this season (due to the ankle injury mostly). Grigo's a good player and I'd be happy with him, but I'd rather have Galchenyuk

Timmins results speak for themselves. Best scout in the NHL.