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lafrous10

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Posts posted by lafrous10

  1. While I find myself agreeing with alot of what you say, in fairness, you need to put your brilliance on display and suggest a trade in line with the gist of the thread.

    Fair enough,but other than PK and our 1st rder,we have no one we could make a significant,team improving trade. Here's what I got: PK,1st rder , and either Eller or Kristo for Eric Stall.We have our big # 1 ctr after 20 yrs.Other than that,realistically

    Gill to Chicago for a 2nd

    Moen to Vanc or Pitt for a 3rd,I don't think he's ever got 20 pts for those dreaming of a late 1st

    AK to Nash or Minn for a 2nd and or tough prospect

    Kaberle unmovable bc of contract

    Keep Campoli to fill roster space

    Keep Weber for same reason and maybe he'll break out,or surpass someone here.

  2. Somewhere, Saku Koivu is crying. For years, we've ignored the size factor while drafting, signing and trading. For years, we've had regular sized and small sized players. Some exceptions (komisarek, quintal, ivanans) but, never more than 1-2 at a time.

    Until now, it seemed that they denied totally that factor ...

    Erik Cole, Max Paccioretty, Rene frikkin Bourque

    (and, to a certain extent, Travis Moen & Blunden, when you think that we had Steve Begin in that role before)

    I mean we drafted signed and traded for those guys. What was so tough? I'm saying Saku b/c it's a fact, his play has been hindered by the fact that his wingers were Bulis, Zednik, Czerkawski, Berezin, Savage (ok, Recchi too), etc.

    The last big winger this team had was Shane Corson. We did get a declining (well, at that state, it's not an active tense, but a past tense : a declined!) Randy McKay... But what else? What was so tough to understand?

    We had 30M$ to spend on the Market 2 years ago and we went ALL IN on... smurfs? yes, they played well, while it lasted... but fact is, right now, Among our best players night in night out, there is MaxPax, Cole, Bourque etc. and their size IS A FACTOR.

    There is not much difference between the way Cole and Gionta play. But between the two of them there is 35 lbs and 7 inches.

    So congrats for getting them, but GEEEEZ, let that be a lesson and always try to balance the size factor on the lineup.

    Gainey always said he wanted to surround Saku with big top 6 forwards. He never did.And every analyst,scout, former player and knowledgeable fan wknew we needed this size upgrade ever since we got took 7 games by an inferior,but physical #8 B's team and then k.o'd by Philly in the 07-08 playoffs,as a #1. And our last 3 k.o's have been by the B's or Flyers. Team hasn't been built to go all the way to the cup with the playoff gauntlet.Our defense is still the softest/smallest in the league.Size only matters when you playbig.Look at Gill and Enquist.Begin was much more physical than Blunden or Moen though not that big

  3. If we are gonna bring up all the bad trades, why those. Only one of those deals was made by our current GM.

    Hell one of your deals is 16 years old now.

    Why not bring up?

    John Kordic for Russ Courtnall

    Paul Reid and Guy Allen for Ken Dryden and Alex Campbell

    Craig Rivet for Josh Gorges and Max Pacioretty

    and more

    But whats the point? None of those have any relevance today. Just like none of the trades you brought up have any relevance.

    Actually they all have relevance for today. The Roy trade started the downward spiral of this organization,and all the other ones he listed are very relevant. I know some of you guys don't want to admit it,but PG was the pro scout and asst. for BG for all the trades BG made.We're turning as irrelevant as any team because of our lack of success the last 18 years

  4. LTIR - you don't lose cap space.

    I explained this to you before, and you keep bringing it up that we are losing cap space on Markov if he doesn't play?

    Why?

    Because right now it doesn't matter. I'm talking the off season/beginning of next year. We can't go sign a $6-7m dman if we're unsure about Markov's availabilty. It can't seem anymore simple then that. Only after he misses X amount of games does that LTIR open up,and by then our season could be sunk.like this year.How can you spend $6-7m on a dman and Markov pronounces himself ready to play.then your over the cap.It's a team game,you can't hold the team and season hostage for a false loyalty to an individual.

  5. <p>

    I think its criminally underrating what Plekanec has done for this team. Sure he's having a bad year, but he has 69 and 70 pt years before. I dont think Desharnais is gonna get to that. Hell Desharnais has been playing with the two best wingers all season, and has 2 pts more than Pleks.

    When things are going good,Pleks is our best all around forward.Trading him would be a lateral or worse move,considering who we'd probably get back. Also one of the only Habs who play with a mean strek. He'd be a great fit in Philly or Boston

  6. I get graduating a lot of youth the past few years but we have very few quality prospects...our system depth projects poorly too. Given where we've performed in recent years its hard to consider this even an average system.

    All the "experts" rate our prospects and system pretty low.I rate it as middling.Too many #3 ctrs and small forwards.Beaulieu and Tinordi seem to be our 2 best,imo. I think our prospect depth has been poor since around 07-08. Just another case of Hab fans overrating our team and /or players.Like I've said,we have only 1 player to even get a sniff at the NHL over the last 4 drafts.

  7. The problem with acquiring one through trade is that to get a quality #1 D, you have to give up plenty of assets. The problem with acquiring one through UFA is that there wasn't really any available, and it's not guaranteed they would sign here anyway. The Wiz was an option but he was only brought over to fill in for the hole that Markov created by getting hurt. Nobody knew that Markov would STILL not be playing over a year later. PG merely made a choice at the time with the information that he had. Personally, I would have been PISSED if he didn't resign Markov, and still would be. You don't just walk away from your best player who has been with your team for 13 years, getting nothing in return IMO.

    Well we got nothing for Saku,Souray,Komi and Kovy and they weren't coming off multiple knee surgeries.Now what happens next year? Do we lose another $5.75m in cap space hoping for him to return,and for him to be what he was. It will be basically be 2 full years w/o playing hockey.The defense will be even worse next year,b/c Gill won't be here.At the very least our PK will be worse. I don't like to hold this team hostage for 1 player. We've done that with Price already.It doesn't work,and the rest of the players know it also.

  8. I'm not on the Subban trade bandwagon, but I think if he packaged him with Kostistsyn, we could get a great return.

    TO NASHVILLE

    Subban

    Kostitsyn

    TO MONTREAL

    Ryan Suter

    TO OTTAWA

    Travis Moen

    TO MONTREAL

    Zenon Konopka

    5th rounder

    TO PHILLY

    Tomas Kaberle

    TO MTL

    Marc-Andre Bourdon

    TO COLUMBUS

    Chris Campoli

    TO MTL

    Future Considerations/Bag of Hockey Pucks

    TO PITTSBURGH

    Hal Gill

    To MTL

    Second Round Pick

    TO BOSTON

    Yannick Weber

    TO MTL

    Chris Kelly

    The Gill proposal and Campoli scenarios are the only one's that have a chance.The rest are a little silly. We could have got Konopka for a cheap UFA,and Kelly for Weber ? C'mon

  9. Whoa whoa whoa. I guess I misread the thread, I figured that we were predicting trades...let's face it, with the Habs braintrust any of my trades could be possible. Let's revisit these genius moves over the years...

    Patrick Roy

    for

    Jocelyn Thibault

    etc

    Mikhail Grabovski

    for

    Greg Pateryn(NCAA freshman at the time)

    Sergei Kostitsyn

    for

    Dustin Boyd

    Ribeiro

    for

    Stephane Robidas

    and lets not forget

    Scott Gomez

    for

    Chris Higgins

    Ryan McDonagh

    I know it's easy for all fans, myself included to be excited about some new picks/prospects, but most likely the trade deadline will be yet another "welfare Christmas" for our beloved Habs.

    Ribeiro got traded for Niniima,another great deal for this regime

  10. Gotta tell you after reading the post of Lovetts Magnatone, of the proposed trade of Subban and Kostitsyn for Ryan sutter. Not only would we be raped but setback as well for another 3 years at the least. Yes I know Sutter is an excellent d-man but why in the hell would we make this trade when we have already a franchise d-man whose potential is through the roof, 5 years younger, and would be 3 million dollars cheaper for the next couple of years when resigned. I don't even want to talk about Kostitsyn because that just adds insult to injury by including him in this trade. If gauthier decides to stupidly even consider trading Subban he better be getting back a superstar Center something the team seriously lacks. So here is my proposed trade if god forbid we should trade subban.

    PK Subban, Thomas Plekanec, Andrei Kostitsyn, and Yannick Weber to Anaheim.

    For Ryan Getzlaf, Bobby Ryan, and a 3rd round pick.

    I think this would be the best deal for montreal by far. It may seem like a lot from our part, but i think not. Allthough he is a good number 2 center, I believe plekanec time with montreal has run its course, gauthier has finally realized we need to get bigger physical players (especially at center) and lets face it plekanec does not fit that bill in any way. And also i believe we have already have a number 2 center on our team in Lars Eller. Not going to lie throwing in Kostitsyn hurts me but we must put him in to make this deal actually work, anaheim gets a physical forward here who will give them 20 goals 20 assists a season. Weber is in this trade just to put the cherry on the cake, friendly cap hit at 800,000 for the next 2 years, is young and a powerplay asset.

    For Montreal they get their two star building blocks for the franchise in Getzlaf and Ryan, and not to mention much bigger and physical up front. So our lineup should look a little something like this

    Ryan/Getzlaf/Cole

    Pacioretty/Deharnais/Bourque

    Moen/Eller/Gionta

    Blunden/White/Darche with nokelainen the extra forward. Kind of scary isn't it. I have no doubt about it that if this trade scenario were presented to anaheim they wouldn't even hesitate to pull the trigger. Salary between these players is even at 10.5 million, so no problem on the money front, Anaheim loses its number 1 center but get a solid number 2 in plekanec (60 points a year average) along with their franchise d-man in Subban, a 20 to 25 goal scorer in kostitsyn and a future powerplay specialist in Weber.

    Any thoughts.

    Anaheim would laugh in our faces if we proposed that.We may not even get one of those player with that proposal.And why the hell would you want to hang on to Darsche . I wouldn't mind Moen as a 4th liner,but definitely not 3rd line.Having a decent season(in UFA year) but look at his career and age.

    • Upvote 1
  11. To both those trade proposals... keep dreaming. When people talk trade proposals you need to look at what the opposing GM would do. Too many list trading multiple players of ours who are either having a bad season,overpaid or just plain crap,for another teams star player. Other than PK,along with our 1st,we have no one on our team or system to pick up a player of that calibre. And no,Price won't do it as the trade value of goalies aren't as high as they should be.

  12. To be honest, Gomez gets full marks for effort since coming back from injury. Oh, and the Habs are 4-1-1 since he's been back in the lineup.

    I've never questioned his work effort,i just think he's washed up. It's sad or funny that we are rooting for him and just cheering his effort like an underdog. $7.3m underdog,lol

  13. I don't want Leblanc up here. Yesterday turned out to be a great night, but could have been a blow out the other way. Let him get a chance to dominate at the AHL level and come back next year. I'd rather have him on the top line in Hamilton then the 4th line in Montreal.

    Why are we one of the few teams that can't have a 20 yr old in the line up,instead going for an inferior player because he's older. He's the only player in our last 4 drafts that has played in the NHL. In hindsight,which is 20/20, last night would have been a great game for him to play in

  14. For Lafrous

    Funny.... for a defenceman that was "6th in ice time for boston by far in the playoffs" he actually played 3 minutes more per game than the guy who was actually the 6th most used D on the Bruins, and that was Adam McQuaid.

    If you are gonna try and bring stats to prove your points, you could at least ensure that your stats are correct.

    ========================

    For Habs29

    Kaberle has been in the playoffs 7 times in his career.

    He's been in the Eastern Conference Final 3 times in his career. He's won the Stanley Cup once in his career. He has 39 career playoff points.

    He's not exactly comparable to Jay "never made the playoffs at any level of hockey" Bouwmeester.

    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    As for the guys he's comparable to in terms of salary.... here they are, all of the offensive Dmen with a salary cap hit within 500K either way.

    Clearly Better: Pitkanen, Streit, Wideman, Ehrhoff

    (note Streit signed 4 years ago under a much lower cap... Ehrhoff has a crazy front loaded deal)

    About the same: Liles, Gilbert, Meszaros, Goligoski

    (first 3 all signed under a munch lower cap)

    Clearly Worse than Kaberle: Jovanovski, Hainsey, Ballard, Zidlicky, Kubina, Spacek

    Hainsey, Ballard signed when cap was lower.

    Total Stanley Cup Wins in this group: 1 by Pavel Kubina.... not exactly the biggest group of "proven winners" out there. Kubina had 0 goals 4 assists in the playoffs of Tampa's Cup Win.

    You are right. Kab played 16min/gm Macquaid. 13min. He was 5th in toi,4 min behind Boychuk.He played PP and Mqu got hurt during a couple of games.But i stand corrected. Bruins didn't re-sign him despite giving up a 1st,prospect and having cap space. They went to Corvo instead.That's telling..One stat to point out. I get the 11 assists was a nice . But during the most intense time of year,Kaberle was credited with 4 hits in 25 games.25 playoff games/16 min./gm and FOUR (4) hits. Historical softness,LOL

  15. I fad actually posted around 2 or 3 months ago tha paajarvi is a guy I would target.

    Edmonton is also a team that I think might want Gomez for his veteran presence and his declining salary vs his cap hit. As long as Edmonton is not on gomez's no trade list, I really think it would be a great fit for both teams and gomez, given the number of skilled guys he would have a chance to play with.

    Paajarvi for Gomez and weber?? Could turn out to be a Sam pollack move that gets Edmonton higher int the standings this year so we can improve our draft position.

    Gomez has no trade value. Put yourself in another GM's shoes. Weber I hope we keep,but if so will have to move 2 of Campoli,Diaz,Kaberle. You can't go through the playoff gauntlet with such a small/soft D

  16. We're at an odd phase in organizational development. The "next wave" is here, playing on the big team: Pacioretty, Subban, Weber, Diaz, Emelin, Eller, White, Desharnais. Our next batch of serious young talent seems to be 2-4 years away, mostly in juniors. In between there is very little.

    There's absolutely nothing wrong with this state of affairs in principle. Our veteran core (Gionta, Cammalleri, Markov, Gomez, now Cole and Kaberle, etc.) would be in their mid-30s and fading away just at the point where the next wave of players would be coming into its own; and meanwhile today's young guns would be accomplished veterans, the new 'core.'

    That was, I think, the plan all along. Gainey's 2009 rebuild was designed to give us a solid veteran core into which the Subbans and Paciorettys could be inserted and which would tide us over until the Tinordis and Gallaghers arrive.

    Three things went wrong with the grand plan:

    -Two absolutely key components, Gomez and Markov, were, for very different reasons, total disasters. Gomez simply and inexplicably lost his great game. Worse, Markov was injured into oblivion. This left us with an ongoing, massive hole at C and bereft of our single most important position player - the one who drove the PP, the transition game, and controlled the defensive zone. Cataclysmic, structural weaknesses thus came to characterize our roster. On paper, this ought not to have been the case. But it was.

    -Beyond Markov, recurring, long-term injuries plagued our lineup. Gionta, Gomez, Cammy, Pacioretty, Gorges, and several others have all spent really significant time on IR. This happens to other teams too, but arguably the Habs have been one of the less fortunate clubs on this front.

    -Players, of which Cammalleri was the most visible, chose to throw a season away by rebelling against Martin. This meant that precisely at the time where the team should have been poised to benefit from a canny UFA addition (Cole), the ongoing development of key young guns (Subban and Pacioretty) to perhaps hit another level, we took a huge lurch backward. (Of course, the Markov injury may have prevented us from making that step forward regardless). Panicky management compounded the problem.

    The result is that the entire plan is in tatters.

    When I look at this big picture, unlike many observers I don't see a wider pattern of inept management. The Grand Plan was really a rather good one. And it almost worked; let's remember, we went to the Semis two years ago and easily made the playoffs and took the Prunes to Game 7 OT last season. This is ultimately a case of well-laid plans falling before a combination of terrible luck (Markov + injuries + the baffling evaporation of Gomez) and ill-concieved willfulness/stupidity (players betraying the coach, Gauthier's inept handling of Cunneyworth).

    Gainey made mistakes but on balance did right by us. It's just that there are too many variables for anyone to control, and you need a preponderance of these NOT to go catastrophically wrong. It's a shame, really.

    I agree with the markov bad luck,but was there anyone who was happy with the Gomez deal and the contract.other than the "Gio and Cammi" wouldn't come here" fantasy story. I don't like the fact that BG gave JM the job when Lemaire was interested,and that Robinson never even got a return call when inquiring about being an asst. coach. We also never addressed the issue of getting k.'d by the Flyers or Bruins every year

    I had high hopes for this player. I suppose it's early to say, but, he looks like he'll have a nice career in the Swedish Elite League.

    he got benched in a blow-out. I still wish we gave Leblanc the call up

  17. Unbelievable!! My jaw literally dropped as I just read this. I wrote the exact same thing, almost word for word a few weeks ago on this site,but erased it before I posted. I forget what topic but I remember I erased it because I figured that somebody was going to chime in and argue with me about that point, while taking away from the original point of my post.

    I am always sure to remind people about the absence of Markov, our best player, and the impact he has when he is in the lineup. Everything we have done since his rash of injuries has just been a stop gap until he is back. He was/is a top 10 defenseman in the league. There is no question that he would directly be responsible for a better powerplay and better results, standings-wise had he been in the lineup this year.

    It's beating a dead horse though.Plans should have been made towards the end of last season,this off season to invest $6,7+M/yr on a stud Dman either through trade or UFA.I'd also put him in the top 20,not top 10 because of mediocre playoff performances,and he's never had a Norris nomination.

  18. There's nothing wrong with being an apologist for something you believe in.

    We have no reason to believe that Gauthier didn't get multiple opinions on Markov's health. We have no reason to assume that he was in any way more ignorant of Markov's condition than he should (as in could) have been. Recovery time is never foreseen with total accuracy, doctors are always dealing with probabilities. Suppose the doctors said a player in this state, recovering from this injury, after this much recovery time, etc, etc, will have a 85% chance of being ready to play NHL hockey by November if he follows X workout regimen. In this situation, signing Markov long term and (merely) bringing in Campoli to QB the PP until that time seems reasonable. There is a 85% chance that it will pay off. Of course, if that which has a 15% probability happens, we'll undoubtedly have people that claim the result was inevitable and that Gauthier should have seen it coming.

    It doesn't matter your or my opinions of PG which is 180 degrees different. the bottom line is he took a gamble,was wrong,and that is ONE,not the only,contributing factor of this lousy season.A big factor. Campoli was a weak signing,weak player.Betts was a small gamble,but another mistake,since we could have done much better than Enquist/Nokie. Not having a good 4th line is another contributor to this season.if we were 2 pts out of 1st instead of last,I wouldn't hate PG as much,but I blame him,BG and basically the whole management. You have to be held accountable.

  19. I get a kick out those who blame marginal players for the loses. Case in point Weber is put on fourth line, and the reason they lost isn't that the top three lines are stinking the place up but the fourth line has a defenseman on it. Quite frankly it is smart to have an extra defenseman in the game. Also, I expect he will develop a lot faster on the ice than in the press box.

    One of the reasons for our bad season is the early season failure of PG to put together a 4th line capable of playing 10min a game. There were so many cheap UFA's/and avaialble players to do that.Weber should be on 3rd pair defense and 2nd wave pp.No business on a 4th line. Darsche,Blunden,Enquist,Palushaj and Nokie. There's a reason no one wanted the 3 vets,and the 2 rooks are ill-equipped for NHL 4th line duties

  20. Do you know how the Salary Cap works with LTIR?

    Do you know how medical insurance for contracts works?

    I'm gonna guess no based on your posts that its "too big a gamble under the salary cap."

    What a patronizing prick.We signed Markie this year to a 3/yr $17m contract. I know that helped kill our chances of acquiring a dman worth $6m/yr in the off-season..And then we got Campoli for insurance and then Kaberle because of that failure. So basically we have $11-12m tied up in that spot. I know you admire the habs management,but I would rather have used that money for an unmatchable offer sheet to a Weber or Stamkos,who would be worth 4 1st rd draft choices.

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