Habs27

Yeah I am hopeful but realistic. I know going from a bottom 5-10 team to a top 10 team is tough to do. But this is the first time in a lot of years I can see a direction and a competitive window. Bubble playoff team is how I see them if they continue this growth and asset management. When I try to calculate cap it seems like they have 19 million (with price on lite)to use. It already has me looking at a potential fit on the wing from the ufa pool. Think marchessault could be a short term option at wing? Toffoli again? And the options of young talented players that could be available seems interesting. Zegra Rossi Necas and Johnson. With the assets we have and management doing a nice job of buying at the draft I could see us grabbing one of them. We are very close to being a 3 line team. And two goalies that can win games.

The end of this season has me hopeful for next year as we are competing with some top teams and only 1 or 2 lines going. With Dach Dvorak Roy possibly 1 forward ufa and one potential Dach/Newhook trade. Our forward lineup looks very deep and matches our def depth. Anyone else hopeful for playoffs next season?

If someone told me when the season started we would get a 1st + for Monahan I would have been surprised. If we waited until the deadline we could have got someone to pay a little more but also had a chance of him getting injured and receive nothing. I’m happy with the return. Another way to think about is which player will sign for more on the open market after this year. I feel Lindholm will get a couple more million per year and a few extra years of term. Kinda shows the confidence teams have in them. But that’s just my opinion.

Does anyone feel better if I word it like this : Montreal has acquired New York's 2nd round pick in 2010 (40th overall) for Montreal's 2nd round pick in 2008 pick (56th overall). Haha......Oh well it was worth a shot

I could not agree more, i felt last night was just like a playoff game, and if we do somehow make it to the second round it sure would be nice if boston and pitsburgh were playing against each other in the other series, so if we happened to meet pittsburgh in the 3rd round they might be a little banged up. But i do realize a lot can happen from here until the end of the season, just getting a little excited, becaue i really like our team.

i was thinking more on the lines of curtis glencross, he is not a very flashy player but might fit in very well with our top 9. He has 21 points in 28 games this year and seems to average about 40 + points over the previous 4 years (40,33,43,48). He has a cap hit of 2.55 million for the next 2 seasons, not sure if calgary is willing to deal a guy like him but he would help give us a more balanced attack. What do you think it would take to get him? would it make sense to get jackman also as a 13th forward and to fill in on the 4th line for a few of the more physical games down the stretch?

Thats a good point, but it sure is tough not to go for it. And Ryder hasnt really messed with chemistry yet.

I really cant see us selling the farm this year at the trade deadline but i can see us trading a few of our 2nd or 3rd rounders, so on that train of thought would you rather morrow for a 2nd plus a prospect if they would trade him or clowe for a 3rd plus a prospect and on the d side of the puck douglas murray for a 3rd or ryan whitney for a 3rd I know the trades would be a lot more complicated and i am probably wrong on what it would cost, but i could see us doing a couple of trades similar to these if we are still looking this good come trade deadline. Just wondering what fellow fans would rather have.

I will start this by saying I have zero sources, and I know we have a logjam on d, but one " insider" I follow on twitter has been talking about Montreal and Chicago doing a trade something like Hjalmarsson to habs for bourque Diaz and some picks And I have not watched hjal play much so I looked his stats up and at first I felt that's a lot to give up for a d who only got 15 points last season. But then I compared his stats to gorges and they are quite similar and I sure like the way gorges plays and I feel having another mostly 5 on 5 and pk specialist would really stabilize our d. So I think I would do this trade. What do you guys think?

I really like huselius to fill in for a year or two and who knows he might just be able to complement the plek gionta line. Is he healthy or whats his deal? What do you think it would cost to sign him ?Also I think this is the strongest I have seen our bottom 2 lines in a long time, and i know thats not the biggest thing for winning games but it sure doesn't hurt.

Ya I think I like this line up and I feel we might not have the best quality NHL d men but we do have lots of them and that could a big asset after training camp when teams are looking to for some depth d men, plus we do tend to do go down with odd injury over the season

I know he is not the give all he has every shift player we would all want and MB is looking for but with little interest in him, would he not be perfect to fill our 2nd line LW position sure makes plek and gionta more of a threat. i think i would do a 2 year 10 if he would take it would you take him? how much for how long?

ya its fun to dream that its that easy

3 trades totally nhl 2012 kaberle/weber to nashville draft picks those picks and bourque to nj for 1st gomez and 2 firsts to cal bouw sign semin and doan if not doan, grab ak on a cheap deal to fill in??????

ya your right probably a very low estimate

the lineup as i see it only really has one hole , and that is a 1a/1b LW, Here is how i see things max pac dd cole HOLE plek gionta moen gomez bourque armstrong eller prust white georges subban markov emelin diaz boullion/ kaberle i know there can be a lot of shuffling between those bottom six and i see that, and i would only like to fill that hole without making up any trades which are too hard to predict. And of course i would like to get rid of kaberle/gomez but dont see it happen. The only assumption i will make it that we get subban signed in the vecinity of 6y/23 (3.83 cap hit) a guess???? Going off of cap geek that would give us roughly 5 mill and change in cap space. Here are two scenarios which i have excluded doan who would be my number 1 on a reasonable contract but it sure wounds like he is going to get way more money than i think he is worth 1. Semin , sure doesnt seem like much interest in a players who averages over 60 points a season and is only 28, i know we have bad luck with russian and he is definitely not an MB type player, but i think he could do alot of damage on a line with plek and really help the pp. And i would be happy to take the risk on a 2 or 3 year deal with somewhere around six mill(i could be out to lunch on this one) 2.AK , i know most people are over him but on a cheaper risk we could try him in a role where him and bourque compete for the spot on the 2nd line and we play the hot hand and i think he is attainable between 2.5/3 not much risk there. I know neither one of there players have the every night compete level that MB is looking for but with a huge offensive hole, which i think if we fill right our top two lines are sitting nice with very strong 3a/3b lines. And with a healthy markov the d should be pretty good as well. And i know i never included in house rookies and some fringe players but i think they will all get there chances as it is a very long season and there are always injuries. Well let me know what you think or any other realistic options i may have overlooked

Ya that's right gotta make a few trades first Good point just thought fourth line minutes are not always the best way to develop

There is no denying that we are definitely in sell mode and in four days our lineup will look very different, with moen andrei k, darche, campoli, nokelainen, and weber all up for grabs. And I don't have any pipe dreams that we will make the playoffs, so let's sell and get a good return in this sellers market.(not even going to guess on returns but they seem high to me so far especially d men) and hopefully end up with a top 5 draft pick to and to our young talented core. But here is my idea to finish the season , fill our holes with young prospects and tough waiver players to make the games at least interesting. Not really sure exactly who to pick up but here is a quick line up. Cole des patches Bourque plek Gomez Geoffrion Eller Blunden White Leblanc rosehill Staubitz Georges subban Kaberle emelin Diaz Clitsome Not sold on the waiver picks but could make the lineup tougher and give the prospects a chance to play. Plus im sure there will be more/better waiver players, and injuries so more youth will crack the line up? And I know it's probably more complicated than this but What do you guys think?

i agree partly that gomez may have some value to a team trying hit the floor but i woould expect the habs would have to take somewhat bad contract back to get any kind of deal done, and would not get much of a return. and i feel paaravi stock is at an alltime low and weber could be a nice asset to get him.

First I would like to say I would only trade him if it was a good hockey deal for a player that could at some point be a top 6 forward. I feel our defense is our deepest position as far as prospects go, I would like to see a deal where they would package weber + picks or prospect to a team that's in need of d. For example to Edmonton for a Magnus paajarvi. For a forward with some huge upside

It's been a very long season, but we could turn it into a positive if we use the position we are in to our advantage. We have cap space and some decent rental players, nothing spectacular but decent. For starters I would have liked to see the Habs pick up yip off waivers just to fill in the third line once everything is said and done. I can see us dishing campoli gill and moen for a third or fourth rounders or equivalent prospects. Nokelainen and kaberle can definitely go aswell if we find the right trade but I think our biggest value will come from kostitsyn especially if we eat some salary in return. Not huge returns but will help restock the prospect cupboard. This is my first post so let me know what you think