Peter Puck

We should be able to claim one and then trade him to a team lower in the waiver claim priority.

Petry's value will rise unless he is injured or plays terribly. I don't expect either of those events are likely. A team trading for him now is incurring the risk of one or both of those outcomes. If they wait they can be sure of who they are getting. Also he will only be of real interest to teams hoping for the cup this year or next. Any such team trading for Petry now is also counting on being in contention next April. That's another risk such a team assumes if they make a trade now. Of course having Petry for the year might help them have a good regular season. In February/March I expect a few top teams will be very interested in Petry. The main reason to trade him now would be if we need to shed his salary to get below the cap with Price on the team at the beginning of the season.

I doubt it will be very interesting. The leafs knew their situation when the acquired Domi, Bertuzzi, etc. I am certain they have a plan to get under the cap and it won't be too painful for them.

It wasn't that big of a deal. There was mild chronic pain in my knee for a few months. Then I had to quit sports for a 6 month period (causing me to be cut from a soccer team). After that I was fine.

Yes, I remember when the Leafs were using cutting edge pyramid power and everyone else thought they were crazy.

Well I had Osgood Schlatter disease in my early teens and I ended up never playing in the NHL so it looks like a pretty bad sign to me. Maybe treatment is better now.

I don't think the hit and run is particularly serious given it only involved property. Depending on the details, the resisting arrest could be much more serious.

There was lots of hype about Michkov. I am not at all sure that he was the conventional 5th best choice. The media painted that picture and indeed the picture that he was the 2nd best player. But the actual evidence we have is that 6 teams thought he wasn't the second best choice. One team thought he was the best player left after 7 picks were made. We really don't know what the other teams thought of him. I definitely don't want a management team that just follows conventional wisdom. Montreal has the money to spend on extensive scouts and should be using that advantage to excel against the other teams with less resources.

I find this view point very strange and ultimately unfair to Hughes. If Marco Kasper (LW taken 8th in 2022 by Detroit) blossoms into a star and the best player drafted last year does that mean Hughes made a historic error? Suppose you knew that Michkov has a 20% chance to be the best player picked this year, a 40% chance to bust and a 40% chance to be the 4th-10th best player. Further suppose Reinbacher has a 90% chance to be the 6th best player. If you pick Michkov is that a historic error if he doesn't become the best player? If he does become the best player was it a historic error to choose Reinbacher?

Thanks for pointing this out. It looks the same as what I concluded. Its very clear about the possibilities but doesn't yield a clear summary. Upon doing more research, I realized that what I called the "Key Decision Point" was incorrect in my first post. I have now corrected it.

Okay, I tried to make sense of the celebrated confusing conditions in the trade we made with Calgary to take on Monahan and his contract. I think the following description is correct, please feel free to correct me. Corrected now to give the correct conditions in the "Key decision point". I'm also interested to see which scenario will actually happen. Which do you believe will come to pass? Which are you rooting for? First decision: If Calgary finishes 2023-2024 season and playoffs as one of the 13 best teams, i.e., if Calgary is picking in 2024 between 20th and 32nd, we can choose to take that pick. [I don't see this happening.] Let's suppose the above doesn't happen. Then we get a 1st round pick in either 2025 or 2026 from either Calgary or Florida. It will almost surely be a 2025 1st rounder. There is only one scenario where we get a 2026 1st round pick (I'll call this case B(ii)). The only way we would get a 2026 1st rounder is if: We don't get the 2024 pick (very likely) and Florida's 2025 first rounder does not go to Calgary (see below why this might happen) and Calgary wins the 2025 lottery getting the 2025 #1 overall (very unlikely). If this remote scenario comes to pass, we would get the better of Calgary's and Florida's 2026 1st round pick and also would get Calgary's 2025 3rd round pick. This is extremely unlikely. So we probably get a 2025 first rounder which would be from either Florida or Calgary. Key decision point: Either (A) Florida’s 2024 first-rounder is not top 10 [and then it goes to Philadelphia for Claude Giroux ]AND Florida’s 2025 first-round pick is also not top 10 then Calgary gets Florida’s 2025 first-round pick (from the Matthew Tkachuk trade) or (B) One of Florida’s 2024 and 2025 first rounder is top 10 then Florida’s 2025 first-round pick does not go to Calgary (and so they can't give it to us). If Florida's 2024 first rounder is top 10 then they keep it instead of giving it to Philly. Philly instead gets Florida's 2025 first pick and so Calgary gets Florida's 2026 first rounder. If Florida's 2025 first rounder is top 10 and they already paid Philly then Florida keeps their own 2025 first rounder and Calgary gets Florida's first pick in 2026. If A happens then Calgary gets Florida's 2025 1st round pick (and might give it to us). If B happens then Calgary gets Florida's 2026 1st round pick (instead of Florida's 2025 1st rounder). Next both A and B have subcases: (A) Florida's 2025 1st rounder is transferred to Calgary and (i) Calgary earns a top 10 ten pick (after the lottery) in 2025: We get Florida's 2025 1st rounder (which will be in the range 11-32). (A) Florida's 2025 1st rounder is transferred to Calgary and (ii) Calgary's 2025 (after the lottery) pick is 11th-32nd. We get the better of the Calgary/Florida 2025 1st round pick (both of which will be in the range 11-32) . (B) Florida misses the 2025 playoffs and (i) Calgary's 2025 pick (after the lottery) is 2nd-32nd: We get Calgary's 2025 1st rounder. (B) Florida misses the 2025 playoffs and (ii) Calgary's 2025 pick is 1st overall (after the lottery). We are in the unlikely case described above: We get a 2026 1st rounder and Calgary's 2025 3rd rounder as described above. There is also a chance to get a 4th rounder in case B(i) (i.e., if Calgary does not get Florida's 2025 1st rounder) and if both Florida’s and Calgary's 2025 1st round pick are 11th-32nd, and Florida's pick is better than Calgary's and Florida's pick was transferred to another team [i.e., to Philadelphia] due to prior conditions, then we also get Calgary’s 2025 4th round pick.

Waiting until the trade deadline involves too much chance of an injury, given his back problems. Also sending him out now frees space for the young guys.

Why is it presumptuous to assume they can judge an 18 year old player's psychology but not presumptuous to believe they can determine which of a large range of 18 year old prospects is the best player? Both of these are inexact sciences. I also don't see that there would be anything wrong with identifying particular attributes that are needed to play in Montreal and then taking those into account when drafting players you hope will become Habs. Having said that, I don't see any real evidence that this is happening. When we chose Hutson and Beck was this because our management team is eccentric? Were those players chosen because of some special abilities particular to playing in Montreal? We, like most teams, need goalie talent. Star goalie are not easily obtained via trade. Since everyone seems to feel that predicting which goalies will develop is "voodoo", it makes sense to choose goalies in the later rounds. The vast majority of players taken after round 3 (or even 2) will not have NHL careers. If predictions for the development of skaters is more accurate than for goalies it follows that knowing a skater is not ranked in the top 100 is better evidence they won't make the NHL.

Exactly. Some people are complaining we didn't trade back. I think it very unlikely any tempting packages were offered for the 5th (or 6th) pick.

If Washington or Philly or one of the other with a pick in the 6-12 range teams wanted Michkov or someone else the lack of the 31st pick would not have prevented them. Either of those teams could have made a deal with Arizona who have plenty of picks.