Peter Puck
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Posts posted by Peter Puck
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Well, technically since he never signed with the team, he falls into the unrestricted free agent category. Morbid, yes, but you can't blame them.
Nope. Being dead means he is not a free agent (under the law). He is a corpse now not a person and so is not a free agent and not eligible to be drafted. I know this is ghoulish but the law is clear. This is why the league needs the player's association's permission to give the compensatory pick to the Rangers.
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I was a big fan of Jokinen and wanted a push for him. Look at Calgary now, he's done wonders.
Brendan Morrow, he'll rebound. I'm sure he would make a great ctr. Of course, won't be available, but he could play behind Vinny...
Regrettably, Higgins has never been the same since his injury; but he was always a no-hands, work-ethic guy with little hockey sense. He follows the play always always always.
Well he is certainly putting up the points. But I don't think he has done any wonders yet: Calgary is 2-4-0 since the trade deadline. They've allowed 28 goals against in those 6 games.
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Wheeler never re-entered the draft though, signed as a UFA in Boston. I'd like to guess that the others were AJ Thelen (MIN) and RJ Umberger (NYR after his rights were dealt from VAN) - neither of them re-entered the draft either, although the rule does apply to a player like that as well. Come to think of it, I think Lars Jonsson (BOS) was a 1st rounder who never signed either...
Okay, you prompted me to lookup the wording.
Here it is:
CBA Article 8.3(b) (b) In the event a Club loses its draft rights to an Unsigned Draft Choice
drafted in the first round of the Entry Draft (except as a result of failing to tender a
required Bona Fide Offer (as defined below)), who is again eligible for the Entry Draft or
becomes an Unrestricted Free Agent, a Compensatory Draft Selection shall automatically
be granted to that Club, which Compensatory Draft Selection shall be the same numerical
choice in the second round in the Entry Draft immediately following the date the Club
loses such rights. By way of example, if a Club cannot sign the third pick in the first
round, it will receive the third pick in the second round as compensation.
Since Cheraponov is dead he is ineligible to be drafted (nor is he an unrestricted free agent) and so a careful reading of the rules makes the Rangers out of luck. However, my understanding is that the GMs have asked the player's association for permission to change this so that the Rangers can be given the 47th pick in June. As I said before, I think this is the right thing for the league to do.
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I don't think we can afford to be too fussy, to be honest. The Muller example proves that you don't need to have a completely dominant, world-beating 6'4 number one centreman to win. I'm no fan of this Superstar Complex. It would be nice, but we don't need a superstar. What we do need is a legitimate #1 C; if not a Lecavalier, then a Bobby Smith, a Kirk Muller, even a Pierre Turgeon, going forward. Spezza, the Sedins, Jokinen, they'd all be vastly better than what we've got (which is nobody). As long as we're not acquiring that player and annointing him The Saviour, asking him to single-handedly carry us to glory, and as long as we're paying a reasonable rather than ridiculous salary, there is no reason why those second-tier #1 C can't be major contributors on excellent, contending teams, especially since we seem to have a lot of good wingers on the team and in the system.
The Sedins in particular would interest me. Two elite players, neither paid near the league maximum? And they'd work with Gainey's 'family' philosophy too. If Gainy, God help me, is still with the team when it's time to make the call. :puke:
Okay I agree we don't require a superstar centre. Getting the Sedins would be okay. They would probably cost 6-7 million each per year for about 4 years. Spezza's got 6 more years at 7 million per year. I don't like that much for so long for him. Finally, I don't think we will go after Jokinen since he will probably cost more over the summer than at the deadline and Gainey apparently doesn't like him.
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wow didn't realize there are so many UFA's available. However how many of those guys are starter quality? khabibulin, roloson, garon seem the best of a fairly mediocre group. I'd likely take a young and improving halak over any of those retreads.
Yeah I agree. But the question is would you give up an asset to get Halak instead of signing one of these guys for free?
If so, how good of an asset? This is why I don't think we can trade Halak for anything near hiw worth to us.
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Since goalies have virtually no trade value in Today's market I doubt it but who knows.
Plus, there will be a ton of UFA goalies available this summer: Anderson, Biron, Boucher, Conklin, Danis, Fernadez (I'm assuming Boston will re-sign Thomas), Garon, Gerber, Johnson, Khabibulin, Kolzig(maybe), Labarbera, Legace, Nittymaki, MacDonald, Raycroft(if anyone wants him), Roloson, Sabourin, Sanford, Tellqvist, Valiquette, Weekes.
Wow! That's a list of 22 (mainly backups) available.
Some of these guys will be re-signed and Halak has more value than a lot of them. Still any team giving up any value to get Halak over the summer seems unlikely.
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Off topic, but Bobby Smith was a good (not a great) #1 C. He has been unjustly forgotten by Habs fans.
Muller, while not really 'big,' played big, and was also a terrific #1 C for three or four years. Again, people have forgotten just how devastating Muller was in his prime. We would not have won in 93 without him.
We've had other legitimate #1 C since then: Turgeon was a legitimate #1C, idiotically traded away by that blithering orangutan Houle. And Koivu was emerging as a top-10 talent in the entire league before his knee blew out in 96.
Having said all that, I'm beginning to wonder if Gainey has fully appreciated the gravity of our organizational situation at centre. That he made zero effort to get Jokinen still perturbes me. Koivu is very obviously on his last legs.
This summer will be key.
The problem is, who can we get this summer? There are no good centres available as UFAs. Maybe the Sedin twins? I'm not too keen on them. The next best I can think of is Detroit's Kopecky whose 19 points don't really excite me although he may be ready to improve. If Tampa keeps Vinny there is no one available at all that we want. Maybe Spezza? I don't think we want him either.
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I'm happy to show you around Kingston Ontario.
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Why wouldn't they? By rule, if a team cannot sign their 1st round pick, they receive a 2nd rounder in the same slot. Phoenix got a compensatory 2nd for not signing Wheeler (35th oa) in the most recent draft. There's a couple other instances off the top of my head as well where that's applied.
Well actually I think the rule say somethng about if the player re-enters the draft (like say Blake Wheeler). I read the rule closely once and it made this question rather unclear. That said, I don't have a problem with the NHL doing this.
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This team has gone steaadily downhill all season. And I do mean steadily. We had the 27th best record over Jan-Feb. We were the top team (or near it) 10 games into the season. We were 7th overall after November. We were worse in early March - only Halak kept our record respectable. Something was seriously wrong. Personnaly I don't think it was our personnel - they were good enough to win the division last year and started this year out great. However that doesn't reallly matter.
Given the slide we were in, we weren't even going to make the playoffs and still might not (I am confident we will under Gainey). Something had to be done. Carbo admitted that he was out of ideas. We could have tried some big moves at the deadline. I doubt that would have worked but maybe. The only viable option thing left was to fire Carbonneau. We may yet salvage a decent season. Maybe this is unfair to Carbonneau but Gainey had no other reasonable choices. Doing nothing would have meant a disgraceful fall into lousiness.
Some people blame the players and say they wanted Carbo fired. I don't subscribe to this view, but even if its true, that is a power the players hold. You may not like it but thre is no point in destroying the team to punish a few players. How long would it take to rebuild by dumping 5 or 6 important guys in a blood-letting and keeping Carbo? Too long. Get rid of them over the off season if we need to.
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Regarding re-signing Koivu and/or Kovalev: Gainey will try to re-sign both and if he can they will both be back next season for smaller and shorter contracts. For those who want to see Kovalev gone, who do we replace him with? There are not many elite free agents available and no guarantee we can attract those that will be available. Similarly replacing Koivu isn't all that easy either although we could probably do it. Finding someone better than Koivu is harder.
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Okay I'll predict 24 points out of the final 32.
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Ya Baby!!! I called it a brutal move when they hired him. No head coaching experience and Montreal is not the learning grounds. Boy I hate to be right in this case but I said it here that Carbo couldn't hold Julien's clipboard. Now we need Julien to win coach of the year. I told you sooooooo!
You mean you foresaw that a coach would be fired the day he was hired! Wow!
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Well I think its pretty clear that Lever will be the head coach next season (does he speak French?)
I was (am) a big Carbo fan but its been clear for the last couple of weeks that this needed to be done.
In my view this pretty much guarantees us 5th place or better.
I find it interesting that Gainey waited untit just before a long home stand to pull the trigger.
Of course, this is the thing GMs usually do but for some reason Gainey doing it surprises me.
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I agree... he's not going to say that even if it is the truth. Reality is that Bob has consistantly proven that he is either unable to make the big trade for an impact player, or is unwilling to make sure a deal. Either way he has failed in this departmnet in his time with the Habs, no question.
I disagree. I could point to the Niwendyke/Iginla trade but instead I'll point out that he identified 3 weaknesses with the team last summer and got 3 players to fill those holes: Tanguay, Laraque and Lang. Now Laraque hasn't worked out that well (yet) but the others definitely filled the bill.
It is also clear that he did everything he could to aquire Hossa a year ago and also everything he could to get Sundin to sign.
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The more I think about it, the more I really think we need to make a serious, determined push for Jokinen. His value is artificially low right now, after a wasted 'I want out' season in Florida and an unsuccessful transplant to Phoenix, coupled with the fact that Phoenix's desire to move him NOT motivated by hockey considerations. Contrary to what's been suggsted, Gretzky is NOT some coaching mastermind and so I wouldn't draw too many conclusions from Jokinen's struggles in that wasteland. He is not the 'saviour' - but then, I don't particularly believe in saviours (remember when everyone was enraged at Bob for failing to sign Briere to that ridiculous contract
?); his contract is tolerable, he's young, big and talented - in short, this could be Bob's Big Chance, one of those rare opportunities where you take a chance and go for the big strike that adds a fundamental ingredient to your core, even if it means taking a risk with the chemistry of our young nucleus.I'll bet Higgins and Gorges, plus some indeterminate mix of other ingredients, could bring Jokinen back. (I'd try to keep Pleks because we'll still need him as a #2 when Koivu goes). That would be risky because of our already-shaking situation at D. And Higgins is only 25 and a natural leader of uncertain potential. But that's what I'm saying. You have to take a real risk; the risk for this particular player probably won't be too high (e.g., Florida wanted Komisarek for Jokinen, and I seriously doubt Phoenix will be as demanding); the potential reward is a fundamental re-jigging of our team profile, such that we suddenly have a #1 C to be reckoned with.
Do we really think this team can win now? Or that it can win in the forseeable future with Plekanec as our future #1C? If not, then it's time to make The Big Move. Go, Bob, go!!!!
I really agree with this analysis. Jokinen is the perfect target. He's signed for 1 more year so he isn't a rental and we won't be stuck with him long term if he doesn't work out. I'd really like to keep Higgins though. I think its hard for us to work out a trade for Jokinen since we have to send some salary back because Phoenix is close to the floor.
I think a more likely deal is something like O'bryne + Dandenault for Morris (who just announced he wont play until traded)
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I predict we take 28 more points and finish the season with 99 points.
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I think maybe, since he was an emergency call-up he can't be kept on the team without being exposed to waivers. This would mean that in order to keep him from being picked up on waivers when they re-activated Brodeur they were required to return Clemmensen to the AHL.
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Well 3/4 of the season is over. The Habs slump in the 3rd quarter has really shaken up the standings in our predictions.
I think we can see now the real reason Jonnyhasbeen (who was tied for 3rd at the season's midpoint) had to leave the building.
Also notice the incredible pileup for 5th. All these people have a total error of exactly 11 points (no round off error is involved) even though their predictions are rather different! Wow.
Here are the standings now:
1. Zowpeb 99 27 53 71 99 4.0
2. Dalhabs 99 29 54 74 99 8.0
3. JoeLassister 105 28 55 77 105 9.0
4. JMMR 101 27 53 77 101 10.0
5. Bth 104 11.0
5. marky and komi 99 11.0
5. Syn 102 11.0
5. CerebusClone 105 11.0
5. BCHabnut 98 11.0
5. Nesquik 98 11.0
5. brboo 106 11.0
5. simonus 106 11.0
13. Macaskill 107 26 11.1
13. Wamsley01 103 27 11.1
15. Habitforming 107 11.2
16, geolink 108 26 11.3
17. I<OV4L3V 108 11.7
17. sbhatt 108 11.7
19. xXx..CK..xXx 104 28 53 78 104 12.0
20. ch_nl 111 13.1
21. Jean 111 13.1
22. fromage 100 22 13.4
23. Peter Puck 106 27 55 83 14.0
24. les glorieux 103 24 48 76 103 15.0
25. Koivu11 105 28 50 79 105 16.0
26, Helmethead 113 29 16.6
l27. azy26 109 29 56 85 109 17.0
28. saskhab 107 28 48 79 107 18.0
28. Habsfan 107 23 50 80 107 18.0
30. johhnyhasbeen 126 28 56 24.7
31. Dutch Habs Fan 98 21 38 66 98 28.0
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Well, I have to say that I prefer Crosby's behaviour to Ovechkin's. This has a lot to do with my watching the Pens vs the Capitals this past weekend.
The Capitals beat the Pens badly. This meant the Pens were very frustrated. In my view Crosby responded by leading by example - working hard and not letting the Capitals push him around. On the other hand Ovechkin took the opportunity to rub his team's dominance in the Pens faces. That is fine but it only made the Pens work harder. I also have to wonder what will happen with Ovechkin when the Capitals (who are awesome now) begin to slide in a few years.
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My apologies.
No problem. I think the mods do a great (and under appreciated) job.
P.P.
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There are rules here. If someone doesn't follow them, they are dealt with. Deal with it.
I guess I needed to include a sarcasm symbol in my post. Whoops.
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Interesting. I thought these "Goodbye cruel world!" threads were deleted by the mods.
Yes it's part of their standard censorship procedures. This one must have escaped.
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I have been posting on this site for a few seasons now. Yes, I have been known to piss people off at times with my comments. Yes, I am an opinionated, old school, no helmet, no teeth hockey guy. Yes, I like to fight and like fighting in hockey. Yes, I believe my country is superior to others at this game. Yes, I have been known to personally attack others, but the record will show that every one of them made a comment about me first.
However, when my comments, I called someone a sissy pant wearing pansy, after he called me an idiot mind you, get wiped out by mods I take that as a form of censorship and being a Canadian, I do not take that lightly. It is a shame, but I will now join the ranks of the departed. I am on a quest to find a new site that has more open views and where censorship is considered wrong. Again, I have never attacked anyone from this site who didn't throw the first punch. If y'all don't want to be name called, stop calling people idiots for expressing their opinions. That is what these sites are for and nobody's opinion is right or wrong, they are opinions.
Johnny has left the building!
While it is unfortunate to lose a regular poster, I want to go on record as supporting the mods. This is a public site and freedom of speech does not convey the right to say anything anywhere. Calling some one an "idiot" isn't nice but it is not the same as making homophobic slurs.
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Every day after my lunch break.
François Gagnon on TLMEP
in Habs & Hockey Talk
Posted
This is exactly right. I think everyone would agree that the talent on this year's team is better than last year's. They are struggling now but there are too many good players for this to continue indefinitely. Maybe this year will end badly but we will be much better next season.