Meller93

Alzner being the highest paid and my least favorite of the bunch. That signing hurt me the day it happened. Even worse now.

Alzner will be there

Not sure where those Kotkaniemi skating concerns came from. He's actually fast out there, even in the NHL

Is Kotkaniemi eligible for just the 9 game stint?

lindgren bailed the boys out to start that counter attack. Fully expecting breakout years from Lehkonen/Hudon. 40-50 point years form both

Quick release by JDLR. He needs more of that if he wants to stick

Off to a surprising 2-0 lead. Good to see Gally get one!

Human garbage seems excessive, but Domi’s actions shouldn’t be defended either in my opinion. You don’t drop the glove and clock someone who clearly isn’t engaging in the fight. If you want him to retaliate, make him angry by playing hard hockey, and I don’t know, maybe scoring a few goals? It was dirty, and should keep him out of all remaining preseason. Also doesn’t make him human garbage. He was losing, lost his temper, and made a mistake. We’ve probably all done worse.

It’s the millions of dollars Molson owes MB regardless

Well jock tax sounds like a real kick in the nuts

I could be wrong, but to my knowledge unless they have to pay both, it depends on the state you’re in. It’s known as jock tax.

Salary tax is based upon the place in which that particular game is played. So only 50% of the games played by any player are affected by that home team tax rate. Now that still makes a huge difference, but signing bonuses also avoid massive amounts of tax. U.S players like Pacioretty can attempt to have a huge portion of their salary in bonuses, which are only taxed at 15% as opposed to the near 50% on regular salary. If they then live in a state such as Florida in the offseason, they pay no US income tax. Beyond that, markets like California, and Nee York City have tax rates near Montreal level anyway, so it’s probably less of a negative than it initially looks. The Canadian market can look like a tax black hole, but a smart agent can avoid the majority of that issue. It’s just hard to compete with markets like Florida.

At this point I feel like there are more posts of people criticizing other people’s criticism of Bergevin than there are people critizing Bergevin. Jeeeez.

Agreed. The 9 games will give him some good experience, but watch him return and dominate. It’ll be fun to see if he can have a 40 goal 100 point year despite missing time for the world juniors and NHL.

Skinner fetched Cliff Pu - a far cry from suzuki - a second, third and sixth. Hoffman essentially fetched Boedker. Given the value of these two similar (younger) wingers, I think we made out like absolute bandits.

Great question. My honest thought is no, if Suzuki were already in the fold, Tkachuk or Zadina would be a Hab.

The second rounder involved originally belonged to Columbus. I have a tough time guessing how Columbus will perform year to year.

Habs don’t pay 10% of Tatar’s contract. Still an overpayment at 4.8 rather than 5.3, but definitely not crippling.

I’m seriously happy with this return, especially in the context of Hoffman/Skinner not fetching what people thought they would. Suzuki is a blue chip centre prospect. He may never be that bonafide 1st line centre but should produce in the top 6. We also somewhat replace current production we lost in Pacioretty. Tartar will never score thirty, but he should be capable of putting up similar ppg to pcioretty last year. A 20 goal, 40ish point guy. A second round pick is a great bonus. On top of all that, Pacioretty is still a clear loss for the team, so it honestly means we’ll finish lower this year. It’s clear, we’re rebuilding. And with a top 10 including Hughes, Turcotte, Kakko, Bryam, cozens, Dach, Newhook, and even the brother of a fellow Hab, Ryan Suzuki - finishing low could be a great thing this year. A centre prospect pool of Poehling, Suzuki, Kotkaniemi, and one of Hughes, Dach, Turcotte and Newhook would be the best we’ve had in decades, if it isn’t already the best in decades.

I strangely see that as a pretty accurate possibility of his future ? Best case, I hope he can produce a 10+ more points a year for a decade - Kopitar esque - but perhaps he tops out as a capable first line centre for about 4 years and then fades to a top 6.

Just came to mind How have haters not nicknamed Pacioretty “Molson 67” yet because of his supposedly too-light playstyle?

While I agree that having nothing but Bergevin can be tiresome (there’s not much else at the moment) aren’t passive aggressive insults more detrimental to the forum than that? No matter what side you’re on in this discussion I’m pretty sure we’re all capable of steering away from it. The truth of the matter is that if the Habs were a powerhouse right now, we’d all be hunky dory, but they aren’t. So we’re boiling over a little as a fan base. I don’t think it’s really each other we’re mad at, it’s the the state of the team - and the state of the team is a result of the manager, so here we are. The reason you’re only seeing MB bashing is because there’s next to nothing new happening. When the season starts, I’m sure we’ll have a lot more to talk about. So the constant MB bashing will be just one of many topics.

Sure, Gauthier’s tenture resulted in a decline and poorly performing team as well. But Gauthier was still responsible for the core of MB’s “above average” teams. Just as MB is responsible for the possible solid core in these next 3-5 years, but he’s also the decline of the once solid core he inherited.

They may be an above average team stat wise, but MB also inherited a core of Pacioretty, Subban, Gallagher, Price, and started with an easy pick of Galchenyuk. Much of our success has been due to these players. I’d argue that even if the team has been above average, it isn’t because of solid GMing from Bergevin. In fact it’s pretty easy to argue that Bergevin has objectively made the team worse. Thankfully, recently our prospect pool’s talent has seen a massive leap. The future hinges on Poehling and Kotkaniemi working out, alongside some of our solid D prospects like Brook or Fluery, and a couple forwards like Ylonen and Olofsson or Hillis/Fonstad etc. Pair that with progression from Mete, Juulsen, Lehkonen and Hudon, and although Bergevin may have seen a decline in one core, he’s setting up another core which has potential to compete. Especially if we have another top 10 pick this year. The first overall pick would be Hughes. I mean huge*

Hmm, interesting swap of two top 6 AHLers who haven’t quite managed to find a bottom 6 NHL job. Stylistically how how do they differ? I thought they both have nhl level shots and some offensive ability, but am unsure about their defensive games and general hockey IQ. whats the motive behind shipping off newly acquired Rychel?