Carbo21

No doubt, kind of makes you sick to think that these spoiled punks are arguing when they will still make more in a year than we'll make in a life time. :-^ I send this out to all the players :-^

I really hope you're wrong. No way does Theo deserve that much. Compare what Theo has done before signing his last contract and since his last contract. What he did before signing his last contract was more impressive than since (and he's had a much better team in front of him since). Quite frankly, I see absolutely no reason to give him a raise. Age and tenure with a team do not qualify as good reasons for a raise, performance does. I say offer a 4 year $18.5M contract (pays $4.5M, $4.5M, $4.5M, $5M). If he rejects that, then offer him a 1 year $5M contract and let him know that this is his best offer and that he should consider himself lucky not to be making $3.6M (or whatever Luongo is getting). Not that I'm bitter about how Theo has handled this and his previous contract. I still hate him for sitting out and using it as leverage to get the bigger than he deserved contract he got last time.

I know I've only been posting here for a short while, but some of you know me from Habfans. Anyways, those that know me know that I am a huge Bondra fan. Bondra and Simon have been my two most coveted players for many, many years now. I used to dream of a trade between the Habs and Caps that sent Bondra and Simon to the Habs. Having said that, I still don't see a need for Bondra. Yes, the guy is a pure sniper and has one of the best and most accurate shots in the league. Yes, he would look absolutely amazing on the point on our first PP unit. And yes, even at his age he still has awesome speed. But you have to look at what it will cost us (monetarily and positionally). Even if we can grab him at a good discount rate, it's still digging into some of that precious money we may need come February or March when we're looking for a role player to round out our roster for the playoffs. And who's position will he take? Perezhogin's? Higgins? Hossa's? We can't afford to bring a guy like Bondra on for one or two years and have him take a spot away from our future. Maybe Bondra will out perform one of our rookies this season, but it's time for our rookies to become rookies and get that first NHL season under their belts. Maybe Hossa or Perez finally breaks out this season, but I can guarantee they won't even get the chance if we signed Bondra. I love Bondra and if we didn't sign Kovalev, then I'd be all over the idea. But we don't have room for him. Now if we're talking Chris Simon, then I'd move the world to find room for him. :/):/)

With Luongo on getting $3.2M from arbitration, Theo has to realize that he's not worth $5M+ a season. He better take Gainey's offer. LUONGO LOSES OUT IN ARBITRATION. TSN.CA/SPORTSNET.CA: both reported an arbiter has awared Florida Panthers netminder a one-year contract worth $3.2 million for the upcoming season. Luongo has the option to negotiate a new long-term deal with the Panthers after January first or he can take the team to arbitration next summer. He's eligible for UFA status in 2007.

Perezhogin will be our top rookie this season. I've got a gutt feeling he'll put up 27 goals and 60 points. He's got good speed and awesome hands. And I've read from many, many sources that he is one of the hardest working players on the ice, always. I just can't see how anyone could consider him a goon though. I don't see how swinging your stick back at waist level after nearly being decapitated makes hima goon. If that knob wasn't on his knees, it would have been a 2 minute penalty instead of a 1 year suspension. Watch Ribs this season too, with Perezhogin and Ryder on his line, he could put up over 70 points. :hlogo::ghg: [Edited on 8/25/2005 by Carbo21]

Streit, Hainsey and Bouillon give Julien 2 options. All 3 are capable of playing a regular shift on the 3rd line (Bouillon is good enough for 2nd line IMO). So now if we need to bench someone (up front or on D) or if we get an injury, we can always push Dandy up front and play the odd man out on the 3rd line. We are pretty deep on D (no true first liners, but a ton of 2nd liners) and will have lots of options this year. At least we won't be calling up guys like Dykhuis or Traverse to fill in if we lose a blueliner this season.

I was wondering who thinks Gainey is going to make a trade sometime between the start of camp and the start of the season? We've got lots of upcoming young talent and we are limited on spots for them to fill. I could see Gainey packaging up Cube (Bouillon), Steit or Hainsey with a forward like Plekanec or Hossa and sending them to a team looking to free up some room. In return, I can see a solid 2nd line d-man coming back our way. Just a thought, but IMO, Gainey sticks with status quo and rolls the dice with who we've got. In fact, other than maybe picking up an NHL quality goon/tough guy, I don't think Gainey will make any moves until January some time.

First off, you have excellent English, no need to apologize. But more importantly, I can find hundreds of games where any number of elite highly sought after players have been the player behind a loss (or at least pivotal goals). I don't think it's fair to lump that loss on Bulis, but even if you do, it's not like Bulis hasn't been responsible for many a win too. I mean what was worse, Bulis making a wide shot that leads to an important goal for his opponents or a guy like Kovalev faking a hand injury, giving up on the puck, colliding with his own d-man taking him out of the play, which turned into the winning goal? I don't see anyone on here saying Kovalev is horrible (not that you said Bulis is horrible). You are right, it is time for Bulis to step up and put up some great scoring numbers. He has the skills to do it for sure. But if you think about it, Bulis is not being paide almost $3M to be an offensive superstar, he's being paid just barely over $1M to be a defensive checking specialist and quite frankly I think he's the best we've got by far. I too love Bulis and think habs fans around the world will too after this season. Cheers. [Edited on 2005/8/23 by Carbo21]

No offense, but no way is Koivu selfish or a 2nd line centerman. Koivu was voted first team center at the World Cup, he outclassed all of Canada's top centers as well as the rest of the world's. There is nothing selfish about Koivu, in fact, one of his few flaws is that he'll pass the puck sometimes when he has the better shot than the guy he's passing to. Yes, Koivu has been brittle and that could be his only flaw. But he's shown he can play most if not all of a season the last few seasons and hopefully he's past all his knee problems. I'd be willing to bet that pretty much any GM would kill to land Koivu and he'd be top line center on 2/3rds the teams in the NHL.

Well, I'm not saying that I overrate Souray because I've never put him on the pedistal that others put him on. I mean every time there is an international tournament, habs fans come out of the woodwork claiming Souray should be on the team (at least as an alternate). I'd say saying Souray is one of Canada's top 7 or 8 d-men is a HUGE overrating of his abilities. He has tons of potential but has been riddled with injuries over his tenure with the Habs. If he could stay healthy and play the way he did during the first 2-3 months of the last season, Souray could be a top tier D-man like most people think he is. Until then, I think most people overrate him. As for Bulis, he and Koivu have been my favorite Habs for years. Both give 110% every game. Both know that there are two ends to every rink. Both are team guys who show up every game. Bulis will explode this season and make believers our of everyone else.

Most overated would be either Souray or Theo (both have the ability to be top of the league, but both come up short regularly). Most underrated would be Bulis, da man can do it all. (or maybe Dags, I'm not a big fan of him, but the guy can bury the puck and no one gives him any credit, thus making him underrated).

They may have every right to mandate numbers, but for what purpose? Does anyone really care if the guy scoring 30+ goals for the team is wearing #87 instead of #12? Players are very superstitious and very attached to their number. If it's not being used and not a retired number, management would be very foolish to deny a player using their number. Sure, they have the right, I just think it would be asinine to do so.

Yeah, I agree with you, these will be the forward lines and we'll add in Vandermeer, Ivanans or someone else when we need added muscle. No way in hell Bulis is on the 4th line. [Edited on 2005/8/22 by Carbo21]

You know, I flip-flop on the idea of going after Selanne. No doubt he'd bring some offense to our team, but at what expense? A line of Koivu, Kovalev and Selanne would arguably be one of our best lines in 10 years. But how much salary do we tie up in Selanne? And what becomes of Zednik? He gets bumped to 2nd line and playes with Ribs and Ryder? For some reason, Zednik has never done well with Ribs. He played great with Killer and he's been fantastic with Koivu, but he always seems to struggle with Ribs. And what about Perezhogin? Does he even make the squad if we get Selanne? 3rd or 4th line you say? How much scoring will come from that? I mean this kid is supposed to score goals, not shut down top lines. And does that mean with Perezhogin on the 3rd line that Higgins misses his chance? As you can see, I'm clearly on the "No Selanne" side of the teeter-totter right now. I think we have more than enough scoring in Kovalev, Koivu, Zednik, Ryder, Ribs, Perezhogin, Bonk, Bulis, Dandenault, Markov and Hainsey. Let's not waste a spot on a aging vet who will score less than our top young guns looking for a spot. And with the money we save, we can get someone short term at the trade deadline if necessary or use it to get our remaining RFAs signed.

4 biggest suprises you ask... Now there are some obvious names for big seasons like Kovalev, Koivu, Zednik or even a promising young prospect like Higgins or sophmore like Komo or Ryder. But I expect all of them to do well, these are my top 4 "suprises" this season. 4. Dags. I know not many people put much faith in him, but 17 goals in 50 games is a pretty good steak. If Perezhogin doesn't steal his spot, I think Dags could suprise a lot of us. 3. Perezhogin. To negate my #4 pick, I think Perezhogin is more likely to suprise us. This kid finished in the top 20 in scoring in the RSL last season, and that with all the NHLers playing in the league to boot. Then when you consider this kid played on the 3rd line a lot and didn't get top line PP time, that's some pretty impressive scoring totals. It is reported that Perez is a hard worker, I believe he'll steal Dags spot on the 2nd line and wow us all. 2. Hainsey. Hainsey is coming of age and I think he'll finally mature this year. He'll see the younger Komo in a regular spot and realize his chance is slipping away. Look for him to flourish under the tandem of Julien and Jarvis and step up as the suprise on the blueline this seasaon. 1. And of course my top pick for suprise of the year is Bulis. Not that Bulis doing well will be much of a suprise, he's been our best all around player for a couple seasons now. But this season with Bonk feeding him and making some room for him out there, Bulis will not only be our fastest skater, one of our best checking forwards, our most reliable in our own end forward, but he will light the lamp a bunch too. I think he gained some confidence over in Europe last season and will put up 28 goals this season on top of logging a ton of ice time shutting down the top lines and PP units of our opponents. All habs fans will sing praise of Bulis next summer. :hlogo: