hankhab

It'd be great to see some of the just drafted prospects on the ice already, hope someone from here will be watching!

I think he still might be a candidate to play the whole season next year, seems mature, his talent level will allow it, and he's 6'1, 200lbs, he's probably not getting much bigger than that. As long as he's handled properly, I can see him sticking. I'm thinking Therrien will put the clamp down on the partying thing, so as long as he can handle all those pretty Montreal girls, he'll be ok. By the way, did you guys get a look at Ms Larionov on tsn? Gazoooks!

Sending him to the minors really would pressure him to do something with his game or look for other options. I'm just saying, will Molson want to fork over all that money to buy him out, even if there is an amnesty clause? Probably, but like I said, there are other options.

Don't want to see the habs near the maximum players signed to start the year, just leaves them in a sticky place for moves throughout the season. A lot of these guys are dead weight anyhow.

Ok, that would be great, and I know Bergevin plans to be active July 1, so I guess we'll see.

I think it'll be even less. I can see Conboy, Palushaj (I'm not at all impressed, he looks like career minor leaguer to me), Klubertanz, Masse, and Fortier being left out as well.

Bergevin stated earlier this year that he doesn't believe in rushing prospects to the NHL, and I don't think he will be pressured into that with Galy. Unless the kid is amazing at camp and is ready to play from day one, he'll be heading back to the Sting. I'm predicting the former, that he is totally amazing at camp, and wins a top 2 centre position with the Habs. May have to break up the big line, unless we get some unexpected help from elsewhere this summer.

As for Gomez, what about the sending him to the minors option? As long as it can still be done under the new CBA, there would be possible reasons to go this route. (1)He could be offered a player/coach role with the Bulldogs, he seems to have a good attitude, and it might be a good role for him. (2) He might report, but field offers to play in Europe. (3) He might retire, which might be the best case. Don't forget, when you buy a player out, thats not play money, its real, millions of dollars. Habs might prefer the demotion option instead.

Did I miss something? Who is Allen? Also, I's prefer to see Emelin in the top 4, he's good enough, and in fact has a lot of potential. The problem with Kaberle is that he's soft, and terrible defensively, I'd rath have Diaz and a dependable vet on third pairing, and to wherever with that soft ex-leaf.

I would prefer to see him at centre, its where he needs to learn. Centre position involves more defensive responsibility, and of course the faceoff thing. Galchenyuk is apparently very good on both sides of the puck.

I really like this pick, Thrower is a rock em sock em type, not overly huge but very physical, and well named, as he likes to Throw em every so often too.

If Galchenyuk blows everyone away at training camp this fall and actually starts with the habs, wouldn't we have a novel issue? We'd have Desharnes, Plekanics, Galchenyuk, Eller, and White as centres. White is not an issue, as he'll be 4th line centre/winger. The other 4 are all offensive centres, and while some tend to write off davey because he's small, you cannot argue with the effectiveness of his line. So what happens? I'd prefer to see Eller remain as a centre, on the 3rd line. Plekanics is a given because of his 2-way play, skill, and he'll be a great mentor to Galchenyuk. Of course, if galchenyuk stays, it has to be as a top 2 centre, or else he should return to junior. What a great problem!

Very interesting draft so far, I agree that Buffalo and Washington seem to have done very well (I can't believe the leafs passed on Grigs and Forsberg, their fans will be regretting that in a year or so, but I guess, whats new there). We can breath easy as hab fans, this guy, Galchenyuk, really seems like the real deal, I think we finally have that big, skilled number one centre we have missed since, well, probably Bobby Smith. No offense to Saku, who had the skill to be a top 10 scorer in the league, he never seemed to be the same player after the 2 knee injuries (and, hard to flourish with the garbage linemates he had to play with too). Hopefully we land a few gems in rounds 2 to 7!

Donald Dufresne actually cost me millions of dollars. Years ago, my family members all picked there own lotto 6/49 numbers, which we have played every draw since. I picked my favorite Habs at the time, and Donald was not one of them. But if you switched his jersey number for that of Matther Schneider, we would have won 3-4 million dollars. Instead, we got 5 of 6 numbers, and won 1500.00 . I can never forgive him for not being a better player.

I'm thinking he'd love to resign in Montreal, so I think he'd accept that here, if Bergevin is interested, who knows?

There is the chance of an amnesty buyout period when the new CBA is done, as there was last time, which would give us the chance to buy out Gomez (and, in my dreams at least, Kaberle) without a cap hit, which Gomez would obviously prefer. I'd acually rather send him to the minors, because there is always the chance that he would quit or try to sign with a team in Europe, which would be the best case for the Habs. Either way, his time here is over. That move gives us cap room for a top 6 winger (such as Jagr) and a couple of bottom 6 players (I'm still hoping we resign Moen). I agree, however, that Jagr signing here is a longshot.

Yeah, I said the same thing yesterday, its just the beginning of McGuire's new round of crapping on the Habs, since he once again didn't get the GM position. The funny thing is, if he were to accept an assistant GM position, someone would actually hire him, I think.

Well deserved, hopefully in a few years, Tinordi learns enough of the fighting game to beat the snot out of that moron Chara, still boggles my mind how that hit went unpunished.

Agreed, I think he was very entertaining in his time here. Thats why we should draft Grigs, people say, oh, not another Kovalev, but I say, if we can get an 18 year old Kovy, who in their right mind wouldn't want that?

I think some team will give Jagr 3.5 million again, if not more, which is why I don't expect to see him with the Habs, as much as we could use him, the cap situation might play against us, as we also need a reliable defenseman and another 3rd liner, at minimum. That could change, depending on what moves Bergevin makes, so I could be wrong, I suppose. Also, I really think Jagr will be looking for a 2 year deal this time, and I don't know if we'd be willing to offer that. He would look good with Pleks and Gionta, though.

I think Leblanc could be a good centre, but like many prospects before him, the Habs for some reason lack the patience to let him play the position long enough to master the skills required, and instead let him play wing, which tends to be a simpler game as far as defensive responsibility goes, which is a shame, because Leblanc seems to be a smart, defensively reliable player. Hopefully the new regime has the smarts to at least let Eller develop as a centre, I think he has the skills and size to be an excellent 2nd line centre. As for Leblanc vs Galchenyuk, I believe Leblanc will be more in the mold of a Kirk Muller guy, maybe he won't put up Mullers numbers, but similar in that he's more of a plugger and a shooter than a playmaker, not a pure offensive talent at all. Galchenyuk has that pure offensive skill that we need (Grigs does too), which is why he'd be better suited to duty as a first line centre. In fact, if we manage to draft Galchenyuk, and he is ready (although that is doubtful, as he missed so much time this year), we would have an interesting group at centre this year, as he could slot into that 2nd/3rd centre role, moving DD to the wing, perhaps. It will be interesting to see how Therrien deals with the centre position this year.

Did anyone watch the TSN mock draft last night? Did you hear what that idiot Mcguire said that Edmonton should ask for the top pick? Pk, and Montreals 1st round pick, for the first pick. He is obviously undervaluing PK, in my mind. Mind you, this is what he said Edmonton should ask for, not what Montreal should do, but still, glad this guy wasn't chosen as the GM.

About the only teams which hasn't fired a coach for no reason in recent memory are Buffalo, Detroit and Nashville. Sure, Lou does this from time to time (Ask Robbie Flotorik, or whatever his name was), but all in all, they run a first class organization in New Jersey.

Actually, they don't even like Kadri anymore, and even the players they did alright with, ie, Schenn, they manage to totally screw up afterwards. They do do everything wrong. Lets hope the new ownership there gives the existing management a big thumbs up.

Lou is a class act, and if Larry tells Lou that he'd like to go to Montreal, then its a done deal. There will be no demands for compensation or any whining, those two have a long history, and have a lot of respect for each other.