zumpano21

To paraphrase LOTR: Bergevin: I will not risk a rebuild. Habs faithful: A rebuild is upon you whether you would risk it or not.

Tampa?

Tavares ain’t coming. And he wouldn’t fix our system wide deficiencies

There’s a lot of certainty on how the Habs did here. Wish I could be as “certain”.

*inserts Hail Mary gif*

Did Carolina just become Calgary’s farm team?

Haha! As we enter the dawn of AI, we still have GMs talking about character and intangibles. Any team that’s isn’t exploring AI for roster development is a team destined to lose in perpetuity.

Important to keep in mind. This is the same group of GMs that agreed to give Vegas a Stanley Cup finalist roster. They don’t really know what they’re doing.

This Romanov narrative..... did he truly drop out of concern for his allegiance to the KHL or did he drop because that's where he should be talent wise?

Interesting.... in the later rounds, might be best to take as many shots as possible rather than loading up on 1 or 2 bullets.

These rounds are also where you can make a team. Lots of scouts firing blanks now but pick up an nhl regular in the 3-7th rounds and you’re one step closer to Stanley.

With the lions share of draft picks done, do we see a PACs trade now?

Best part of the season! Right now - up until July 1. Cross your fingers. Here we go....

I don’t like this trade either but.... so many rumours of rehab, partying, etc.... the waters on #27 may run deeper than we know but yeah, I understand the hate

Weber and Tavares seen together at the F1 race.

I think the brotherhood of sports should run deeper than anything a WH visit could possibly offer. This is historically where NHL leadership is weak so as not to rock the boat. We shall see. As an aside, why not get the MLB, NFL, NBA and NHL champions together for a BBQ at Barack’s? The photos would be epic!

Might get into trouble for this: Should the Caps go to the White House?

Haha.... I hope Eller and DSP send a blank postcard to Habs mgmt from Vegas today. ”WISH YOU WERE HERE!”

We are so far from this level of hockey. Hang on boys, it's going to be a marathon - not a sprint.

At best, tribal politics.

Closest thing to a generational skater the Habs have had since Lafleur. Hes a funny guy though. If you asked him to define himself as a person, I’m not convinced hockey player would be the first thing he says.

This is nailing it on the head. When end you look at it on paper, it doesn’t look that good. That says to me that we don’t fully understand what’s happening. This is a good thing though. Prior to this season, it was an unknown unknown when it comes to dramatically rethinking and improving roster construction. We have at least now realized that it is a known unknown. We know that there are others ways to improve a roster without doing the same thing that we’ve doing for a generation now. Advantage goes to the franchise that can figure out the “new” formula.

To me it’s a strong link vs weak link phenomenon. Vegas has no weak link. They come at you in waves with no readily identifiable weakness. Montreal is a strong link team by contrast where we have Price in net and Weber on D but also an Alzner etc. The other thing that has to be mentioned is that strong link teams probably have a polarized dressing room. Guys like Price and Weber get way more attention and maybe perks from mgmt then guys like Froese etc. That is to say when a golden knight walks into the dressing room he sees 21 other guys or so that are just like him, get treated the same way (with the exception of maybe MAF), and he has no problems buying in to Gallant’s system. Can’t see it being the same in other dressing rooms.

I don’t think anyone wanted Vegas competing for a cup from the outset. Competing for a playoff spot and making the first or second round - that makes sense. What we’re seeing is a collective misunderstanding of the game by the entire league. Most teams try to sign big time players and then plug whatever is left over with journeyman/borderline players. The Vegas formula debunks what the entire league has been emulating for years. If you’re not re-evaluating your entire approach to roster construction right now, your GM is failing.

Late to the party. I’m going to emphatically announce that Vegas’ success is a direct result of 30 GMs not understanding the game - despite being paid millions to do exactly that. Love the Peg but if Vegas wins it will basically dismantle the mythology behind the GM position.