dlbalr

Harvey-Pinard makes some sense as the defacto 4C in that he is somewhat reliable defensively while Pezzetta/Gallagher are better on board battles. I'll be curious to see how much extra pressure this puts on the other three centres though. I'm also a bit surprised Xhekaj isn't in Struble's spot on the second pairing. Struble has shown he's not ready to be a top-four guy while Xhekaj is coming back from being an all-situations top-pairing player. If there was ever a chance to try him on the second pairing, now (or very soon) might be that time.

I think they've handled him well. Yes, he's on a bad team but that's a lot of playing time for a teenager in a league where they dress seven defencemen. He has had some struggles but when you're a teenager in a men's league, that's going to happen. He'll get his chance in Laval soon enough. I expect he'll be there in March at some point so it'll be an opportunity to assess how he's developed this year and how close he could be to being NHL-ready. (I'm not advocating for him to play in the NHL next season, just saying that's one of the things management will evaluate.)

This is the second year in a row he has taken a leave of absence and he's a shell of the player he was just a couple of years ago. I don't think there's anything suspicious about the timing, there's legitimately something wrong.

Could you post a link to where you found it? As for the offer itself, I'd pass. Ceci isn't that great and Borgeault's value has cratered this year. Granted, they'd keep the retention slot in this case but this feels underwhelming.

During live play, I think they'll go with a 3-winger fourth line. On set faceoff plays, one of the three centres will go out for the draw and then probably change once possession is gained. You run the risk of an icing with the 3-winger line but if I was drawing up how to make this work, that's how I'd do it.

That seems like the way they might be leaning. Pezzetta played centre once upon a time in junior and for part of a game here and there, he could shift over. But yeah, 3 C with an extra D to get Kovacevic back in seems like something they'd lean toward.

Just to pick up on the bolded point, Laval's game on Saturday is a good example of how little deterrent a fighter like Xhekaj can be. One of Belleville's goons spent a lot of the game taking runs at guys in the hopes of provoking a fight with Xhekaj while their other one deliberately went after Laval's goalie after the whistle, sparking another fracas.

Because there's no guarantee Laval would be all that good in a playoff run even with those extra prospects. This team isn't that good here. They're winning against some bottom-feeders but even then, they haven't deserved a few of these recent victories. They're a bubble team and adding a couple of players (since sending every waiver-exempt player down isn't at all realistic given roster rules) probably doesn't change that. There's value in a Calder Cup but there's a ton of negative value in promoting someone who went and mouthed off about playing time and wanting to be moved. If you reward someone for doing that, that's a terrible precedent to set. That's the part I'm pushing back on, Nicolas Beaudin cannot, under any circumstance, be rewarded after what he did behind the scenes. He cannot come up. I don't care if he's the last defenceman down there, it can't happen. If you want to move Norlinder up into the 7th role and send Barron down, sure, I guess. Barron's not going to be happy and there might be a longer-term problem from it (there's a reason he wasn't sent down at the beginning of the season; they really wanted to avoid the issue from last year from when they did that) but that's defensible. Sending Struble (or anyone) down for Beaudin? I can't support that one. While there's value in a playoff push down there, there's also value in 20 more games of NHL development time for a player that the team might be hoping will be a full-timer next year. That does have to be considered. And if they don't have enough bodies (and they won't after the trade deadline up front once they move a couple out), they will have to pull from Laval; there's no getting around that. The best they can probably do is take an AHL body back to mitigate the effect of keeping someone like Harvey-Pinard up full-time.

So why is Montreal accepting a lesser-level forward for Xhekaj? If they were going to move him, wouldn't it behoove them to get the best possible forward prospect available, not settle for a lower-end prospect (or a non-prospect) from Edmonton? Yes, the Oilers could use Xhekaj but if there isn't a viable fit in a trade, the Habs aren't trading him there. If you're saying it has to be a forward coming the other way, there isn't a viable fit.

Lavoie cleared waivers a few months ago and you want to move Xhekaj for him? They could have had him for free and chose not to take him. He's not a mid-six forward with any NHL organization. Taking him back as a throw-in as part of a bigger trade, sure, why not? But to move anyone of value for him would be a significant mistake; it's not as if he's completely dominating in Bakersfield either; Edmonton is about to sign Corey Perry to put him in a role that Lavoie tried to fill and failed. He is not that good, despite your long-standing hopes for him to become something. If you want him on Montreal, wait until October. He'll be on waivers again then.

Organizationally, do you want to reward players for mouthing off about ice time by giving them a huge raise through an NHL promotion? That's not a good precedent to set and that's what Beaudin has done behind the scenes. Norlinder could be a designated scratch though, sure. Not sure they should be going out of their way to be playing one of those on a nightly basis though. And what sort of message are you sending to Struble for demoting him when he's doing well? I get the idea of trying to have a long playoff run in Laval but sending a deserving player down (and giving him the corresponding big pay cut) to call a no-good flunky up for the purpose of maybe winning some minor league playoff games isn't going to go over well with a lot of players. Development-wise, maybe him staying up for the stretch and then playing at the Worlds might be better. You mention sending two down when Pearson/Newhook come back but what about the other part of that - what happens when Monahan gets moved? Or Pearson? Or another forward? Whoever you send down is probably coming back up. Maybe they get a body back for Pearson but they don't have the healthy depth to avoid raiding Laval at some point.

I could see that and they have some prospects that are near NHL-ready that might be more appealing than a draft pick.

It's important to remember he's really streaky. He can be really on and then play terribly for weeks at a time, that was the big knock on him with the Marlies and why he never really got an NHL look. It's some sort of a board glitch in that the first time a page loads, it pulls a tweet from earlier in the thread. Then, when you reload, it shows properly. It only happens when the tweet is posted on a new page. I've yet to figure out a workaround for that. It's an easier said than done thought. You still have to have enough NHL bodies to ice a team and it's not like there are many players currently injured that will be coming back. There's Newhook and Pearson, and that's it. (And they'd probably like to move Pearson and Monahan, so there's no net gain from the injured list in terms of number of players.) If Montreal wanted to send Barron down for the playoffs, they'd need to get another d-man which means burning a contract slot which we know from past discussions isn't ideal with who still has to sign. I guess they could pull Beaudin up to be a designated scratch but I doubt they want to reward him for complaining about his ice time. They'll be able to get Roy down if they want to but after that, it gets iffy as Stephens might have to stay as the 4C the rest of the way.

I think Ottawa knows who their next coach is going to be (John Gruden), they just can't get him until after the season. Martin then worked as a placeholder. Their owner came from Montreal, a team that had basically zero interest in Roy so the Sens weren't going to go after him.

He's a pretty good fit in theory. But they don't have a 2nd rounder until 2026 and are out a first rounder this season as well. Plus, their prospect pool is lousy and cap space is an issue. Knowing that, it's hard to find a fit that's a good enough return for the Habs and keeps Boston cap-compliant.

While I agree that Struble has struggled recently, I think it's worth noting those struggles have only come since he was moved into the top four. They're still trying to find that fourth top-four guy and clearly, he's not ready for the role. (Which isn't a bad thing, he's 20-some games into his career, he shouldn't be ready for that role.) Is it regression or him being overmatched against better opponents in less sheltered minutes? I'm hoping they put him back with Harris, a third pairing that was doing quite fine before the blueline shuffle happened.

A lot of people think Chris Lamoriello will move to the top role when that happens.

Here's the replay of that:

I think this is probably the end for Roy (or soon, whenever Pearson returns from IR - that's the trigger point) but he has shown enough to warrant another look later in the year when needed. That's already mission accomplished on his front.

Tonight's lines for the rematch: Notably, Boko Imama is back in for Belleville after serving his suspension for his part in a melee last weekend. With how chippy yesterday's game was, he could be primed to do something really stupid.

Anaheim was already toying with the idea of making him a winger (with McTavish/Carlsson being their top two centres). Trade or not, he might be on the wing when he comes back from injury.

Mesar took an elbow to the head last night and left the game. He's listed as day-to-day.

That's a fair assessment. Between Montreal not faring well against Ottawa lately and being dreadful in back-to-backs, this isn't a shocking outcome.

Just think, if the puck didn't bounce over Slafkovsky's stick with the open net off the Monahan post, it'd somehow be 2-1 Montreal right now. (Since Tkachuk's goal wouldn't have happened five seconds later.)

If this keeps up, Primeau might face two games of shots. That's one way to get him to face more rubber.