dlbalr

That was an eventful third period for Matheson. Beat by Hischier on the PPG, beat by Bratt on his goal, but then helped make up for it with the diving poke at the blueline to set up Suzuki's goal. He pulled it off a second time after that but they couldn't tie it. Anderson's back to not being able to buy one after cranking one off the crossbar when it was still 3-2. He's more than due again. That had to be one of the least energetic games of the season. That was tough to watch.

He has looked fine in this one. Nothing too noticeable one way or the other which can be said for a lot of players. Someone needs to remind both teams that there isn't a minimum pass rule, they're allowed to shoot without completing three passes first. So many times we've seen both teams pass their way out of scoring lanes.

I don't think anyone disagrees that a small depth move can sometimes be impactful. I think the disagreement stems from most here thinking Pezzetta doesn't crack Vancouver's lineup and thus can't be impactful in the playoffs whereas you feel he would play regularly on their fourth line and would have a chance to make a difference. For the depth move to matter, the player has to actually play and barring injuries, I don't see where he fits in their lineup. If they're going to make a fourth-line addition, I suspect that it's going to be a player that's better than Pezzetta. Right now, their fourth-line wingers are Sam Lafferty and Ilya Mikheyev. Pezzetta isn't better than those two.

Yeah, there's a lot to it and it's nothing too exciting for the Habs, that's for sure. This was the best I could think of to get Allen to Colorado with the Avs getting the Johansen replacement and Montreal not having to retain on Allen's contract in the process. You're correct on the net bottom line. Last year, they only got a 5th for being a third-party retainer so a 4th is at least a small upgrade. If they intend to move Savard and use retention, then obviously this wouldn't be on the table. I'm operating under the assumption they won't move him. I'm also operating under the assumption that an expiring Johansen might have some value next year, more than Allen which is also baked into my logic of the return; there could be another element of this to come this time a year from now.

I've had a few variations of this idea in my mind over the last week and I'm not sure if this is the winner yet but here goes: To Montreal: F Ryan Johansen ($4M through 2024-25) COL 2026 fourth-round pick To Colorado: F Adam Henrique (75% retained, 50% from ANA, 25% from MTL, $1.456M through 2023-24) G Jake Allen (50% retained from ANA, $1.925M through 2024-25) Rights to F Ty Smilanic To Anaheim: COL 2026 second-round pick COL 2025 third-round pick F Oscar Olausson ($863K through 2025-26) To do this, four separate trades have to be made: 1) Smilanic to COL for Johansen, COL 2026 2nd, COL 2025 3rd 2) Allen, COL 2026 2nd, and COL 2025 3rd to ANA for Henrique (50% retained) 3) Allen (50% retained) to COL for Olausson 4) Henrique (50% retained on remainder) to COL for COL 2026 4th Montreal gets some value for Allen in Johansen, someone who I think can be flipped next season as a rental and pick up a future pick for the second element of retention. Smilanic is this year's Arvid Henrikson, their least valuable asset, just since something had to go to Colorado in the first part of the trade. Colorado gets their backup goalie on a value contract for this year and next and gets a short-term C upgrade while even freeing up a bit of cap space. They probably can't move Johansen for Allen without getting a centre somewhere else. Anaheim is believed to be seeking a second and a third for Henrique plus another third for retention on Henrique. They do a bit better with this as Olausson (a former first-round pick whose value has dipped a bit) has a bit more value than another third-round pick in exchange for eating half on Allen. I waffled on adding another small element for them but the Avs only have so many trade chips here.

Points, no, but he was tied for the lead in PPGs with Gionta (10) in his lone full season with the Habs.

Did anyone catch what happened to Struble? They mentioned he was being helped down the tunnel on the broadcast but there was never a replay. He didn't play the final half of the third pretty much.

Tough 21-second sequence there with the two goals allowed. O'Connor's shot was nice but that looked like Primeau wasn't quite in the right spot positionally.

I will give him credit, he has cut those down this season which has been nice to see.

A few years ago, that was the case but there's a reason he had to settle for a two-way deal and cleared waivers earlier in the year. He wasn't even doing much in the minors this season let alone being a legitimate NHL player. He's this year's Chris Tierney, a warm body.

Interesting first period, lots of shots for either side. Primeau looked a bit rusty but after sitting for a week and a half, that's to be expected.

I think he'd be playing at the level of 0% in the playoffs as I'm skeptical he'd crack the regular lineup of most playoff-bound teams. Maybe when there's an injury or for a one-game thing where they want to up the physicality but not as an every-game player. Teams like Vancouver need grit, sure. But I think they should be aiming a bit higher on the talent side of things.

Not sure White is really a stabilizer. Honestly, I'm not sure he's a better player than Gignac. That was largely speculative with Hughes being his old agent. Glen Metropolit - claimed from Philly Feb. 27/09, played against Philly for Montreal that same night. How I remembered the player is beyond me (I had to look up the date just to be sure).

Original 6 market, different country, and a bit of a unique culture relative to most other hockey markets. Any of those would appeal to a team doing a trip like that.

To piggyback on this, I suspect Holtz is in New Jersey's offer for Markstrom or another impact player. Not sure Montreal has the best fit.

If faced with waiving Allen or carrying three goalies to start next season, I think they'll believe that three goalies is the lesser evil. If the intention is to give him away, there's a way to do it without waivers, it's the trade for future considerations approach. That would reflect better on the organization who could then say they sent him to place of his choosing rather than running the risk of one of the teams on his no-trade list putting in a claim. If they waived him and a NTC team claimed him, that wouldn't be pretty; the Habs would be accused of bypassing his trade protection which wouldn't sit well with players and agents.

I'd be shocked if that happens. Hughes has gone out of his way to be respectful to veterans so I don't see him embarrassing Allen like that. That's one of those things where the reputational hit to the organization would make that a risky proposition.

The other thing of some note in there is that they're no longer looking for goalies which takes one of the more viable speculative landing spots for Allen off the table.

They did draft two Russians in last year's draft class so I'm not sure about the anti-Russian part. They really seemed to like Reinbacher based on the offers they reportedly declined and based on the video they released, also seemed to be a bit risk-averse when it came to Michkov.

Mysak was also injured in this one as Laval's depth gets thinned out even further.

Pretty entertaining finish. And I liked the shoot-first mentality that we haven't seen a ton of from him.

I think that's what they're heading for. I could see a time when the top-used defender is around 22 minutes a night. Some nights it's Guhle and Reinbacher as a shutdown pairing, others it might be the offensive guys with the team trailing and needing to come back. But gone would be the days of someone like Matheson playing 26 minutes and the #6 guy playing half of that; there would be a lot more balance in the distribution of minutes. Not a lot of teams try that but I can certainly see the upside of it.

He's done for the rest of the regular season and most of the playoffs at least.

I think the wow element is that this might wind up being a mild concussion. When he was skating off the ice following the hit, he didn't look like a player who was dealing with a mild concussion but rather a longer-term one. I certainly didn't expect to hear that he was at that point of the recovery already.

Yeah, the timing is the important part. Allen's value might be at its best near the draft if a team doesn't want to commit a multi-year deal to a backup goalie in free agency. Johansen's probably isn't at its best until the next trade deadline so value is certainly relative to the calendar.