dlbalr

He was a finalist with the Devils before...I forget whether it was when DeBoer was hired or MacLean though.

By the way, this is actually official now, I'll update the title: http://canadiens.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=633838&navid=DL|MTL|home

You can - there was a trade last week actually between Boston and Washington. The Habs traded during the postseason a few years ago when they picked up the rights to Ryan Russell.

There is a rumbling going around that the Habs may once again be going after Jaromir Jagr in the offseason.

They're related to an extent, Grabovski was supposed to be a part of the Sundin deal had a contract been reached. The actual trade was struck after the July 1st deadline passed.

Plus Pateryn; I'm not sure he'll be an NHL'er but he should at least be a good piece to have in Hamilton.

Not really playoffs-related now but Tomas Vokoun signs a 2 year, $4 M deal...with the Penguins after being acquired for a 7th rounder earlier today. They've got some insurance for if/when Fleury implodes again.

Benoit Groulx confirms he's staying in the Q for next year, some felt he might be a darkhorse candidate.

For anyone interested, here are the top results from the combine: http://www.nhl.com/ice/page.htm?id=80653&navid=DL|NHL|Microsite-Draft2012

I liked Dallas' teams under Crawford and they just came up short under him (42-29-11 his last year which isn't too shabby). Looking at LA's roster in his final year though, it's easy to see why they struggled. Patrick O'Sullivan was one of their top scorers, while overpaid and overrated players like Ladislav Nagy, Michal Handzus, and Tom Preissing also were on the roster. Heck, Brian Willsie played 53 games that year. Goaltending is what really did them in though, Jason Labarbera was the #1 goalie while J-S Aubin was the backup. Even with their skaters, had they had remotely competent goalies they still may have done some damage.

Lots of re-entry players this year (unsigned prospects from the 2010 draft). Here they are: Anaheim 6th Round 161st Andreas Dahlstrom Buffalo 4th Round 98th Steven Shipley 5th Round 143rd Gregg Sutch 6th Round 173rd Cedrick Henley Calgary 3rd Round 73rd Joey Leach Carolina 6th Round 167th Tyler Stahl 7th Round 187th Frederik Andersen Chicago 2nd Round 35th Ludvig Rensfeldt 6th Round 151st Mirko Hoefflin Colorado 4th Round 95th Stephen Silas 5th Round 139th Troy Rutkowski Columbus 2nd Round 55th Petr Straka 4th Round 94th Brandon Archibald 4th Round 102nd Mathieu Corbeil-Theriault Dallas 4th Round 109th Alex Theriau Detroit 6th Round 171st Brooks Macek Edmonton 4th Round 91st Jeremie Blain 6th Round 166th Drew Czerwonka Florida 4th Round 99th Joonas Donskoi 6th Round 153rd Corey Durocher Minnesota 7th Round 189th Dylen McKinlay Montreal 7th Round 207th John Westin Nashville 7th Round 194th David Elsner New Jersey 7th Round 204th Mauro Jorg New York Islanders 5th Round 125th Tony DeHart New York Rangers 7th Round 190th Randy McNaught Ottawa 4th Round 106th Marcus Sorensen Philadelphia 7th Round 206th Ricard Blidstrand 7th Round 209th Brendan Ranford Pittsburgh 6th Round 152nd Joe Rogalski St. Louis 3rd Round 63rd Brock Beukeboom (originally selected by Tampa Bay) 6th Round 164th Stephen MacAulay Tampa Bay 3rd Round 72nd Adam Janosik 4th Round 96th Geoffrey Schemitsch Toronto 3rd Round 79th Sondre Olden 5th Round 146th Daniel Brodin 7th Round 182nd Josh Nicholls Vancouver 6th Round 175th Jonathan Iilahti 7th Round 205th Sawyer Hannay Washington 6th Round 176th Samuel Carrier Winnipeg 5th Round 128th Fredrik Pettersson-Wentzel 6th Round 155th Kendall McFaull 6th Round 169th Sebastian Owuya A few interesting names on that list, particularly Frederik Andersen, a goalie drafted by Carolina. His SEL numbers were terrific last year and the scuttlebutt is that he declined offers from the Hurricanes (instead of not getting offered a deal like many on the list). I think the Habs would be wise to consider him at some point in the draft. Jeremie Blain is an offensive d-man but with the glutton of young defencemen Hamilton bound next year they may not want one that's already AHL age. Up front, Joonas Donskoi is a player I've always liked when I saw him in the World Juniors. All in all, this is a half decent crop of re-entries compared to recent years.

A couple of Hab tidbits from the combine: http://www.hockeybuzz.com/blog.php?post_id=44719

$1.275 M cap hit, max base salary of $925,000 (inc. $92,500 s/b per year), $350,000/yr in incentives (the usual, GP, pts, etc).

From TSN (tweet on the main page) - decision is likely down to Therrien/Crawford, decision could come this weekend. From RDS - Roy likely to get additional interview, may not yet be out of the running.

And we all know the Antichambre people are completely impartial and objective. They're on the Therrien bandwagon because he's 'one of theirs,' they'll badmouth anyone not named Therrien. Crawford's taking daily lessons so they, like any of us, don't know his current French speaking capabilities.

It's official, Hartley to Calgary. Interestingly enough, according to a tweet from Dreger, Zurich extended Hartley's out clause but only would do so for Calgary.

To play devil's advocate a bit, would Beaulieu still derive some benefit from being the #1 d-man on what should be a much worse Saint John team next season? He'd easily log 30 tougher minutes per game and then would likely be dealt to a contender at the deadline for a long playoff run. I too think he should be in Hamilton but I think he could still benefit a bit from going back.

Not ground breaking news by any stretch but the Habs have made an contract offer to 2011 4th rounder Magnus Nygren in the hopes of getting him signed for next year. It appears that having as many as 4 rookie D next year in Hamilton isn't scaring them away from trying to add a 5th. He is under contract with Farjestad of the Swedish Elite League for next year already but they actually have a transfer agreement in place.

Dreger has today. Nothing is imminent according to what he's hearing. http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=397133

We'll likely get more of a sense of who attended/was interviewed from those attending the Habs' own combine.

I'd say they're more reputable than the independent bloggers that have been hinting at this (and it wasn't his scoop either). Upon further digging, it appears Dany Dube is also noting the same.

I heard a little nugget listening to Hockeycentral at Noon today. Roy's removal from consideration stems from him wanting too much control over player personnel decisions. This is something a lot of us speculated would be the case but that was the first time I'd heard it from a reputable source.

With the team having a couple of assistant GM's now, I imagine the job roles are a bit of a hybrid relative to their typical descriptions.

The primary sources claiming it's done are independent bloggers, the more reputable sites are basing their reports on these. Doesn't mean they're not right either but I don't think it's fair to suggest this is for sure happening.

There are some early indications that he will indeed be in development while also working on the personnel side. https://twitter.com/#!/GagnonFrancois/status/207162412225404928 https://twitter.com/#!/GagnonFrancois/status/207162869668786176 Gagnon could be wrong of course but his notes are the only somewhat definitive answer I can find as to whether he'll have a hand in development or not.