Link67

Uhhhhhhh I am pretty sure, upgrading Attitude and Character is Bergevin's #1 Priority this summer. Haven't you been paying attention!!??

Its sad that the point of why Voynov should be treated like a floating turd in a pool has to even be discussed. He is a garbage human being, crossing a line that should never be crossed, and no he does not deserve to make a living in the NHL, and he especially should not be tarnishing a storied franchise's reputation by being part of it in any way, shape, or form. I'd rather hear we are going to promote Marc Bergevin to President of Hockey Operations than hear we are even entertaining the idea of bringing in Voyonov

There is no context where it is any sort of good idea to allow a shit stain like Voyonov to stink up a sports franchise, much less ours. Who cares about his point totals, and what he can do on the ice, its not all about what happens on the ice. This is a sport, a professional sport, it should hold integrity and project decency by any who practice it, anything less is a poor example to the general public and a direct reflection of the values you live by. In this case, Character does indeed win over Talent, MB should stick to the f####n program.

Any truth to the Sportnet radio claim that Montreal is in big time on De Haan along with atleast 7 other teams? Interest in the LD is mounting and we are apparently at the tip of the spear, which scares me a bit because that is when you end up overpaying.

I am going with a no, I've had enough with the 6th/7th D pickup after pickup , quite frankly it is time to let Mete, Rielly, and Juulsen take the ball and run with it. We should only be targeting a legitimate top 4 D or nothing, because nothing else will help us improve anyway.

I wouldn't say it was a hard homer at all, it has been said multiple times now since the draft was over that Romanov is ranked low because 1. He is Russian and has not commited to NA hockey programs so the KHL factor plays a part. 2. because there really wasn't much info or broad stage to watch him all that easily. Timmins mentioned there were only a few situations to really get a good look at him, and they were a part of that, what they saw from that body of work really pleased them. It is important to separate a player ranked low or slipping because of character and maturity, or one of his hockey skills is so deficient it keeps his ceiling low, VS, a player who is ranked lower because people don't really know much about them. Detroit has proven this point multiple times over the years with having scouts in the right European markets at the right time, seeing excellent players in a context not too many scouts did, thus giving them a lucky informational advantage. Sounds like Timmins and the gang saw a body of work that was not on display on a grand stage, but from that, saw something many others didn't, happens all the time, in every draft.

More of what we don't need anyway so a good call not shipping them away, Olofsson alone projects the same as Rask anyway, let alone having to sacrafice another pick too. Rask is a fringe top 6 C capable of producing 45 points, we already have Drouin and Danault capable of that, we are looking for top 6 C capable of 55+ points. That's enough with the lateral moves, time to focus on positional upgrades going forward, glad this didn't happen.

Its a tricky one, I see the logic in it on one hand, I saw the damage that can be done with a collection of 2nd rounders for myself this draft, every 1st round talent that slips becomes a potential pick. There is also my lack of understanding why a guy like Ennis, who is literally built for this current NHL game, struggled in Minny, that maybe he could prop himself back up to a Paul Byron status at least. I think we need to see what happens with the big ticket price names we hear about Montreal being interested in from Tavares and Stasny to JVR by the sounds of things and see what we use our cap on before we can effectively decide who we're doing favors for with our huge cap space for draft picks. But I certainly like this idea better than the Lucic absorption, it at least has a chance to work out with the player, plus it offers a value pick in the 2nd round with much less cap implications for us.

Oh my bad, I'll be sure to cater more to your needs going forward

Nope, not a chance, I chuckled when everyone was going on about how good Dallas did in the UFA market last summer but I knew Hanzal was going to be a dud who was now overpaid and struggle to hit 40 points, there are multiple posts on here somewhere by me last summer where I reiterate that.

Spezza is an interesting short term solution i'd consider because he likely ends up being a cheaper cap dump by Dallas especially if they are deep in the Tavares race. My only concern is he is far from a Julien type of player. ROR AND Spezza however could be something very interesting for our top 6 if we have no chance at all at Tavares anyway. Also buys some time for the future centers to develop and come in when the keys are ready to be handed over.

You mean it was easy for you to see his impending doom after boasting 60 and 54 point seasons leading into the contract extension? and that his numbers would drop 50% as early as the following season? What the heck are you doing here then? you should be working in the NHL as a salary cap guru and player evaluator. 20/20 hindsight is always where people try to sound like genius', but the truth on the Plekanec front is he was producing above his career average the 2 seasons leading into his 3 year deal. He is a career 0.61 PPG player, and had a combined 0.69 PPG in the final 2 years of his previous deal, it was actually impossible to predict he would decline by as much as 50% of that, starting the very next season. It was easy to spot based on his age, a decline would happen during those 3 years of his new contract, and that it was too much money for a player we knew would VERY likely decline past his mid 30's. How much decline, and how much of an over payment it ended up being was impossible to spot without hindsight in your corner. When the deal was made I had no problem with the term, but I had a feeling he would steadily decline to 38 - 40 point guy by the end of the extension, and obviously 6.25 AAV is too much for that. There was no way in hell to know he would crash down as hard as he did with his production, but he still remained the reliable player he always was in the other aspects of his game, he still ended up being a very serviceable 3rd line center who could occasionally fill in the top 6 if needed here and there. He went from very likely overpaid by 1.5 million or so AAV when the extension was announced to grossly overpaid by the end of it. That error lies on the front office for overpaying right off the bat, even if the likely scenario was the one I mentioned earlier, we still overpaid at 6.25 AAV, so when the situation turned worst case scenario, it looked like a major over payment. The problem was with the Management decision, not Plekanec the player, he was following the natural arc in any player's career. He was still obviously a good and useful player during his 54 point season, he deserved to be defended, he was the only player we had capable of doing what he does. He was put in a position he had virtually no chance of properly filling because we continued year after year not addressing our top 6 C need, he was given a contract he had no chance to live up to. But rather than objectively understand the situation and focus your Ire in the right direction, the Vulture's that are the majority of this fanbase find the need to pick at his bones as he enters the twilight of his career, Bravo.

And here I was calling him Hayden Hawkeye all this time......jesus

Tremendous work honestly, and a great read, the grading seemed very fitting of how I felt the teams did as well.

50 points? JT has that by the damn All-Star break these days. He is special, and a very elite talent, IF there is any chance he would field offers from us we should be throwing everything we can at him, heck unsink the titanic and throw that at him for good measure. The only reason Tavares shouldn't sign here is because he chose not to, not because we did anything less than try our absolute BEST to land, that would be utterly unacceptable.

YES! Some people are just born with it! yeah i'll show myself out...

No one actually knows the 5 teams, pure speculation at this point everyone who leaves a list of teams even starts it by saying its a wild guess or their opinion.

I got a kick out of it too, can always count on Burke to keep it real and unedited lol.

Co-worker said he saw a report earlier this afternoon that a sports talk-radio show in L.A said word on the draft floor was a deal was done with L.A and Montreal which included Pacioretty and high ranked prospects from the Kings's system. The deal hinged on Pacioretty signing long term with the Kings, after the contract extension negotiation went south this morning, the deal was off, and they signed Kovalchuk a couple hours later. Now hours after that, we find out Pacioretty fires his agent and goes in a different direction. It certainly seems to add up to one big picture now that he fired his agent, one thing seems pretty certain though, L.A is no longer in the race for him now after giving Kovy 6.25 per. Bergevin could have also been talking to Walsh for those 10 min. about what transpired earlier in the day, and regarding future contract negotiations with potential trade partners. They are likely all going to want Pacioretty locked up beyond just this season to give up any type of big package for him. It is really in Pacioretty and Bergevin's mutual best interest that the Agent be able to workout a good and acceptable extension to facilitate a trade with whoever is trying to acquire him. Who knows I guess.. *insert Days of our Lives Theme*

I notice how the home run teams are also the ones who picked twice in the the 1st round, easy to look like the winners when you do that. This Draft is far from a failure for us, lots of forwards with upside in speed and skill, blueliners with offensive potential, mobility and puck movement. At its core, these are the elements we need and lack going forward in today's NHL. This group has at least shown me signs during this draft that they are done with the dinosaur mentality of how the game USED to be played, and are aware of how it is currently being played. Overall I think it was a pretty good draft, lots of swings, lots of players molded for today's game, if 3 or 4 of them pan out, then this was a huge success. And it certainly looks like there is a chance that could happen just with Kotkaniemi, Ylonen, and Olofsson.

Yea that was great, I was like "heeyyyy I recognize that"

Nothing like hating on a player before he even plays an NHL game, everyone on the panel comparing him to Kopitar, and you are sitting in here with some crystal ball and who knows how many Kotkaniemi games watched predicting he is an average Plekanec... I get it, you don't like the pick, can't you just leave it at that or does the absurd baseless doomsday predictions have to come standard? This is why our fanbase sucks sometimes, there was virtually no WRONG pick to be made by us in that spot except Tkachuk probably, we could have took Zadina, Hughes, Kotkaniemi, Wahlstrom and none would have been the wrong pick. All are great young players for their own reasons, but not here in Montreal, nope, here, we already know Kotkaniemi is an average 50 point player being taken 3rd overall, a flop waiting to happen. Give me a break..

Sportsnet Radio was reporting earlier that Calgary is really focusing on Montreal and Detroit early picks and trying to put together packages for both teams to really consider. They apparently really want to try and go for it with uniting the Tkachuk brothers. Don't think they have a viable package we would be interested enough in to make a trade for the 3rd pick, but hell I am not putting anything past this front office. I am just crossing my fingers that the next 2 weeks, starting today, goes by with sensible and competent moves to help this team going forward. Can't say I am very confident in those hopes however.

Can we just forget Tkachuk exists and worry about who we are picking between Zadina, Kotkaniemi, and Hughes?