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Tomas Plekanec


bobby

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This guys has to be the most underrated member of the Habs, and one of the most underrated players in the league. If you look at the 2001 draft, Pleks has matched the performance of all of the top 10 forwards drafted outside of Kovalchuk and Spezza. His numbers and his responsibility are on par with Steven Wiess (#4 pick), Mikko Koivu (#6), and Toumo Ruutu (#9). He is substantially outperforming Alex Svitov and Stanislav Chistov (#3 and #5 overall). About time Plekanec got the respect he deserves. He is the lowest paid member of the team, and probably the best at the moment. He is the consumate team player as well, going about earning his ice time instead of whining about his situation.

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He was garbage for the first two months of the season, but has really found his game since then. More often than not, he's outplayed Saku Koivu in the past two months. I don't know where he fits in if BG gets the scoring center this team so deseperately needs, but I do know that we should keep him...even if it means shifting him to the wing.

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He was garbage for the first two months of the season, but has really found his game since then. More often than not, he's outplayed Saku Koivu in the past two months. I don't know where he fits in if BG gets the scoring center this team so deseperately needs, but I do know that we should keep him...even if it means shifting him to the wing.

Wasn't it you who bashed Gainey for not dumping "Tomas Hands of Stone Plekanec" at the beginning of the season? :rolleyes:

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I really like li'l Plekanec. He was never ever garbage in my opinion.... the guy makes things HAPPEN out there. He might not have the finishing touch of Mike Bossy but he's a fine little player. If we trade this guy I'll be mighty pissed off... next year he'll be a 65 point guy if gets decent ice time and some power play time. Although I reckon he'll be on the 3rd line next year.

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He was garbage for the first two months of the season, but has really found his game since then. More often than not, he's outplayed Saku Koivu in the past two months. I don't know where he fits in if BG gets the scoring center this team so deseperately needs, but I do know that we should keep him...even if it means shifting him to the wing.

Totally agree. I wanted see him trade before Christmas, and now he's the best player on the ice almost every game. But, the minute :hlogo: gets another center player for the 2nd or even 1rst line, Plekanec will have to lean back to the 3rd or 4rth line because the future of the Habs at center doesn't come with Plek's name there.

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Pleks earns less than 1/10 the salary that Koivu and Kovalev do. :blink: He will probably pass Kovy on the scoring list before the season is over, and is a better defensive player to boot. Fans complain about Tomas not matching up to the #2 centres in the league, but I don't think too many of those are playing for 450k per season.

When Saku was the same age he had 44 points in 65 games, so there isn't a lot of difference.

Kovalev had 35 points at the same age, but that was the lockout season. The following years he had 53 points per season, which is well within Plekanec reach, I think.

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If you consider that there are 30 top line centres in the league, Koivu is 26th among the scorers. If you go to the second 30, Plekanec is 28th among that group. So he is scoring at a consistent pace to Koivu as the #2 centre on a defense oriiented team.

The problem may not be that the Habs lack a #2 centre so much as that they lack a #1 centre, and Koivu should be the second line centre.

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If Bonk doesn't re-sign, I think Plekanec will take over the 3rd line spot. I find him to be much more suited to the defense-first, offense-second spot in the lineup.

This, of course, hinges on Gainey bringing in a 2nd line center, or bringing up Grabs and praying.

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I love Bonk, but we need to economize in order to free up the dough to sign Briere or some other decent centreman. Therefore Pleks should be our 3rd line C as of next season.

25 points in 29 games since Jan 1. Pretty good, but really - if he's the best we're throwing out there, then we suck, let's face it.

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Plexi has shown good promise in the offensive zone and we all know he can play a checking style. But loosing a big center like Bonk who can win faceoffs and tie up a teams #1 line would require a very good replacement.

Who else other than Briere would fit? I think the habs need to chance things up big time. I'd be willing to pay for Naslund or big money for a Sakic type player.

GO Habs GO!

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If you consider that there are 30 top line centres in the league, Koivu is 26th among the scorers. If you go to the second 30, Plekanec is 28th among that group. So he is scoring at a consistent pace to Koivu as the #2 centre on a defense oriiented team.

The problem may not be that the Habs lack a #2 centre so much as that they lack a #1 centre, and Koivu should be the second line centre.

True

I love Bonk, but we need to economize in order to free up the dough to sign Briere or some other decent centreman. Therefore Pleks should be our 3rd line C as of next season.

25 points in 29 games since Jan 1. Pretty good, but really - if he's the best we're throwing out there, then we suck, let's face it.

True

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Everyone overlooks Maxim Lapierre. He is going to play for the Habs for the next 10 years or so, and could be the future captain. He is the one who will replace Bonk in time, and Kyle Chipchura isn't doing too badly in Hamilton. Chipchura is putting up similar first year numbers to Lapierre.

The only thing that could derail Chipchura from making the team could be Ryan White. Or Ben Maxwell. White in particular, looks like a player who could stick out of training camp next year or the following year.

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Plexi has shown good promise in the offensive zone and we all know he can play a checking style. But loosing a big center like Bonk who can win faceoffs and tie up a teams #1 line would require a very good replacement.

Who else other than Briere would fit? I think the habs need to chance things up big time. I'd be willing to pay for Naslund or big money for a Sakic type player.

GO Habs GO!

I want someone relatively young. Sakic is a band-aid, Naslund is a shadow of his former self. Briere is the perfect fit except for his small size, but I can live with that. Briere-Koivu would be a massive upgrade on Koivu-Plekanec, and I'd have no problem inking Briere to a long-term deal. (Other possibilities? Well, Gomez and Datsyuk. But you have to think only Briere will not run screaming from Montreal).

I understand those reluctant to lose Bonk, but we HAVE to sign a premiere C this summer. This 'core' group simply is not good enough to win anything - they've shown that repeatedly. It just makes sense to redirect money from the third and fourth lines to bolster the top two, especially when we have cheap players - Pleks, Lapierre - would will be at least competent as checking C. Furthermore, Koivu is going to be 33 years old, with a body that has suffered more than most players'. We HAVE to start easing the burden on him if we want to extend his career and enable him to continue to play at a high level.

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Plekanec will turn out to be a better player than Briere, why bring in some undersized to hinder his progress? To prove Kovalev right in his accusations? By the end of this season, Pleks will have around 75-80 career NHL points at the age of 24. Briere had 100 at the same stage, and didn't lose a potential NHL season to lockout the way Plekanec has. Briere then scored another 60 points over the next TWO seasons combined. Given any amount of ice time, Tomas should be ahead of Briere's offensive pace by the end of next season, and probably for the balance of their repsective careers. He also is considerably stronger, more durable, and better defensively than Briere.

Edited by KoZed
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I understand those reluctant to lose Bonk.

Apparently Bonk will remain with Johnson being the loss if we get Briere. The idea is that with Abby, Niinimma, Rivet already going and Johnson's combined salaries equalling 8.7 million, the money freed up will allow us to sign Briere and maybe some of that left over (if there is any) will help in signing Souray. Sorry, don't have a link.

We'll see in time I suppose.

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Plekanec will turn out to be a better player than Briere, why bring in some undersized Franco to hinder his progress? To prove Kovalev right in his accusations? By the end of this season, Pleks will have around 75-80 career NHL points at the age of 24. Briere had 100 at the same stage, and didn't lose a potential NHL season to lockout the way Plekanec has. Briere then scored another 60 points over the next TWO seasons combined. Given any amount of ice time, Tomas should be ahead of Briere's offensive pace by the end of next season, and probably for the balance of their repsective careers. He also is considerably stronger, more durable, and better defensively than Briere.

:D You keep believing that :D

Unfortunately, NHL hockey isn't mathematical like that. By this logic, Kjell Dhalin would be the greatest goal scorer in NHL history (after all, he got 40 in his rookie season...so by year five, he should have been at, what, 6578?)

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There is no sound reason for the Habs to bring in a free agent centre. Especially not Briere. Koivu is signed for another year at least, Plekanec has been progressing far better than hoped, Bonk is a solid citizen who accepts his role, and Lapierre is one of the most promising fourth line centres you're likely to find in the league. There is some real talent on the farm as well. If anything, I could see them signing a solid left winger so that Latendresse can return to his natural position on the right side.

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:D You keep believing that :D

Unfortunately, NHL hockey isn't mathematical like that. By this logic, Kjell Dhalin would be the greatest goal scorer in NHL history (after all, he got 40 in his rookie season...so by year five, he should have been at, what, 6578?)

Hockey is a lot more "mathematical" than it is blind, ethnicly biased,

faith. You provided an anomoly (actually Dahlin had 30 goals in a much higher scoring era, and was an older "rookie"), but for every one of those there are 100 players who conform to the performance curve.

Edited by bobby
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I see the pressing need of a #1 center but I just hate the idea of losing Bonk. If he played the wing I'd put him as one of our most untouchable players. After Souray, he was probably our MVP so far this season. It would just be such a shame to part with him. I think Gainey will bring him back, though I'm not sure how we'd be able to work things out if he did. We have too many centers i nthe system, especially bottom line defensive centers. Eventually he'll have to be moved to the wing (after 10+ NHL seasons at C? I doubt it) or he'll have to leave Montreal.

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Hockey is a lot more "mathematical" than it is blind, stupid, ethnicly biased faith. You provided an anomoly (actually Dahlin had 30 goals in a much higher scoring era, and was an older "rookie"), but for every one of those there are 100 players who conform to the performance curve.

Right. Like Jan Bulis, or Richard Zednik, or Brian Savage, or Perezhogin after his good start last season, or Danius Zubrus, or Gilbert Dionne, or any of the other *great young players* who had promising starts with les Canadiens but turned out to be middling players, or just crap.

I don't say that young players never develop from good prospects into stars. What I say is that the REAL act of blind faith is in ASSUMING based on simplistic arithmetic that Plekanec will somehow explode into a superstar C, better than Briere or Koivu, based on 30 good games. And our other young guys are even further away from emerging as #1 centremen.

This team needs a real number one centreman and the fact is that NONE of our prospects are anywhere near obvious candidates to be one. Therefore, we should sign a UFA #1 C. The end.

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But Plekanec has "passed" Koivu in the second half of this season in the eyes of most observers, don't you think? Why would we assume that he won't continue that next year? Pleks will turn 25 at the start of next season, he should be hitting his prime. Why not have him as the #1 centre with Koivu dropping back a notch at the tail end of his career? That is pretty close to being the defacto situation as it is. Whichever line Plekanec has centred over the past couple of months has been more productive than the line Koivu has centred.

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Right. Like Jan Bulis, or Richard Zednik, or Brian Savage, or Perezhogin after his good start last season, or Danius Zubrus, or Gilbert Dionne, or any of the other *great young players* who had promising starts with les Canadiens but turned out to be middling players, or just crap.

I don't think any of the players you mentioned, with the possible exception of Gilbert Dionne, didn't conform to a normal performance career curve. Bulis and Zednik weren't big scorers in their early years, and neither has dropped off the map as they move past their prime. Savage was an older rookie who followed a fairly consistent path until injuries took their toll. Perezhogin has about the same points in fewer games this year as he did last year, and is better defensively. He is progressing. Gilbert Dionne never really showed signs of being a scorer as a junior, he was drafted in the later rounds, had about one half season of unusual success, then returned to his old ways.

Plekanec has been considered a budding offensive whiz since he was about 15. He was the youngest player to score a goal in the Czech Elite League, I think. When he came to North America the Habs coaches set about to teach him sound defense, but he still put up good scoring stats in the AHL. Much better than Kostitsyn has done at a comparable age. The scouting report on Plekanec in his draft year was nearly identical to that of Daniel Briere. The difference, as I say, is that Pleks is much more solidly built and has learned to play defense.

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