Habsfan Posted January 16, 2008 Share Posted January 16, 2008 All this talk about re-signing Komisarek on the other thread got me to think about Andrei Kostitsyn and Max Lapierre. They both will become Restricted free agents at the end of this season. I just hope Bob is currently trying to lock these guys up for a few years. Offer them each 3 year deals. 1.5 million per year for Kosty and 900,000 per year for Lapierre. This will give us some time to see how they turn out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Posted January 16, 2008 Share Posted January 16, 2008 Of course they will get deals. BG is fair about giving youngsters a few years plus a raise. As i have stated they really don't need to sign any UFA's off this roster. That will free up 7+ mill in cap space. So they can take care of there own first, then they will have planty for an UFA if they think they need 1. Striet would be the only wild card as to resigning a UFA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Habsfan Posted January 16, 2008 Author Share Posted January 16, 2008 Striet would be the only wild card as to resigning a UFA I think many of us underestimate Streit's importance and value to this team. He is one of the most versatile players I've seen in a long time. He is solid on the blue line, and he keeps impressing me when he plays up front. He will be an Unrestricted free Agent as of July 1st...he's on player who deserves a raise. He's currently making 600K per year. I expect him to make about 1.5 million next year! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMMR Posted January 16, 2008 Share Posted January 16, 2008 900,000 is way to much for Max. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Habsfan Posted January 16, 2008 Author Share Posted January 16, 2008 900,000 is way to much for Max. Seeing as he's already making 583K, i don't thikn it would be too much. Let's not forget that we would be talking about a 3 year term. SO at the end of the contract he would be 25 or 26 years old. 900K per season isn't too much for a good 4th line centre who can play the role of a pest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Posted January 16, 2008 Share Posted January 16, 2008 Yea, the habs are already paying 3mill to Begin and Dandy. Just less then a mill is fine for max. He will only get better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Habsfan Posted January 16, 2008 Author Share Posted January 16, 2008 Yea, the habs are already paying 3mill to Begin and Dandy. Just less then a mill is fine for max. He will only get better. Bégin and Dandy will be UFA's at the end of the 08-09 season...and I doubt they'll be back after that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Posted January 16, 2008 Share Posted January 16, 2008 Right, that's exactly my pont, he is a gritty player, and the Habs will have contracts up and the end of next year, including Bouillon, Koivu and Kovalev if i'm not mistaken. So locking up the quality youth is obviously a big point for Gainey in the future. Combined with this years UFA's, the team is going to look significantly younger and have some quality cap space to get a top player. I don't know of any young griity two way forwards coming up. Chichura i wouldn't say is gritty, Fortier i heard some good things about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BTH Posted January 16, 2008 Share Posted January 16, 2008 I think many of us underestimate Streit's importance and value to this team. He is one of the most versatile players I've seen in a long time. He is solid on the blue line, and he keeps impressing me when he plays up front. He will be an Unrestricted free Agent as of July 1st...he's on player who deserves a raise. He's currently making 600K per year. I expect him to make about 1.5 million next year! See the thing with guys like that is that they're awesome when they play for you for 600K but once you give them the raise to 1.5M they "deserve," they only become liabilities. Begin and Bouillon are other examples. When they played for dirt, they were the perfect, hard-working depth players - then once you re-sign them to bigger deals they become your Niinimas and Smolinskis. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neech Posted January 16, 2008 Share Posted January 16, 2008 All this talk about re-signing Komisarek on the other thread got me to think about Andrei Kostitsyn and Max Lapierre. They both will become Restricted free agents at the end of this season. I just hope Bob is currently trying to lock these guys up for a few years. Offer them each 3 year deals. 1.5 million per year for Kosty and 900,000 per year for Lapierre. This will give us some time to see how they turn out. Those are reasonable. Probably with Andrei we'd be giving him more money in the final year of the deal, maybe around 2-2.5 million. I hope they can get these guys for three year deals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMMR Posted January 16, 2008 Share Posted January 16, 2008 Seeing as he's already making 583K, i don't thikn it would be too much. Let's not forget that we would be talking about a 3 year term. SO at the end of the contract he would be 25 or 26 years old. 900K per season isn't too much for a good 4th line centre who can play the role of a pest. For a player like him I would go with a 2 year deal at most and although he is making 583 he will take less than top dollar for a one way contract. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sbhatt Posted January 16, 2008 Share Posted January 16, 2008 he will take less than top dollar for a one way contract. Good call...a one-way would be a big deal to a guy who's been up an down from the AHL up to this point in his career. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Habsfan84 Posted January 16, 2008 Share Posted January 16, 2008 I can almost guarantee that the Habs are going to lock up Andrei Kostitsyn for at least 4 years because he is so good and the Habs like having a brother tandem. Sergei and Andrei will have similar contracts. As for Lapierre he will be locked up as well. I figure that Gainey will be smart and will sign these guys before they become RFA's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saskhab Posted January 16, 2008 Share Posted January 16, 2008 (edited) Nah, the Habs will try and give Andrei a 2 year deal similar to the Plekanec, Komisarek, and Higgins deals. Nothing more, nothing less. Max will get a 1 or 2 year deal for less than a million. Bob is all about keeping youth on short term deals and keeping them relatively cost-effective. He deals with the big money when they near UFA age. There are several contracts off the books in the next 2 years, and there will be even more increases to the cap as it likely hits close to the $55m range next year. Projected revenue for the NHL this season is expected to trigger another 1% increase in the players' share, to go from 55% of revenues to 56%. That's a lot of money available that wasn't there before. Unlike chris, I think we will try and re-sign Huet, and possibly Streit. Price may not make the team next year. If Halak stays, there will be yet another goaltending battle in next year's training camp. Huet is clearly ahead of both of them right now, and I don't think we want to take a downgrade in goal heading into the Centennial year. If Huet wants more than 3 years, we shouldn't bite. But hopefully we get him for a 2 year deal, 3 at most. Edited January 16, 2008 by saskhab Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Habsfan Posted January 17, 2008 Author Share Posted January 17, 2008 I heard that the Cap next year should go up from 50.5 million$ to almost 54 million$ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Habsfan84 Posted January 17, 2008 Share Posted January 17, 2008 Thats about one good player you can sign for that 4 mill. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saskhab Posted January 17, 2008 Share Posted January 17, 2008 Thats about one good player you can sign for that 4 mill. More importantly, additional space to re-sign Komisarek, Higgins, and Plekanec the next summer; and make decisions on Kovalev and Koivu. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Habsfan84 Posted January 17, 2008 Share Posted January 17, 2008 Kovalev you need to sign and maybe if you can sign Koivu for cheap enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saskhab Posted January 17, 2008 Share Posted January 17, 2008 Kovalev you need to sign and maybe if you can sign Koivu for cheap enough. We probably won't make up our minds until next year on those two... We'll want a good read on where their production level is heading as they hit their mid to late 30s. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Habsfan Posted January 17, 2008 Author Share Posted January 17, 2008 More importantly, additional space to re-sign Komisarek, Higgins, and Plekanec the next summer; and make decisions on Kovalev and Koivu. No kidding. This season, these three players cost us 4.4 million$. In 2 years, all three of them combined will cost us upwards of 10 million$. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Posted January 17, 2008 Share Posted January 17, 2008 Yea, but they aren't going to resign Bouillon, Koivu or Kovalev Begin (i think) after next season. All there contracts are up, then the turnover will be complete. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saskhab Posted January 17, 2008 Share Posted January 17, 2008 Yea, but they aren't going to resign Bouillon, Koivu or Kovalev Begin (i think) after next season. All there contracts are up, then the turnover will be complete. They may keep Koivu or Kovalev if they feel they are still big contributors to the team. But they may take a smaller % of cap space (not neccesarily smaller money - remember both signed their current contracts when the cap was $39m). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Habsfan Posted January 18, 2008 Author Share Posted January 18, 2008 I have the impression that this might be Koivu's last season in Montreal. Did any of you see his reaction after he scored the GWG in the Shoot Out? There was no reaction from Saku. The guy doiesn't look very happy. I thikn he's finally realized that he's lost his job as number 1 centre on the habs to Plex. I wouldn'T be surprised if he were to tell bob that he would be willing to wave his no-trade clause! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neech Posted January 18, 2008 Share Posted January 18, 2008 I have the impression that this might be Koivu's last season in Montreal. Did any of you see his reaction after he scored the GWG in the Shoot Out? There was no reaction from Saku. The guy doiesn't look very happy. I thikn he's finally realized that he's lost his job as number 1 centre on the habs to Plex. I wouldn'T be surprised if he were to tell bob that he would be willing to wave his no-trade clause! That's possible. I've been thinking for a while that Plekanec could take his place, he's a small C as well and better all-around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Chicoutimi Cucumber Posted January 18, 2008 Share Posted January 18, 2008 That's possible. I've been thinking for a while that Plekanec could take his place, he's a small C as well and better all-around. I guess we're getting off topic. But if you look at Plek's numbers, they are eye-popping. 05-06 29 pts in 69 games 06-07 47 pts in 81 games 07-08 40 pts in 45 games... This guy is increasing his totals by huge numbers annually. It surprises me, because he's really flown under the radar. When he first came up, I had him pegged as a Carbo type: mid-sized, shifty, two-way centre, smart defensively, maybe good for 20 goals someday. Last season I concluded well, this guy is a perfectly serviceable mid-range 2nd-line C. But this season he's emerging as a perfectly serviceable mid-range 1st-line C - like Saku Koivu, if a little less flashy. All this invites the question: just what is Plek's ceiling? I've been writing on this board for months that the Habs have no 'Koivu replacement' in the system, but...are we seeing out next top centreman, emerging right under our noses? And if so, how good will he be? Thoughts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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