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End of Season Comments Anyone?


BTH

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How anyone can want Streit back after his play in this year's postseason is beyond me. Nothing against him, he's a useful guy to have around, but not for the $3 mil+ he'll command as a UFA. In a cap system good organizations will not overpay for guys like that.

Agreed. I was really disappointed with Streit's play in the playoffs. Seeing as he'll be asking for 3+ million$ next year, I think we should let him go. He isn't worth that kind of cash.

Kovalev wasn't the problem. We outplayed Philly and lost mainly because we got outgoaltended, end of story. Having said that, I would discreetly shop Kovalev around. My theory, as I said in another thread, is that his value is now at its peak and with him being an impending UFA, it might be time for a bold move to tweak this team. Certainly if you could package Kovy to get back a good C, that would help. But first I'd try to sign Hossa or some other stud as a UFA

Once again I agree. Kovy was NOT the problem in the playoffs. He was double teamed for most of the games and he still managed to get 1 point per game. I don't think we should trade him, especially not to get a guy like Hossa.

I just hope that bob will be able to get a big tough guy who will help this team in the GRIT department next year!

Edited by Habsfan
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I'm not sure we'll re-sign Streit either, his decision-making is terrible. But 62 points from a guy who is naturally a defenceman... that is pretty impressive. We have the caproom to sign him for 3 million so it isn't much of a risk for us. But if we let him go that just means that one more rookie will make the team. Do we want to get any younger than we already are?

I have a feeling Streit leaves, but I also have a feeling that Ryder might re-sign here for something like 1.5M x 1. He hasn't even been playing for us, but I have a feeling that Gainey will want to keep him around on a limited risk contract and see if he can pot 30 again. If Streit is leaving, that opens up the door for D'agostini so we wouldn't be closing a roster spot. Personally, I would probably let Ryder walk and then think hard about Streit - but I don't think Gainey will play it that way. (Smolinski and Brisebois are retiring)

Streit will be heavily pursued this summer as a UFA if we don't sign him, which is probable, as Gainey is a smart GM. I can almost guarantee that he'll be overpaid and not perform as well as he did this year. As much as I appreciated his role in keeping our PP deadly this season, I have hope that we'll be able to see perhaps PK Subban or Sergei Kostitsyn or someone as yet unnamed take over the role on the PP unit, so when Kovalev gets injured or leaves (as he inevitably will), the gap won't be too big to fill.

But I disagree that Ryder will resign with us. He didn't play a single game in the second round, and I think both the club and Michael have washed their hands of each other. Thanks for the memories, time to make some new ones. He, like Streit, will get a good offer, probably from Vancouver or Toronto, and I see him hitting the 30 goal mark again next season (can anyone imagine him with the Sedins? Ouch).

Chipchura, Grabovski, Stewart, D'agostini, possibly Paccioretty - all will be fighting the 2 open spots on the 3rd/4th lines. Which means we'll be replacing goal scoring ability (that obviously wasn't there last season) and veteran experience with young, gritty, fast and defensively-responsible players eager to prove their worth.

I don't think it could be a bad thing at all.

I just wish we didn't still have Dandenault and his $1.75 million p.a. sticking around. Maybe Detroit will want him back for posterity? Or with Salmaleinen gone, we can buy him out?

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Streit will be heavily pursued this summer as a UFA if we don't sign him, which is probable, as Gainey is a smart GM. I can almost guarantee that he'll be overpaid and not perform as well as he did this year.

Lets see, Leafs will sign Ryder for $5mill per year and give Streit $4.8Mill per year. :lol: Why? They are dumb and desperate just to make the playoffs.

I hope Gainey is willing to revamp the offense as they depend too much on the Power Play and not enough 5 on 5 pressure. It also makes no sense to keep guys that are not part of the total rebuild which Gainey is doing from the net out. Might be time for Kovalev and Koivu to go to a team that is on the cusp of a championship.

So far I like:

Price/Halak

Obyrne/Komisarek/Markov

Plek/Kots brothers

All fairly young and talented for the base. I know there are other good players (Higgins) however these guys really caught my attention this year. A few Bulldogs should get a shot in preseason and Gainey will add to the lineup. Habs have a good core, and a few sometimes productive veterans.

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But I disagree that Ryder will resign with us. He didn't play a single game in the second round, and I think both the club and Michael have washed their hands of each other. Thanks for the memories, time to make some new ones. He, like Streit, will get a good offer, probably from Vancouver or Toronto, and I see him hitting the 30 goal mark again next season (can anyone imagine him with the Sedins? Ouch).

I know it's a longshot. But if you or I were GM, Ryder would have been traded months ago but Gainey kept him around for the entire year, he has always liked him. There are surprises every offseason, I'm going to call this as one of them and see if my guess is lucky.

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I think Ryder and the paper airplanes did him in - if he wasn't done already.

Streit proved game after game that he could not handle himself out there. He is a nice point-man on the pp, hello Sergei Kost.

Gorges, oh my, how about a two year contract at the same price until he proves he is not a surrender-at-all-costs d man? The Bruins are in our division, you remember.

Can we not buy out Dandy? I figured that players gone would be:

Brisebois

Bouillion

Dandy

Streit

Smolinski

Ryder

Plus Kovalev and Koivu come off the books end of next season. Surely we can re-sign Koivu for less...and Vinny's injury has put the damper on my Plex-Gorges-Latendresse-Halak for #4 trade...

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I think Ryder and the paper airplanes did him in - if he wasn't done already.

Streit proved game after game that he could not handle himself out there. He is a nice point-man on the pp, hello Sergei Kost.

Gorges, oh my, how about a two year contract at the same price until he proves he is not a surrender-at-all-costs d man? The Bruins are in our division, you remember.

Can we not buy out Dandy? I figured that players gone would be:

Brisebois

Bouillion

Dandy

Streit

Smolinski

Ryder

Plus Kovalev and Koivu come off the books end of next season. Surely we can re-sign Koivu for less...and Vinny's injury has put the damper on my Plex-Gorges-Latendresse-Halak for #4 trade...

I still think we should consider dealing Kovy - not because he's bad but because his value is at a peak, especially to teams that are desperate to win the Cup and need a change (e.g., Calgary, San Jose); he's getting on in years; and is a UFA after next season. The only question is whether we can stand the rumours (Tanguay, Marleau, etc.) that will inevitably accompany this idea... :rolleyes:

Ryder is practically a Maple Leaf right now IMHO. And he will kill us every single game he plays us. C'est la vie.

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Ryder is practically a Maple Leaf right now IMHO. And he will kill us every single game he plays us. C'est la vie.

I agree that he will be a leaf..or a bruin. if he does go to TO he wont do much since there wont be anybody to feed him pucks. sundin will not be back there next year.

Besides, It really dont give a f**k about Ryder and how he does next year.

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All day people tried throwing the heat, but I smiled and told them how happy I was with the season!

We won the East, I didn't expect that.

I did expect us to go deep and get some playoff experiance.

Again Saku's 2nd round exit, arg. One more half season!! I predict he is gone by deadline!!!!

Love him but his day has been and left for this team. Then we see the Finals!!

Son thinks we should have kept Huet for the playoffs, smart for a tot.

Price will get better as will our youth.

The Leafs finish out of both the playoffs and the top picks, this year and probably next!!

Yep, smiling and cheering for Heatley/Spezza! Didn't expect that this time of year, thought we'd be playing them maybe.

Go Canada Go!!!

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I think Ryder and the paper airplanes did him in - if he wasn't done already.

Streit proved game after game that he could not handle himself out there. He is a nice point-man on the pp, hello Sergei Kost.

Gorges, oh my, how about a two year contract at the same price until he proves he is not a surrender-at-all-costs d man? The Bruins are in our division, you remember.

Can we not buy out Dandy? I figured that players gone would be:

Brisebois

Bouillion

Dandy

Streit

Smolinski

Ryder

Plus Kovalev and Koivu come off the books end of next season. Surely we can re-sign Koivu for less...and Vinny's injury has put the damper on my Plex-Gorges-Latendresse-Halak for #4 trade...

Ryder is gone. He will not be back next year.

Brisebois will also be gone. Streit played so horribly dirung the playoffs, that I don'T think Bob will re-sign hiim at 3+million$ next year.

Smolinski...I don't know if he'll be back. He really sucked all year long, but was good in the playoffs. Is that worth 2 million$???

Dandy could very well be bought out. It would cost the habs about 1.2 million$ to buy him out. It might be worth it. There's no room on this team for him.

Bouillon will be back next year. It'll be the 3rd and last year of his contract. I don't think he'll be back after that.

Gorges will be back as well.

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How anyone can want Streit back after his play in this year's postseason is beyond me. Nothing against him, he's a useful guy to have around, but not for the $3 mil+ he'll command as a UFA. In a cap system good organizations will not overpay for guys like that.

Kovalev wasn't the problem. We outplayed Philly and lost mainly because we got outgoaltended, end of story. Having said that, I would discreetly shop Kovalev around. My theory, as I said in another thread, is that his value is now at its peak and with him being an impending UFA, it might be time for a bold move to tweak this team. Certainly if you could package Kovy to get back a good C, that would help. But first I'd try to sign Hossa or some other stud as a UFA :lol:

Bob has never had a problem tinkering with the smaller bits (Smoke, Breezer, Kostopolous were all great additions in the end) and he'll replaced the Streits of the world without much difficulty. And the experience will help a great deal. Nonetheless, you can't keep old stars around forever...

As for reflections on the season: THE HABS ARE BACK, BABY!!!!

I agree. Streit has to go.

You cannot spend all that cap space on your back end. Komisarek is going to get 5+ very soon and do you want to wrap

up 20+ million on your top 4 D? Is Streit really a top 4 D-Man in this league? Do we want to pay 3M+ for a 5-6th D who can

also play as a 4th line forward? Personally, I don't see the value in it.

Success in a cap world is predicated on having cheap players that can be easily interchanged when guys have career years in contract years.

With the youth on the Canandiens and the emerging talent I would rather roll the dice on one of the kiddie corps replacing him.

Perceptions change over the course of the year. Nobody would have believed that Ryder would be a non factor this season and

that Sergei and Andrei Kostitsyn would be top 5 scorers in the 2008 playoffs. Gainey and TImmons have built a strong base of

talent and I trust that somebody will replace him.

As for the Philly series. I have never seen a team win a series in 5 games doing less. But, shit happens and lessons are learned.

Breaks, poor finishing ability, an opportunistic opponent and average goaltending did in the Habs. The second that Richards tried

to catch the puck and it deflected in I knew that the breaks were not going to change and Montreal was in trouble.

As for Price, he was very inconsistent after Game 4 in the Boston series. But he is 20 and after 18 months finally showed it.

The future is bright, but even though I did not expect a Cup I am disappointed they did not seize the opportunity that was provided them.

They were good enough to make the Conference FInals. Once again I will put my faith in Bob Gainey and expect him to make the right

choices and know that he has identified the weaknesses that ultimately lead to their demise in 2008.

Great season!

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I still think we should consider dealing Kovy - not because he's bad but because his value is at a peak, especially to teams that are desperate to win the Cup and need a change (e.g., Calgary, San Jose); he's getting on in years; and is a UFA after next season. The only question is whether we can stand the rumours (Tanguay, Marleau, etc.) that will inevitably accompany this idea... :rolleyes:

Ryder is practically a Maple Leaf right now IMHO. And he will kill us every single game he plays us. C'est la vie.

If the goal is to win the Cup in 09, how will trading Kovalev help us? Kovalev is our only gamebreaking player and we lose our #1 offence, #1 PP and #1 seed in the East all in one fell swoop if we trade him. The only other potential gamebreaker would be Price but we shouldn't put him in that position where he has to be our saviour.

If Ryder and Kovy both leave, we'll be left with Sergei Kostitsyn, Matt D'agostini Gui Latendresse as our top 3 RW - that's 3 21 year olds with a combined 2.5 seasons of NHL experience between them.

I also don't really see the logic in trading your best player. Not unless you really expect Kovalev to have another 47 point season. He is a leader to a lot of young players on this team, he wears an A for us, he is almost as much a symbol as Koivu is, maybe even more so since he's the most loved player by the fans.

I'd be shocked if Gainey made this move. It's not who he is.

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If the goal is to win the Cup in 09, how will trading Kovalev help us? Kovalev is our only gamebreaking player and we lose our #1 offence, #1 PP and #1 seed in the East all in one fell swoop if we trade him. The only other potential gamebreaker would be Price but we shouldn't put him in that position where he has to be our saviour.

If Ryder and Kovy both leave, we'll be left with Sergei Kostitsyn, Matt D'agostini Gui Latendresse as our top 3 RW - that's 3 21 year olds with a combined 2.5 seasons of NHL experience between them.

I also don't really see the logic in trading your best player. Not unless you really expect Kovalev to have another 47 point season. He is a leader to a lot of young players on this team, he wears an A for us, he is almost as much a symbol as Koivu is, maybe even more so since he's the most loved player by the fans.

I'd be shocked if Gainey made this move. It's not who he is.

You are tearing down an idea without seeing the player coming back. As much as Kovalev had a great year there is no guarantee that

next year's version will be the 08 version.

The principal of trading a player coming off a huge season are sound. It all depends on the return. As much as I want them to win the Cup next

season, their performance in these playoffs do not have me seeing visions of Stanley next year.

My goal would not be to win the Cup in 2009. My goal is to be a constant Cup contender over the next 7-8 years with 3-4 legit chances to win the Cup.

And whatever helps that building process I am all for. If it means dealing Kovalev, so be it.

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You are tearing down an idea without seeing the player coming back. As much as Kovalev had a great year there is no guarantee that

next year's version will be the 08 version.

The principal of trading a player coming off a huge season are sound. It all depends on the return. As much as I want them to win the Cup next

season, their performance in these playoffs do not have me seeing visions of Stanley next year.

Obviously. But the idea of getting better by dealing your best - far and away your best - scarcely flies. Bob shopping him, or someone coming up with the right return, doesn't seem likely. If it does, sure, but what if we:

Surround him with a better team (combination of trades, maturity, graduation and releasing players). Sure there is no guarantee about Kovalev next year - just as there is no guarantee Crosby will ever play a full season; or that Kiprusoff will rebound; or that LeCavalier's shoulder will heal; etc etc. But there are reasonable expectations. I think playing on an attacking, skating, young team will rub off on Kovalev again next year. With a stronger goaltending set and an improved d-corps (addition by subtraction?), some better size and power up front, we might be better, even closer, and his fire lit again.

Past 35 years old and I'm more willing to look at other options. I feel there is another run in the horse yet.

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I agree with what tokyohabs said. Obviously, if someone is willing to overpay by such a wide margin that you wonder if it's not a prank call from Mike Milbury, then you can trade anyone. But of all the players we can use as trade bait to improve our team... trading Kovalev doesn't make much sense.

I know what you're thinking - that you want to deal an unpredictable commodity while his value is high. But to me, that is not the type of move professional GMs make. I cannot think of a single trade where this type of thing was done - trading your MVP of the year while his value his highest.

My dad used to bug me that we should have traded Theodore after his Hart and Vezina season because that was when his value was highest. I think that would have been a very dumb move and I think that Kovalev is in a similar position (yes, you don't have to remind me that he has a history of being inconsistent while Theodore didn't); you don't trade your best player. You just don't. That is going back to Rejean Houle days where you trade 4 consecutive captains, or whatever it is.

A team needs stability so you hang on to the few leaders you have on a very young team.

As you've said... it depends on the return. If Pittsburgh offered Malkin, we take it - but that is not a sane or realistic scenario. The more likely offers would be Alex Tanguay or Patrick Marleau as Chicoutimi Cucumber named above. I would have some interest in Marleau but not for Kovalev. Marleau is every bit as unpredictable as Kovy and though he would stack our centre lines, he would leave us severely lacking at RW and we would also lose our only gamebreaker without getting one back.

If it really does help the "building process" then sure. But I don't see any possible Kovalev deal that would help our building process.

Just can't possibly see it happening.

And it's nice to see us get some good conversation going. When the Habs got eliminated my interest in them actually increased. I was kind of sleeping through the playoffs.

Edited by BTH
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I know it's a longshot. But if you or I were GM, Ryder would have been traded months ago but Gainey kept him around for the entire year, he has always liked him. There are surprises every offseason, I'm going to call this as one of them and see if my guess is lucky.

Possibly, but is any player going to want to come back to a team that didn't even dress him (let alone give him good icetime) for most of the playoffs? I doubt it.

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I was actually really impressed with Kovalev's regular season (who wasn't?!), but I thought in the playoffs he just didn't carry the team like he did at times in the regular season. True, he had to play against tough defense, but if he had risen above that...look out. Ultimately, the vaunted line of Kovalev, Plekanec and Andrei K didn't come through in the playoffs like it did during the regular season and that really hurt the team's chances. Even on the nights when Kovalev was on, Plekanec and Kostitsyn struggled.

I was more disappointed with the veterans playing poorly on the blueline such as Streit, Markov and Hamrlik than I was with the young guys like Higgins, the two Kostitsyns, Plekanec and Price who can only get better for next season. Streit is really the question mark in all of this - he's a veteran in terms of age, but he was playing his first NHL playoff. Still, Brisebois did a far better job on the PP than Streit did, something unimaginable in the regular season. Streit couldn't hold the blueline to save his life.

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Obviously. But the idea of getting better by dealing your best - far and away your best - scarcely flies. Bob shopping him, or someone coming up with the right return, doesn't seem likely. If it does, sure, but what if we:

Surround him with a better team (combination of trades, maturity, graduation and releasing players). Sure there is no guarantee about Kovalev next year - just as there is no guarantee Crosby will ever play a full season; or that Kiprusoff will rebound; or that LeCavalier's shoulder will heal; etc etc. But there are reasonable expectations. I think playing on an attacking, skating, young team will rub off on Kovalev again next year. With a stronger goaltending set and an improved d-corps (addition by subtraction?), some better size and power up front, we might be better, even closer, and his fire lit again.

Past 35 years old and I'm more willing to look at other options. I feel there is another run in the horse yet.

Well, I wouldn't be enraged if Bob keeps Kovaelv, or anything; this is not one of those idiotic 'addition-by-subtraction' arguments (like Riberio - what great 'addition by subtraction' that's turned out to be, eh?). Certainly I would wait and see if we can sign a star UFA (Hossa is the only one I can think of). If we could, then to me it becomes obvious that we should move Kovy to strengthen the team in other areas.

If not, then it might still make sense to trade Kovalev. It really is remarkable how short people's memories are. Last season many people wanted to just unload the guy for a bag of pucks. At the time I said that was silly. Now people seem to be arguing that's he's untouchable. That's also silly. I have great affection for Kovy (I did even when he hit his nadir with us) but unlike the players you mention he has never been consistent from season to season even when healthy; he is not and has never been a franchise player and is therefore NOT untouchable in principle; unlike Theodore in his Hart year, he's getting older and likely to decline sooner rather than later; and he's an impending UFA. If offers come, I give them a good hard look. If they don't, I consider making a few. That's all I'm saying.

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I don't think we are looking long-term though. I strongly believe the goal is to win this season. I think Gainey will step down after this season. I don't think he has much interest in trading Kovalev for a younger player even if it will help us in the long-term. We have more than enough young players and prospects - what we need are veterans and leaders. Kovalev is one of them.

If we get an amazing offer, trade him! If we get an amazing offer for Price, trade him too! Koivu, same thing. Same for Markov, same for anyone. But is there really a realistic Kovalev trade that will help us out? I don't see one.

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Well, I wouldn't be enraged if Bob keeps Kovaelv, or anything; this is not one of those idiotic 'addition-by-subtraction' arguments (like Riberio - what great 'addition by subtraction' that's turned out to be, eh?). Certainly I would wait and see if we can sign a star UFA (Hossa is the only one I can think of). If we could, then to me it becomes obvious that we should move Kovy to strengthen the team in other areas.

If not, then it might still make sense to trade Kovalev. It really is remarkable how short people's memories are. Last season many people wanted to just unload the guy for a bag of pucks. At the time I said that was silly. Now people seem to be arguing that's he's untouchable. That's also silly. I have great affection for Kovy (I did even when he hit his nadir with us) but unlike the players you mention he has never been consistent from season to season even when healthy; he is not and has never been a franchise player and is therefore NOT untouchable in principle; unlike Theodore in his Hart year, he's getting older and likely to decline sooner rather than later; and he's an impending UFA. If offers come, I give them a good hard look. If they don't, I consider making a few. That's all I'm saying.

That's why I added the older than 35 caveat.

Of course he is not untouchable, just saying that the offer Bob might think of probably won't materialise, and with Bob's record with veterans, he might not be too active on the shopping department. Kovalev has turned into the focal point and a real leader for the team, that is obvious.

I was never in favour of dumping our most talented player in 10 years - not at the end of last year, not now. The offer has to be very sweet.

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It is a risky proposition that is for sure. But the window to get a large return just opened, how long it remains open is the question.

But I think we just got our gift of another strong season after what the Russian federation just did to him :)

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I was actually really impressed with Kovalev's regular season (who wasn't?!), but I thought in the playoffs he just didn't carry the team like he did at times in the regular season. True, he had to play against tough defense, but if he had risen above that...look out.

I'm gonna have to disagree with you. Kovy spent most of the playoffs with two players on his back. He was double teamed for 12 games and still managed to get 11 points. Had his linemates(Plex and A. Kosty) been just a little bit better, there's no telling where the Hasb would be right now!?!

I was more disappointed with the veterans playing poorly on the blueline such as Streit, Markov and Hamrlik than I was with the young guys like Higgins, the two Kostitsyns, Plekanec and Price who can only get better for next season. Streit is really the question mark in all of this - he's a veteran in terms of age, but he was playing his first NHL playoff.

Agreed! Streit, Markov and Komisarek were pitiful in both rounds. Markov and Komisarek were and still are injured, yet they refuse to acknowledge it?! :huh: Hamrlik was good in the Boston series, but was not very good in the Flyers series. Streit just plain sucked in all the games. I don't think he'll be back!

I think Gainey will step down after this season.

What in the world are you talking about? Why would gainey step down. When he came here, he said tht he had a 5 year plan to turn this team into a contender. We are in the 5th year of the Gainey era, and finally, this team is a contender. Why would he leave now?

I was never in favour of dumping our most talented player in 10 years - not at the end of last year, not now. The offer has to be very sweet.

Agreed. The offer for Kovy would have to be damn sweet to let go of our only "gamebreaker/superstar" player. Even when Kovy was having a hard time last year, i said we should keep him. I still think we should keep him!

But I think we just got our gift of another strong season after what the Russian federation just did to him

That and the fact that both Kovy and Koivu will be in the last years of their contracts. We all now what that means! I think we can expect MONSTER seasons for both Kovy and Koivu!

Edited by Habsfan
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It is a risky proposition that is for sure. But the window to get a large return just opened, how long it remains open is the question.

But I think we just got our gift of another strong season after what the Russian federation just did to him :)

After what the Russian federation just did to him, I won't be surprised if getting American or Canadian citizenship is on his 'to-do list' at this point.

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chandailducanadien.jpg

My only end-of-season comment can be summed up in one image

Man, whoever got that jersey done had to really hate Breezer LOL :lol:

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