Conboy suspended rest of year... NCAA

[KoZed]

sometimes a team needs a guy like him.

Mcsorley and claude lemieux made a living at playing like that. he will need to work his temper but he's big, feisty and willing to defend teammates unlike many of Habs current players.

My sentiment exactly.

I used to despise players like that, but looking at the passive bunch we have now, I'm really starting to get desperate for any type of agressive player.

Heck, Craig Ludwig once almost decapitated Trent Yawney with an elbow and Chelios-on-Propp is stuff of legends.

[Chris]

You forgot Nilan, he was a great one.

I don't think it's a stratch to say that the last really good habs team playoffs wise had those kind of players. With the exception of last year the team has been soft and mediocre.

[KoZed]

Sh*t. I'm so desperate I'm starting to think getting Darcy Tucker back wouldnt be so bad... Help me!!!

Sign Emelin and use him as a forward. I dont know, but for chrissake get some character up there.

[Chris]

Laraque will help when healthy, you can't really fault a guy with a bad back.

[MAK]

Laraque will help when healthy, you can't really fault a guy with a bad back.

I was playing like SHYTE when he was healthy, what makes you think that he will be better???

I dont mind if he doesn't figth as much but he has to be more of a spark plug. otherwize he's a waste of cap room.

[saskhab]

I was playing like SHYTE when he was healthy, what makes you think that he will be better???

I dont mind if he doesn't figth as much but he has to be more of a spark plug. otherwize he's a waste of cap room.

He wasn't ever healthy all year. He was shut down in December since he hadn't improved at all since training camp and kept re-aggravating the same injury. He was always playing through pain. We haven't seen him play healthy for the Habs, we've only seen him play hurt.

[saskhab]

well...better be playing in the AHL-ECHL than not playing at all in the NCAA.if it slows his progression, well, too bad for him, he should thought before he sucker punched that fellow.

The NCAA suspension wasn't a lifetime one. Guys miss a couple months of hockey all the time... he would've come back and been a player for the team next year. Him not playing hockey isn't a good reason to forego a free education which he'll likely need. Even for hockey, he would've been better advised to not try and turn pro until at least he's done his junior year of college. He only completed one semester.

The Habs have no choice but to see what he can do and give him this chance to salvage his career. If he wasn't a draft pick of the Canadiens, they wouldn't have given him that chance.

How do his negotiation rights work in this situation? I know guys can sit out entire years of college (Umberger did that) to try and become a free agent quicker. Does that mean we can evaluate Conboy on this kind of arrangement for only the rest of this year, or do we get all of next year as well before we lose his exclusive negotiation rights?

[BTH]

My kind of player. Sticks up for his teamates. I hear this kid is really tough, gutsy, and a good future enforcer. Get him to the ECHL or AHL and see what he's got.

And good class by holding back Tropp from a 2nd blow.

Class was nowhere to be found on this play.

[Fanpuck33]

Personally, I'm disappointed the Habs signed him. There's no room for that in hockey. This went way beyond standing up for a teammate, and to go even further, that hit did not require retaliation. Both players responded with purely dirty hits that I would not welcome on a team.

[saskhab]

Personally, I'm disappointed the Habs signed him. There's no room for that in hockey. This went way beyond standing up for a teammate, and to go even further, that hit did not require retaliation. Both players responded with purely dirty hits that I would not welcome on a team.

The Habs haven't signed him. They are developing him, though. Despite what happened there, it's no reason to let a draft pick go to waste when you still have a shot, at minimal cost, at getting some value out of it. It's called asset management, and it's what the Habs should do. The Habs aren't in the morality business.

[tokyohabs]

Right, the only morality we should be concerned with now is getting all that green sh*te out of his system.

But I'd think we must have someone like that already in the system? And as sask said, even the least of thugs have some sort of skill set, however minimal, to bring to the table. Aren't Henry, Stewart supposed to be guys like this, sticking up for teammates, fearless? But they are putting their time in on a 'proper' developmental path to the NHl, and are now on the cusp. Essentially, Conboy has to learn how to play hockey in the ECHL; and how willing is the team to invest in a heavier-than-normal development process (admittedly conjecture on my part) with what might turn out to be a future goon at best?

Though 1 thing I can't quite fault him on: anyone in their right minds would take any escape route out of Michigan St*te!

[Chris]

Some college updates:

I got to see Qualer for Northeastern in the Bean pot tourney. He had a goal and 2 assists in 2 games. I think he plays LW on the second line, 2nd PP unit no PK time. He has decent size and is a good skater. He is not overly physical and rtries to beat everyone 1 on1 with his speed. he has a pretty good shot.

Fisher was hurt the last 3 weekends with a knee injury (sprain). He came back over the weekend and played Wisconsin, he didn't play much since he was coming back from an injury, the announcers said he looked preetty good skating over the weeknd and should be back to full strength this weekend.

McDonagh played pretty well, i beleive he had a goal and an assist against Minnesota. He was skating well and playing very physical, he jumped into the play quit a bit, had several roughing penalties with the Minnesota forward he was jousting with. he looked pretty good.

I didn't get to see any other college guys over the weekend.

[huzer]

Yet when Varada took out Theodore, and Gilmour went after him knee-on-knee, he was hailed for sticking up for his teammate. Conboy sucker-punched a dude, that honestly doesn't bother me that much. If Conboy was the one whacking the guy on the ice with his stick, that's a little different. I can't believe people aren't upset about the Kasparaitus style kneeing attack the Michigan guy did.

I see no difference between what Gilmour did and what Conboy did, and I actually don't mind either "attack".

[saskhab]

I still haven't really watched the Conboy incident. It didn't seem terrible in the fuzzy view I saw of it, but I'm more concerned about the asset management angle of the situation/Conboy's future... I still think he's blown it by turning pro WAY too quickly. One of the reasons he was drafted over a player of similar style/ability from junior was that the Habs would be able to be very patient with Conboy since he was going the NCAA route... now they can't be patient with him, they have to integrate him to the pro ranks quickly.

Good report on Quailer.... I did a recent stat update of our prospects and he looked to be having a good freshman campaign. Same with Joe Stejskal or however you spell it. Both look to be having good years for our "unheralded" prospects.

Not many NCAA prospects that I'd have turn pro at this point, though. Fischer and McD seem like the only two that could handle it next year. Paquet probably isn't worth the bother, maybe sign him to a Hamilton AHL-ECHL contract and see how he handles the pro ranks like Gleed a couple years back.

Next year comes the defensive invasion... Carle is going to become old news if he doesn't start to stand out soon.

Hopefully the lack of a transfer agreement allows us to hold back on bringing Torp over next year... under the expired one, we would've had to sign him this year, but with no transfer agreement, there is no deadline.

With Subban, Fischer, McDonagh, and Emelin all hopefully joining the pro ranks next year, you can tell the plan is definitely to have one or possibly two young D make the big team... likely between Emelin and Weber at this point.