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Habs hire Martin St-Louis as their 28th Head Coach


alfredoh2009

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26 minutes ago, GHT120 said:

 

I think there is a mid-point (soft-tank?) ... move out as many of the non-long-term and/or bad-contract veterans as possible (hopefully a couple over the summer and/or throughout next season), but replace them with bridge veterans suited to support the development of young players without creating any new "cap roadblocks" for the "emerging from rebuild/tool" years ... not replacing them by career AHLers and/or washed up NHLers ... personally, I have no issue with out-right tanking for next season (we each have our individual opinions) but expect HuGo will go more the soft-tank approach. 

 

Oh, sure - I’m fine with this soft-tank model, which really boils down to smart asset management. 

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5 hours ago, The Chicoutimi Cucumber said:

 

What you do is, you have league-leading drafting and development, resulting in elite talent entering the organization from outside the top-3 of the draft. It’s what Tampa and Boston have done, for example. Caufield himself was what, #15? If that kid had been picked at #3, he would be used as proof that you have to tank to get elite talent. 

 

I have no problem “tanking” if by this we mean selling off veterans in a year when we’re clearly not a playoff team. But the idea that a team would go into the season fully intending to ice the worst possible club is repugnant to me. I also seriously question whether absolute and deliberate suckage is a healthy developmental environment for kids. Look at what EDM’s disastrous bottom-feeding and loser culture did to a generation of Oilers players. Only now are they coming out of it. 

 

There is no simply substitue for excellence in drafting and development in my book. If you have those, you don’t need to tank. And if we have these, we will become highly competitive in 3-4 years. At that point, if we’re not shaping up to be heavy-duty contenders, management needs to make the right further moves to get us there. 

I think you have to differentiate the management ineptitude with EDM under Lowe-McTavish-Chiarelli, and now Holland. Keep in mind they were throwing stupid money at Souray, Lucic, Russell and others. So it’s been a long time since they actually tried to suck. McDavid was a lottery pick, when they didn’t finish last.

 

Ditto with Buffalo and the stupid money they threw at players. They did try and tank the McDavid year, But it was more ineptitude with them as well.  Lots of changes in GM and coaches and terrible ownership.
 

Phoenix who’s big issue has been how cheap they are, because they are bleeding money, and haven’t even been able to pay for their building, also had stints where they signed people to stupid money.  
 

I don’t think there is anything wrong going into next year, pretty much knowing we will be at least a bottom 10 t am; and potentially even bottom 5.   There is no quick fixes. The D needs an overhaul. We don’t have a legit #2 centre. We don’t no if our $10.5M  #1 goalie is playing or not. Our #2 isn’t capable of the workload, and we have a lot of guys who old breaking down guys that are on long term deals making more than they are worth. We will be bad. I agree 100% that we need to put our young players in a position to succeed. That means mot rushing them into the lineup because we don’t have anyone else (i.e. mete, KK).  But it also means having good veterans that provide a good example and work hard, and can help develop and be good mentors for young players - it’s why I really wanted to keep Perry. I preferred signing him for $1.5m/yr for even 3 years over what we are paying Armia. it’s also why I was so torn on Lekhonan, because he always put in a solid effort - even when he wasn’t producing. Having said that, given the return, and what it would have cost to resign, while we are already overpaying Armia, would have been a mistake.
 

It also requires patience and development attitude from the coaching staff sounds like St. Louis has the right mindset, or is at least saying the right things).  
 

I don’t want out GM chasing - Letang - that’s precisely the type of signing that ended up hurting Edmonton and Buffalo. Let’s sign some depth guys that work hard that can mentor the kids and have some options if the kids aren’t ready, but we aren’t ready to reload. We already gave Gallagher, Price, Armia, Savard, all signed for more than they are worth. This isn’t the summer to throw money around, because there is no deal that will make as a lock for the playoffs. 
 

nezt year, TBL, TOR, FLA are locks. Boston is a maybe - depending on if Bergeron is back and how long it takes for Marchand to recover. But I don’t see us a wild card team in the east when NYR, CAR, Wash, Pits are probably playoff teams. That leaves one spot, and I don’t think it’s us, given our holes, and the uncertainty and lack of flexibility to make a move in goal during the Draft-fee agency period.

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1 hour ago, hab29RETIRED said:

... We don’t no if our $10.5M  #1 goalie is playing or not. ...

And if he does which Price will Carey be:  14/15 STUD ... 19/20 Very average ... or ... 17/18 when he was horrible but Anti Niemi with the Habs played at a near all-star level    ...     the worst possibility of all, could last season's 5 games be a;; that is left in his body.

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3 hours ago, hab29RETIRED said:

I think you have to differentiate the management ineptitude with EDM under Lowe-McTavish-Chiarelli, and now Holland. Keep in mind they were throwing stupid money at Souray, Lucic, Russell and others. So it’s been a long time since they actually tried to suck. McDavid was a lottery pick, when they didn’t finish last.

 

Ditto with Buffalo and the stupid money they threw at players. They did try and tank the McDavid year, But it was more ineptitude with them as well.  Lots of changes in GM and coaches and terrible ownership.
 

Phoenix who’s big issue has been how cheap they are, because they are bleeding money, and haven’t even been able to pay for their building, also had stints where they signed people to stupid money.  
 

I don’t think there is anything wrong going into next year, pretty much knowing we will be at least a bottom 10 t am; and potentially even bottom 5.   There is no quick fixes. The D needs an overhaul. We don’t have a legit #2 centre. We don’t no if our $10.5M  #1 goalie is playing or not. Our #2 isn’t capable of the workload, and we have a lot of guys who old breaking down guys that are on long term deals making more than they are worth. We will be bad. I agree 100% that we need to put our young players in a position to succeed. That means mot rushing them into the lineup because we don’t have anyone else (i.e. mete, KK).  But it also means having good veterans that provide a good example and work hard, and can help develop and be good mentors for young players - it’s why I really wanted to keep Perry. I preferred signing him for $1.5m/yr for even 3 years over what we are paying Armia. it’s also why I was so torn on Lekhonan, because he always put in a solid effort - even when he wasn’t producing. Having said that, given the return, and what it would have cost to resign, while we are already overpaying Armia, would have been a mistake.
 

It also requires patience and development attitude from the coaching staff sounds like St. Louis has the right mindset, or is at least saying the right things).  
 

I don’t want out GM chasing - Letang - that’s precisely the type of signing that ended up hurting Edmonton and Buffalo. Let’s sign some depth guys that work hard that can mentor the kids and have some options if the kids aren’t ready, but we aren’t ready to reload. We already gave Gallagher, Price, Armia, Savard, all signed for more than they are worth. This isn’t the summer to throw money around, because there is no deal that will make as a lock for the playoffs. 
 

nezt year, TBL, TOR, FLA are locks. Boston is a maybe - depending on if Bergeron is back and how long it takes for Marchand to recover. But I don’t see us a wild card team in the east when NYR, CAR, Wash, Pits are probably playoff teams. That leaves one spot, and I don’t think it’s us, given our holes, and the uncertainty and lack of flexibility to make a move in goal during the Draft-fee agency period.

 

I agree with all of this. We will likely be a bottom-10 team next year. 

 

To my mind, it’s not a tank-job to say that you’re rebuilding and that, therefore, you’re not going after high-priced UFAs or shipping out youth to Win Now. A tank-job would mean deliberately aiming for last place overall, actively doing things to make that outcome more likely - probably by shipping out as many quality vets as possible in a fire-sale. And while I have no problem with asset management - e.g., we should be actively looking to move out any contract that is likely to be a boat-anchor 3-4 years hence, when we hope to contend - that seems to me quite different from fire-bombing your own roster.

 

What I would like is a competitive team that provides a healthy climate for the development of young players. That may involve adding some serviceable veterans on relatively short-term deals, while shipping out another vet here or there as opportunity affords. Barring a resurgent Price, this core will not make the playoffs, so we’re going to get a top-10 pick anyway. No need to kneecap the team in order to be as bad as humanly possible.

 

Soft tank, sure. Hard tank? No frigging way.

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