Player Discussion Carey Price - Need a Jesus Price resurrection [MOD WARNING 526]

[Lafleurs Guy]

You support a rebuild now? Great, so does everyone but like...3 people. But what did you want us to do in the summer? I don't remember you wanting to rebuild. I remember you wanting us to re-sign Price. IIRC you were okay with signing him to an even more expensive contract than he actually did. It is true, though, that other players can actually win games for their teams. Carey Price can't.

How many times are you going to ask me this???

That being the case, do you think your plan has worked out better than my plan would have? (Trade Price, and get a different keeper?)

There's no way to know. We didn't keep Markov, didn't keep Radulov, didn't get a center...

I'd like to have avoided a rebuild if possible. Even if it is a longshot I think you should at least try. If it doesn't work out you can trade those players down the line.

Our problem is we didn't even try. We lost two players, went into the season with 9 mil in cap space...

If you set the lower threshold at 50, he's still T5 with 3 other guys, any of whom could be said to be 7th.

He's been CONSISTENTLY top five. That's why he has the value he does.

No. In precisely one year ever his numbers have been the best in the league. Then he missed an entire season (important for projecting futures numbers), and then he was good, maybe even great, but not the best.

No, over the long haul he's been the best. Some guys have had good years and bad. Price has been remarkably consistent on bad teams. That's why he's considered the best in the league.

That's not true. Depending on which season you start with, Carey Price is either tied second (starting with 2010-11) with Schneider behind Thomas, or tied with 6 other guys (starting from 2011-12) behind Schneider. This only considers goalies who have played more than 100 games. Schneider isn't close to this number. And you did say 2011, btw

Tim Thomas isn't even in the freaking league and hasn't been for three or four years now. Why the hell are you including him?

Lol, he has not been money in the bank. He was mediocre or worse for two seasons, and injured for a third. You should consider changing banks. He was incredible for about a year of this period, and very good about as often as he was just okay. And that's not to mention the playoffs.

False. Price was solid on a bad team in 2012. Not being dominant doesn't mean he was bad. As for 2013 he was a leading Vezina candidate for most of the year. It was a shortened season and we had a bad run for about 7 or 8 games that derailed an otherwise strong year. And unfortunately it was a shortened year with no time to recover.

The nature of the position is that it's average based, not cummulative. If you have a bad run it can bring down your number overall. That's not a big deal in a regular year because you can come back but in a shortened season it can make your numbers look bad. It wasn't a bad year though, he finished 10th in Vezina that year.

Out of the six seasons where we can talk about him (the seventh he was a wall before getting hurt around game 15) he finished top five in Vezina votes four times and top ten five times out of six. He's also number one in save percentage over that time and far ahead when we shorten the window from 2014 onwards...

It's true that no one player can bring a team to a 100 point season. I don't know why you keep making that claim and then agreeing with me that it's ridiculous.

Because you keep being a stickler on a point that that doesn't need to be debated. Again, not all players are considered equal and it's certainly accurate to say that Price has carried the team for the most part. I'm not sure why you have to be so literal on this though...

It is true, though, that other players can actually win games for their teams. Carey Price can't. Did you notice how my ''b.s.'' scenarios all happened to us in the last 3 games? How did Carey Price do?

Oh God, not this nonsense again...

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

We don't have Malkin and Kessel to start with. And nothing even close.

No kidding... I hadn't noticed.

Ok if you don't want to start an argument about that. I am looking at new tendency in hockey and skilled, speed and size at center position is a key for winning a Cup. As for examples : Crosby, Malkin, Toews, Kopitar, Carter, etc. In the past : Béliveau, Howe, Mahovlich, Esposito, Lemieux, Messier, Stall, Brindamour, Richards, Lecavalier, Zetterberg, etc. Now imagine trying to win a Cup relying mainly on your goalie, as good as he could be. Maybe it worked in the Brodeur era but not in 2017. And Brodeur had some good forwards that we don't have and some solid defensemen in front of him (that we are far from having now or some years before).

To win you need a good center, good D, good goalie. You can be stronger in some areas than others. The Devils won multiple cups without great centers. The Pens won with amazing centers... The Avalanche didn't win until they got Roy.

Most cup teams have stars at all three positions. Most have star players up front, on the backend and in net. You don't need the best goalie to win but you also don't need the best center.

I think where people go off the rails here is when they say we should get rid of Price to be better in other areas. That makes no sense to me at all. YES you should get better in other areas but that doesn't mean you have to get rid of your best player to do it. You can trade picks, propsects, other players...

You won't win when your centers are Desharnais and Dannault. It would be like trying to win a cup with Andre Racicot. You can have the best centers in the world but you won't go anywhere if your goalie can't keep the puck out of the net.

It's sad to see him traded eventually if that happens. I hope Galchy can correct some of his bad plays and start being the center we beleived he could be. But I write that being optimistic now and some way naive. Seems like Therrien didn't like Galchy and Julien even more hates him. Julien is here to stay I guess and I would be surprised Galchy alone would make Julien fired. Bergevin will go before Julien and starting from there, a lot of Habs roster are in danger, Galchy, Paccio, Price included. Even a good soldier like Gallagher is in danger if the best deal to get a franchise player is on the table.

For the first time in two decades I felt like we had a real shot at building a winner. Instead we f***ed it up. I'm not sure what else to say on this. Letting PK Subban go was inexcusable as far as I'm concerned. And it's five years later and we're talking about rebuilds.

 

[junyab]

My only complaint about his contract is that it's not cap efficient. That we're not in a cap crunch doesn't contradict that point. My argument against Price is that we would probably be better off with the trade return for him and another starter than with Price alone. Thus the idea of signing him is just bad asset management.

We're put a lot of money into something that isn't giving us that much return above replacement (and indeed, he gives us much less return in the playoffs).

So you would have rather traded Price before we re-signed him? I'm not sure how this would've changed anything. He was not worth more before he re-signed than he was after. Every GM knew what it would've taken to re-sign Price so the price would've been factored in regardless.

And what can he do in the playoffs that he hasn't already? He can't help the team score. His only bad playoff year since 2010 was 2012-13. If you take 12-13 out of the equation, his last 4 playoffs he had an average GAA of 2.17 and a SV% of .924%, hardly a bad return.

 

[Catanddogguitarrr]

Paradoxically, I think Bergevin could have bought himself more years if he had the temerity to actually trade Price. Especially with how the season has gone for Price, he'd look like a genius, on top of being bold. Now we've got 6 of one, half a dozen of the other, and we're dying in the middle (well, lower middle). Think about it, we traded our best prospect, 19 years old, and then proceeded to tank. Ouate de phoque.

I know, it's horrible, it's all horrible. Everything planned by Bergevin, whatever genious or risky was all failed. I think we were close to be Cup contender 8 months ago (with Radu, Markov and Sergachev) and now we drop badly into rebuilding mode. Don't forget that teams who are in rebuilding mode never succeed or take 10 years or mode to rebuilt. So it means about 2 years into PO and 8 years out of PO. Do you have that patience? At this point, rebuilt or not, the result of middle team or mediocre team is about the same for us, sadly.

 

[Catanddogguitarrr]

No kidding... I hadn't noticed.

Lol

To win you need a good center, good D, good goalie. You can be stronger in some areas than others. The Devils won multiple cups without great centers. The Pens won with amazing centers... The Avalanche didn't win until they got Roy.

Most cup teams have stars at all three positions. Most have star players up front, on the backend and in net. You don't need the best goalie to win but you also don't need the best center.

I agree but I can name few goalies that won the Cup without being top 5 of the league. Khabibulin, Vernon, Osgood and Niemi. Avs with Roy but without Sakic or Forsberg? Not sure. Pens last year won with most of their D injured and Crosby almost out because head concussion. Some says a good goalie in PO is sometimes an ordinary goalie on a hot streak. Halak was a goalie on a hot streak 7 years ago. José Théodore have been overrated because he has been hot in 2002, before he collapsed against Canes.

I think where people go off the rails here is when they say we should get rid of Price to be better in other areas. That makes no sense to me at all. YES you should get better in other areas but that doesn't mean you have to get rid of your best player to do it. You can trade picks, propsects, other players...

You won't win when your centers are Desharnais and Dannault. It would be like trying to win a cup with Andre Racicot. You can have the best centers in the world but you won't go anywhere if your goalie can't keep the puck out of the net.

For the first time in two decades I felt like we had a real shot at building a winner. Instead we ****ed it up. I'm not sure what else to say on this. Letting PK Subban go was inexcusable as far as I'm concerned. And it's five years later and we're talking about rebuilds.

About that I agree. Everything was planned around Price from previous management and I think it's too late to change now. I don't think we could get a true #1 center in return of Price this year. The most we can get is some player on the same range as Paccioretty and #1 picks + some second rounds picks 2018-19-20 from a team who wants to go further in PO. Witch result into a bad trade like when we gave Roy+Keane vs Kovalenko, Thibault and Ruzinsky. The return of a trade including Price should be high and at this point, looking at Bergevin I think it's better to keep Price. Everybody wants Price to be traded, like Paccio, Weber and some others. It's reality, it's not like Playstation, trades are not that easy. On that point, I agree with you if you think we keep Price and try to improve some others areas, if possible. At worst scenario we miss the PO couple of years and we draft true talent that can help us fast while trying not to be a losing team for years and fall into mediocrity. One scenario or another, having a younger D like Subban is better than having getting old Weber, but that's another debate I don't want to get into.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Lol

I agree but I can name few goalies that won the Cup without being top 5 of the league. Khabibulin, Vernon, Osgood and Niemi. Avs with Roy but without Sakic or Forsberg? Not sure. Pens last year won with most of their D injured and Crosby almost out because head concussion. Some says a good goalie in PO is sometimes an ordinary goalie on a hot streak. Halak was a goalie on a hot streak 7 years ago. José Théodore have been overrated because he has been hot in 2002, before he collapsed against Canes.

You don't need a top five goalie to win (though many teams have this) and I never claimed you do. But you also don't need a top five center to win either.

Gomez, Bobby Smith, Bergeron, Staal, Damphousse... none of those guys are superstars and they were on teams that had goalies leading the way for the most part.

It's a hell of a lot better to have the best you can get at every position though obviously. Most cup winning teams have star forwards, defensemen and goalies. When you get that you'll win multiple cups. That's why I think it's crazy to trade away Price for a center. I think it's crazy to trade Subban for a center too (and many people suggested we do that too.) It's a dumb way to do things.

When you have a stud winger, goalie, blueliner... you keep them. You build with them. What you don't do is go to war with Desharnais as your first line center. You won't win.

About that I agree. Everything was planned around Price from previous management and I think it's too late to change now. I don't think we could get a true #1 center in return of Price this year. The most we can get is some player on the same range as Paccioretty and #1 picks + some second rounds picks 2018-19-20 from a team who wants to go further in PO. Witch result into a bad trade like when we gave Roy+Keane vs Kovalenko, Thibault and Ruzinsky. The return of a trade including Price should be high and at this point, looking at Bergevin I think it's better to keep Price. Everybody wants Price to be traded, like Paccio, Weber and some others. It's reality, it's not like Playstation, trades are not that easy. On that point, I agree with you if you think we keep Price and try to improve some others areas, if possible. At worst scenario we miss the PO couple of years and we draft true talent that can help us fast while trying not to be a losing team for years and fall into mediocrity. One scenario or another, having a younger D like Subban is better than having getting old Weber, but that's another debate I don't want to get into.

I would love to avoid a rebuild. If somehow we could get Tavares as a UFA or deal Chuck for him, then I think we'd be in awesome shape. We'd have Price and Tavares plus some decent pieces. We'd still need to add another D but we'd at least have some great top end talent. But that's just not going to happen.

If we were going to trade Price now though? I wouldn't do it for Tavares. What's the point? He'll have a big contract, getting close to 30, we now have a hole in net... we still won't go anywhere. If I was going to trade Price it would be for prospects. I'd do the same with Weber and Max and start over.

 

[Catanddogguitarrr]

When you have a stud winger, goalie, blueliner... you keep them. You build with them. What you don't do is go to war with Desharnais as your first line center. You won't win.

I agree. I don't get it Habs management being happy for so long having nothing better than Desharnais #1 center. It's like we battle trowing dices. I trow a 2 and I expect you throw a 1 so I win. Most of the time you will trow a 3, a 4 or a 5. I can't win with a 2.

If we were going to trade Price now though? I wouldn't do it for Tavares. What's the point? He'll have a big contract, getting close to 30, we now have a hole in net... we still won't go anywhere. If I was going to trade Price it would be for prospects. I'd do the same with Weber and Max and start over.

Trade Price for Tavares? Price is signed, Tavares not. An hole at center for NYI and an hole at G for Habs? Is any of these teams wins something? One problem fixed one place, one problem created another place. It's not like we can say Lindgren or Fuccale can do the job goalie number one. It's not the case. Montoya and Neimi aren't good either.

Being that said, if we can have Price + Tavares and Weber, it's start looking like Team Canada at the Olympics. Just find another top D and we become a Cup Contender. But I'm dreaming again ...

 

[PaulD]

Why are people complaining about Price's contract? It's not like we're in a cap crunch or will be in one anytime soon.

I dont think anyone would mind Prices contract if we had a centermen that matched and warranted it. it. Like every contender in the league does.

 

[NotProkofievian]

So you would have rather traded Price before we re-signed him? I'm not sure how this would've changed anything. He was not worth more before he re-signed than he was after. Every GM knew what it would've taken to re-sign Price so the price would've been factored in regardless.

And what can he do in the playoffs that he hasn't already? He can't help the team score. His only bad playoff year since 2010 was 2012-13. If you take 12-13 out of the equation, his last 4 playoffs he had an average GAA of 2.17 and a SV% of .924%, hardly a bad return.

Naturally I would have had to trade him before he signed his current contract, since he negotiated a full NMC with it that kicked in this season (little known fact). His value may have been comparable before and after signing a contract of that AAV, we will never know. However, without that contract you sell the buying GM the ability to negotiate.

As for what it would have solved it would have reallocated value that I considered ''dead.'' We have the ''best goaltender in the world'' but in expectation, he doesn't make that much of a difference over other playoff starters, or indeed starters that we could have had on the cheap. If someone would have paid a hefty Price for him, and I think someone would have, that would have been free value injected into our prospect pool (I should note I wanted to rebuild before Bergevin made his move for Drouin).

I made some threads on the mainboard, and some Winnipeg fans were receptive to the idea of Connor and their first for Price. There's basically no one, except Lafleurs Guy, who wouldn't just rather have that package and a starter like Raanta or Bishop than Carey Price right now. Whether we could have that package or not we'll never know. The reactions were mixed: some balked at the idea, some offered more.

 

[PaulD]

About Picking Kopitar instead of Price, I still beleive this is what should have been done. I think #1 was Crosby, #2 Kopitar and #3 Price. Crosby = 3 Cups, Kopitar = 2 Cups and Price none.
Kopitar at the time of the draft was tagged as "european Crosby". I think they were right.
Back then Theodore was our number one goalie, he won trophies, he had a high salary, Garon was a legit nhl goalie. What was the need of having a goalie when Koivu was going to slow down and Plekanec was only a solid two way center but no potential being a solid #1 center. There was absolutely no interresting prospects at centerline. And Huet was there and Halak also. But Timmins was only looking at Price.

I was not really refering about 2013 specificly on your post, sorry. I think in 2013 Kostitsyn was gone in KHL and Carter was winning a Cup with LA Kings. Getzlaf was still a decent #1 center at the time and still is today. Plekanc was a solid two way center for a number of years, I was always a great fan of him but I also know his limits. In PO time he will succeed by checking Crosby or Kreji and some other years he'll just be slower, softer and become invisible compare to the real skilled centers. In 10 years of PO I saw about 2 good years of Plekanec. Brings you in PO, disapears once PO arrive.

And for Galchenyuk, you seems to hardly beleive he was a quality center and was mismanaged by Habs organisation with bad coaching, dump and chase system, etc. Maybe you're right, maybe there is fault on Galchenyuk. After 6 years I don't get that he makes so many mistakes, loose so many battles, give perfect passes tape on tape to opponents, lack of effort sometimes, etc. There are rumours about him, his father influence, his drinking and party problem. I don't know if it's true but medias have been talking often about that. He did scored 30 g once and nobody knows for sure if it was that year only or if he will repeat it again. Whatever where the truth stand, we say there is 3 versions : Habs Management (or the bad medias), Galchenyuk version and 3 the truth around the middle. Recently Antichambre and Morrissette show said Habs will want to trade Galchenyuk and Galchenyuk will want to be traded too. They must have inside informations I guess. I'm just an ordinary dude watching that circus from outside but I don't think I'm that dumb, lol. I saw snow before at my age.

Really enjoyed this post.

 

[ahmedou]

@Lafleurs Guy the advocate by excellence of Carey Price (available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week)

 

[NotProkofievian]

How many times are you going to ask me this???

Okay, you would have ''gone for it.'' I wouldn't have. I would have traded Price for futures, and got us a different starter, and obviously we'd be better off than we are now. Who isn't better than Price currently? Clearly you're not the only one who is coo coo for cocoa puffs over Price, we could have exploited a market inefficiency and kick started our rebuild (that you agree is now necessary) in style.

He's been CONSISTENTLY top five. That's why he has the value he does.

No, over the long haul he's been the best. Some guys have had good years and bad. Price has been remarkably consistent on bad teams. That's why he's considered the best in the league.

Tim Thomas isn't even in the freaking league and hasn't been for three or four years now. Why the hell are you including him?

False. Price was solid on a bad team in 2012. Not being dominant doesn't mean he was bad. As for 2013 he was a leading Vezina candidate for most of the year. It was a shortened season and we had a bad run for about 7 or 8 games that derailed an otherwise strong year. And unfortunately it was a shortened year with no time to recover.

The nature of the position is that it's average based, not cummulative. If you have a bad run it can bring down your number overall. That's not a big deal in a regular year because you can come back but in a shortened season it can make your numbers look bad. It wasn't a bad year though, he finished 10th in Vezina that year.

Out of the six seasons where we can talk about him (the seventh he was a wall before getting hurt around game 15) he finished top five in Vezina votes four times and top ten five times out of six. He's also number one in save percentage over that time and far ahead when we shorten the window from 2014 onwards...

1.) What sort of value do you think Price has right now? Nobody wants that headache, he might as well not even have an NMC.

2.) Solid is what people call Karl Alzner. He was about replacement level.

3.) What an incredible conclusion. When you omit every year in which he was mediocre or bad, his numbers go up. You haven't refuted a single argument that I've made, or provided a single data point, so I think this will be my last reply to you unless you come up with something interesting.

I honestly don't think I've ever seen anyone so enamoured with a player who wasn't clearly the best player in the world. I am certain there are people in the world who are more ambivalent about McDavid.

Because you keep being a stickler on a point that that doesn't need to be debated. Again, not all players are considered equal and it's certainly accurate to say that Price has carried the team for the most part. I'm not sure why you have to be so literal on this though...

That doesn't even make sense. You have repeatedly said that Price single-handedly has brought us to 100 point seasons on more than one occasion. You have also said that this is not really possible. This is not about being literal, it's about being logical.

And yes, players are not to be considered equal. I'm not sure how that addresses anything I said, but Carey Price is, without a doubt, the least valuable ''superstar'' in the game. I would trade him for any single one that you could name. It's too bad that there'd be no trading partners.

 

[Price is Wright]

You think the Habs should have picked Kopitar? Hey that's great. That was never the choice.

Carey Price or Marc Staal. That was the choice.

 

[mariolemieux66]

Its Price 11th season. We are not going to start winning now with him in goal, especially since this is the worst team Price been on.
The Price experiment is over, time to trade him and move on.

 

[NotProkofievian]

You think the Habs should have picked Kopitar? Hey that's great. That was never the choice.

Carey Price or Marc Staal. That was the choice.

#shouldhavedraftedkopitar

#kopiwatch

#kopi4hart

They'll catch on eventually.

 

[Catanddogguitarrr]

#shouldhavedraftedkopitar

#kopiwatch

#kopi4hart

They'll catch on eventually.

Here's how it works baby steps by baby steps. Simple, follow the steps.

1. We draft Kopitar
2. When Koivu leaves Mtl to sign with Anaheim, we don't need to get Gomez because Kopitar was already NHL dominant at the time. So we would have Kopitar and not Gomez. We also keep McDonagh. We can forget all the Gomez thing, that would never happen.
Our #1 goalie is Halak, our #1 center is Kopitar, we have McDonagh, Subban, Markov, Paccioretty, Camalleri and Gionta. Now we run into the PO in 2009 much more stronger. We might win over Philly. I guess we win over Boston in 2011 and who knows? A Stanley Cup?

 

[NotProkofievian]

Here's how it works baby steps by baby steps. Simple, follow the steps.

1. We draft Kopitar
2. When Koivu leaves Mtl to sign with Anaheim, we don't need to get Gomez because Kopitar was already NHL dominant at the time. So we would have Kopitar and not Gomez. We also keep McDonagh. We can forget all the Gomez thing, that would never happen.
Our #1 goalie is Halak, our #1 center is Kopitar, we have McDonagh, Subban, Markov, Paccioretty, Camalleri and Gionta. Now we run into the PO in 2009 much more stronger. We might win over Philly. I guess we win over Boston in 2011 and who knows? A Stanley Cup?

I'm not actually joking with those hashtags, I started #kopiwatch at the beginning of the season to bust LG's balls. lol

 

[junyab]

Naturally I would have had to trade him before he signed his current contract, since he negotiated a full NMC with it that kicked in this season (little known fact). His value may have been comparable before and after signing a contract of that AAV, we will never know. However, without that contract you sell the buying GM the ability to negotiate.

As for what it would have solved it would have reallocated value that I considered ''dead.'' We have the ''best goaltender in the world'' but in expectation, he doesn't make that much of a difference over other playoff starters, or indeed starters that we could have had on the cheap. If someone would have paid a hefty Price for him, and I think someone would have, that would have been free value injected into our prospect pool (I should note I wanted to rebuild before Bergevin made his move for Drouin).

I made some threads on the mainboard, and some Winnipeg fans were receptive to the idea of Connor and their first for Price. There's basically no one, except Lafleurs Guy, who wouldn't just rather have that package and a starter like Raanta or Bishop than Carey Price right now. Whether we could have that package or not we'll never know. The reactions were mixed: some balked at the idea, some offered more.

Oh man, where to even start.

One, Bergevin doesn't have the ability to sell anything. That aside, Price would've got what he got, no matter where he played. That's what the best at their position get paid. Argue all you want about he's isn't the best at his position but no GM would agree with you.

Two, Connor + 1st for Price? Are you kiddin' me? How could you even suggest trade our best player for, wait for it, 2 pieces that can't fill either of our two biggest rosters holes (a #1 center and a LHD). But not to outdo others, you'd like to create ANOTHER hole by not having a replacement in net. But sure, you could just go out and get one "on the cheap". Just wow. How come there are a dozen teams with goalie problems, but it would be so easy to fix in Montreal?

 

[junyab]

Here's how it works baby steps by baby steps. Simple, follow the steps.

1. We draft Kopitar
2. When Koivu leaves Mtl to sign with Anaheim, we don't need to get Gomez because Kopitar was already NHL dominant at the time. So we would have Kopitar and not Gomez. We also keep McDonagh. We can forget all the Gomez thing, that would never happen.
Our #1 goalie is Halak, our #1 center is Kopitar, we have McDonagh, Subban, Markov, Paccioretty, Camalleri and Gionta. Now we run into the PO in 2009 much more stronger. We might win over Philly. I guess we win over Boston in 2011 and who knows? A Stanley Cup?

You mean, when Montreal doesn't re-sign Koivu, and he's forced to sign elsewhere.

 

[Le Tricolore]

Here's how it works baby steps by baby steps. Simple, follow the steps.

1. We draft Kopitar
2. When Koivu leaves Mtl to sign with Anaheim, we don't need to get Gomez because Kopitar was already NHL dominant at the time. So we would have Kopitar and not Gomez. We also keep McDonagh. We can forget all the Gomez thing, that would never happen.
Our #1 goalie is Halak, our #1 center is Kopitar, we have McDonagh, Subban, Markov, Paccioretty, Camalleri and Gionta. Now we run into the PO in 2009 much more stronger. We might win over Philly. I guess we win over Boston in 2011 and who knows? A Stanley Cup?

Didn't Gionta convince Gomez to sign here? Might not have had him without Gomez.

But yes, carry on.

 

[Catanddogguitarrr]

I'm not actually joking with those hashtags, I started #kopiwatch at the beginning of the season to bust LG's balls. lol

I'm not familiar with hashtags, I never went into twitter. I went to youtube and found a nice montage of his best goals.


I would like to question Timmins. What's was wrong with Kopitar when you decided not to pick him?

 

[NotProkofievian]

Oh man, where to even start.

One, Bergevin doesn't have the ability to sell anything. That aside, Price would've got what he got, no matter where he played. That's what the best at their position get paid. Argue all you want about he's isn't the best at his position but no GM would agree with you.

Yeah that's how arbitrage usually works. A bunch of people think something's value is one thing, when it's actually another.

Two, Connor + 1st for Price? Are you kiddin' me? How could you even suggest trade our best player for, wait for it, 2 pieces that can't fill either of our two biggest rosters holes (a #1 center and a LHD). But not to outdo others, you'd like to create ANOTHER hole by not having a replacement in net. But sure, you could just go out and get one "on the cheap". Just wow. How come there are a dozen teams with goalie problems, but it would be so easy to fix in Montreal?

Lol wait...wait wait wait wait. You think that would be a bad return for Price? Do you think it would be realistic to get more than that? That pick could have been Robert Thomas or Filip Chytil (I was Chytil superfan #1 around here, potentially #1b behind WTK). And there were two good goaltenders available for dirt cheap in the off-season. Bishop and Raanta. Both of whom are better than Price this year.

So perhaps you'll answer the question that LG has never had the chutzpah to answer:

Thomas/Chytil + Connor + Bishop

Price + 4th

Which would you pick?

 

[Catanddogguitarrr]

You mean, when Montreal doesn't re-sign Koivu, and he's forced to sign elsewhere.

Koivu would decide to stay in Montreal because he would have a chance winning a Cup here instead leaving to Ana playing with Getzlaf. And we might keep Kovalev and Tanguay. But anyway, not having Gomez is great and keeping McDonagh too.

 

[Catanddogguitarrr]

Didn't Gionta convince Gomez to sign here? Might not have had him without Gomez.

But yes, carry on.

Hey, Kopitar alone is worth more than Gionta and Gomez together. If Gionta doesn't come play here because he doesn't like Kopitar, it means he have a mental problem, witch I doubt because I respect the man and his intelligence.

 

[junyab]

Here's how it works baby steps by baby steps. Simple, follow the steps.

1. We draft Kopitar
2. When Koivu leaves Mtl to sign with Anaheim, we don't need to get Gomez because Kopitar was already NHL dominant at the time. So we would have Kopitar and not Gomez. We also keep McDonagh. We can forget all the Gomez thing, that would never happen.
Our #1 goalie is Halak, our #1 center is Kopitar, we have McDonagh, Subban, Markov, Paccioretty, Camalleri and Gionta. Now we run into the PO in 2009 much more stronger. We might win over Philly. I guess we win over Boston in 2011 and who knows? A Stanley Cup?

I like how you say we shouldn't have draft Price because we had already had Halak in the system, but let's not forgot Halak was playing in the ECHL at the time and no one had any idea he'd be a NHL mainstay down the road.

And drafts are fun to go back and look at and say "why didn't we draft that guy", like it was a sure and obvious thing. Surely, if the Habs knew Kopitar was going to be the Kopitar we know now, other scouts would've also known, and he'd have been drafted right behind Crosby.