Just an absolutely disgusting trade for Montreal. Galchenyuk has been misused since the day he put on the toilet seat sweater. I've always thought he could be a top 6 centreman and envied the Habs for drafting him 3rd overall. For an organization starving for centres as much as the Buds were before Matthews, getting another winger, an underwhelming borderline bust winger who scored 4 actual goals last year (5 empty netters) and less than 10 the last two seasons, on a team that is also starved for goal scoring and offense, for a guy who was misused and could potentially break out as a good top 6 centre with the Coyotes is nothing short of a tire fire, gongshow move for the Habs. Makes this Leaf fan happy to see the Habs pissing away all their assets though
I've always liked Galchenyuk or "Chucky" as they call him, and I'm excited to see what he can do in AZ given the proper usage, ice time and linemates. Absolutely abysmal trade for Montreal though and once again for the third year in a row, Marc Bergevin absolutely s**** the bed!
I'm with you on this. The Habs should have done everything in their power to ensure Galchenyuk developed into the franchise center they so desperately need/needed.
And he showed flashes of being exactly that for them. 30 goals followed up by a near PPG pace before his knee injury.
It was the difference between the Habs being a contender and being what they are now. It was certainly the difference in our playoff series two years ago.
Instead they had him buried on the 4th line with AHL trash Dwight King and Steve Ott. And funny enough that was actually the best line for the Habs the entire series!
The fact that Therrien and Julien didn't think he could get it done as a center is not an indictment against Galchenyuk at all. Therrien is the worst coach in the league in the last 5-10 years and Julien is notoriously hard on pure offensive skilled players. Hell he dicked around with Pastrnak his first two years as a pro too.
Domi is actually decent value for Galchenyuk, but i don't see what Domi does for the Habs. He's pretty much a not as good version of Gallagher.
The Habs have been virtually zapped of all their offensive skill in a league trending ttowards speed and skill, and more speed and more skill.
Guys like Barzal, Kuznetsov, Hall, Rakell, Pastrnak, Kucherov, Forsberg, MacKinnon, Marner.