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Speculation: The 'What If' thread

Le Barron de HF

Le Barron de HF

Justin make me proud
Mar 12, 2008
16,298
3,960
Shawinigan
It's almost the weekend and I figured that I would post a thread with an interesting concept. Some people often like to debate what if...Montreal selected Giroux instead of Fischer, Getzlaf/Perry/etc. instead of Kostitsyn, Kreider instead of Leblanc etc. These debates have been overdone but I thought about some scenarios that could bring some decent thinking and analysis.

What if... the team keeps progressing instead of having that disastrous 2012 season?
(Would Gauthier and Martin still be here? What would the team look like without all those prospects we brought in during that summer's draft?)

What if... Pacioretty never gets sent down in 2010?
(Would he be the same player?)

What if Gainey signed Souray over Hamrlik in 2008?

What if Bob Gainey stayed put after the 2008-09 debacle and re-signed Koivu, Kovalev and Tanguay?
(Would have the team gone through a complete rebuild?)

What if...Gainey adds Higgins like Atlanta's GM wanted and lands Hossa? The offer was Grabovski, O'Byrne, Lapierre and a 1st
(Does MTL get past the second round? Does he re-sign here?)

What if... Sather picks Plekanec instead Balej in the Kovalev deal?

What if the Lecavalier or the Kovalchuk deal (Theodore, Zednik and Markov) happened?
(Where would Montreal be right now?)


Discuss whichever scenario you want, this is for the HFbored souls.
Click to read more...
 
MSLs absurd thighs

MSLs absurd thighs

Formerly Tough Au Lit
Feb 4, 2013
9,424
4,280
What if... the team keeps progressing instead of having that disastrous 2012 season?
(Would Gauthier and Martin still be here? What would the team look like without all those prospects we brought in during that summer's draft?)

That involves Markov being healthy. In that case, we have a much older team. We get stuck in nothingness for a few more years. We don't get Galchenyuk, and Gallagher maybe doesn't develop the same way.

What if... Pacioretty never gets sent down in 2010?
(Would he be the same player?)

Pacioretty gets stuck in a bottom-6 role, and ends up being the next Chris Higgins. He's a 20 goals - 20 assists scorer for us, which is still not that bad.

What if Gainey signed Souray over Hamrlik in 2008?

The team still shows some huge defensive shortcomings. Souray more likely than not gets hurt, and when healthy, is overused and can't contain other team's top forwards.

What if Bob Gainey stayed put after the 2008-09 debacle and re-signed Koivu, Kovalev and Tanguay?

Kovalev gets to finish his career in Montreal, but his offensive output fades away. Koivu gives his all but gets stuck at 50 points with Montreal. Tanguay struggles with his injury in 2009-2010 and can't be counted on. The 2009-2010 magical run doesn't happen. More scandals keep happening, and Price keeps going the wrong way without proper leadership to guide him. We more likely than not pick in the 10-15 range in 2010 and 2011. Still selects Beaulieu in 2011, but higher. Likely selects Bjugstad in 2010.


What if...Gainey adds Higgins like Atlanta's GM wanted and lands Hossa? The offer was Grabovski, O'Byrne, Lapierre and a 1st
(Does MTL get past the second round? Does he re-sign here?)

In scenario A, where Higgins gets traded for Hossa. Likely no nightlife scandals pop up the very next season. Montreal goes past Philly and Pittsburgh, and goes toe-to-toe with the Red Wings in the 2008 Cup Final, but still lose it. Hossa does the same thing and signs with Detroit the next offseason. In the summer, Gainey still tries to sign Hossa, likely doesn't deal for Sundin's rights because of that. Gets stuck on July 1st, where he ends up getting Kristian Huselius as a cheaper replacement.

What if... Sather picks Plekanec instead Balej in the Kovalev deal?

Trade is seen as another bad trade from the Gainey era. Not much more impact. Maybe without Plekanec we push harder for Arnott in the summer of 2006.

What if the Lecavalier or the Kovalchuk deal (Theodore, Zednik and Markov) happened?
(Where would Montreal be right now?)

Subban, Pacioretty and Price get traded to TB for Lecavalier. Lecavalier maybe never gets injured by Matt Cooke, and keeps posting good numbers (70 points-ish) with Montreal. He gets aduled by Montreal fans. In the meantime, Subban, Pacioretty and Price end up being the real deal anyway, and put life back to the Tampa Bay franchise. Tampa's GM is seen as a genius and Yzerman never gets hired there. TB wins a Cup with the likes of:

Pacioretty - Stamkos - St. Louis
Hedman - Subban
Price

Montreal stays rather competitive, but stuck as a 7th or 8th seeded team, before falling off the charts because older players slow down. We probably still feel the effects as of January 2015.

Kovalchuk: We miss the playoffs in 2002 and 2003. Julien gets hired anyway and rights the ship for 2004. We end up keeping Garon, and still pick Price in 2005. Kovalchuk retires in 2013 anyway, but has a great career as a Hab, who that being said, stay a bottom-feeder for his whole stay. Dark era in Montreal.
 

Odelein24

Registered User
Sep 17, 2009
1,107
44
Montreal
What if Gainey chooses to trade 10 UFAs and bottom out the team, rather than keep all of them, get swept in the PO then trade for Gomez and sign Gionta, Cammy and co.?
 
Le Barron de HF

Le Barron de HF

Justin make me proud
Mar 12, 2008
16,298
3,960
Shawinigan
HiggsBozon said:
What if... the team keeps progressing instead of having that disastrous 2012 season?
(Would Gauthier and Martin still be here? What would the team look like without all those prospects we brought in during that summer's draft?)

That involves Markov being healthy. In that case, we have a much older team. We get stuck in nothingness for a few more years. We don't get Galchenyuk, and Gallagher maybe doesn't develop the same way.

What if... Pacioretty never gets sent down in 2010?
(Would he be the same player?)

Pacioretty gets stuck in a bottom-6 role, and ends up being the next Chris Higgins. He's a 20 goals - 20 assists scorer for us, which is still not that bad.

What if Gainey signed Souray over Hamrlik in 2008?

The team still shows some huge defensive shortcomings. Souray more likely than not gets hurt, and when healthy, is overused and can't contain other team's top forwards.

What if Bob Gainey stayed put after the 2008-09 debacle and re-signed Koivu, Kovalev and Tanguay?

Kovalev gets to finish his career in Montreal, but his offensive output fades away. Koivu gives his all but gets stuck at 50 points with Montreal. Tanguay struggles with his injury in 2009-2010 and can't be counted on. The 2009-2010 magical run doesn't happen. More scandals keep happening, and Price keeps going the wrong way without proper leadership to guide him. We more likely than not pick in the 10-15 range in 2010 and 2011. Still selects Beaulieu in 2011, but higher. Likely selects Bjugstad in 2010.


What if...Gainey adds Higgins like Atlanta's GM wanted and lands Hossa? The offer was Grabovski, O'Byrne, Lapierre and a 1st
(Does MTL get past the second round? Does he re-sign here?)

In scenario A, where Higgins gets traded for Hossa. Likely no nightlife scandals pop up the very next season. Montreal goes past Philly and Pittsburgh, and goes toe-to-toe with the Red Wings in the 2008 Cup Final, but still lose it. Hossa does the same thing and signs with Detroit the next offseason. In the summer, Gainey still tries to sign Hossa, likely doesn't deal for Sundin's rights because of that. Gets stuck on July 1st, where he ends up getting Kristian Huselius as a cheaper replacement.

What if... Sather picks Plekanec instead Balej in the Kovalev deal?

Trade is seen as another bad trade from the Gainey era. Not much more impact. Maybe without Plekanec we push harder for Arnott in the summer of 2006.

What if the Lecavalier or the Kovalchuk deal (Theodore, Zednik and Markov) happened?
(Where would Montreal be right now?)

Subban, Pacioretty and Price get traded to TB for Lecavalier. Lecavalier maybe never gets injured by Matt Cooke, and keeps posting good numbers (70 points-ish) with Montreal. He gets aduled by Montreal fans. In the meantime, Subban, Pacioretty and Price end up being the real deal anyway, and put life back to the Tampa Bay franchise. Tampa's GM is seen as a genius and Yzerman never gets hired there. TB wins a Cup with the likes of:

Pacioretty - Stamkos - St. Louis
Hedman - Subban
Price

Montreal stays rather competitive, but stuck as a 7th or 8th seeded team, before falling off the charts because older players slow down. We probably still feel the effects as of January 2015.

Kovalchuk: We miss the playoffs in 2002 and 2003. Julien gets hired anyway and rights the ship for 2004. We end up keeping Garon, and still pick Price in 2005. Kovalchuk retires in 2013 anyway, but has a great career as a Hab, who that being said, stay a bottom-feeder for his whole stay. Dark era in Montreal.
Click to expand...
Can't really argue any of this, good job.
 
donghabs98

donghabs98

Moderator
Oct 14, 2010
32,876
17,227
Halifax
What if Robert Lang didn't get hurt against Boston? What if the Habs never wore those Barber Shop jerseys?

What if James Wisniewski was resigned instead of Markov?

What if Gainey signed Francois Beauchemin instead of Spacek?

What if Koivu never sustained any of his major injuries in his career?

If you really want to go back. What if Molson's never bought the team against in 1978 and Sam Pollock stayed on for a few more years? Or what if Bowman was hired instead of Irving Grundman?

Man I just love the What If game. ;)
 
the

the

Registered User
Mar 2, 2012
13,340
17,950
Montreal
d re-signed Koivu, Kovalev and Tanguay?
(Would have the team gone through a complete rebuild?)

OMG! No freaking Gomez! We would have been a powerhouse, there's so much wrong that happened during that 08-09 season. I still believe that we had a good team,we were dominating the league half season in before our collapse. Tanguay-Koivu-Kovalev together were above PPG for the last 20 games of the season when put together. It was one of the best line in the league going into the playoffs. Unfortunatly that's all we had against The Bruins. Gomez salary alone could have been enough to keep all three of them.

Tanguay-Koivu-Kovalev
Cammalleri-Plekanec-Gionta
S.Kostitsyn-Lapierre-A.Kostitsyn
Moen-Moore-Pyatt

Markov-Spacek
Hamrlik-Bergeron
Gill-Gorges
Mcdonaugh-Subban

Halak
Price

We would have went toe to toe against The Blackhawks in the Stanley Cup final that year. There's too much potential with that team.
 
Last edited:

mustardnight*

Registered User
Aug 11, 2011
1,318
0
We don't win a cup and a bunch of disgruntled hfboards habs fans complain like never before. Oh wait...
 
AntonCH

AntonCH

Registered User
Jul 6, 2009
2,213
12
What if ...............
Grundman never sees the inside of the forum and Bowman is handed the reins.
Bowman who had both coach and GM responsibilities steps down as coach and hands the reins to anyone but Tremblay
Tremblay is not around to shame Roy
and on
and on
and on
 

FrontierPsyCHiatrist*

Guest
the said:
d re-signed Koivu, Kovalev and Tanguay?
(Would have the team gone through a complete rebuild?)

OMG! Non freaking Gomez! We would have been a powerhouse, there's so much wrong that happened during that 08-09 season. I still believe that we had a good team,we were dominating the league half season in before our collapse. Tanguay-Koivu-Kovalev together were above PPG for the last 20 games of the season when put together. It was one of the best line in the league going into the playoffs. Unfortunatly that's all we had against The Bruins. Gomez salary alone could have been enough to keep all three of them.

Tanguay-Koivu-Kovalev
Cammalleri-Plekanec-Gionta
S.Kostitsyn-Lapierre-A.Kostitsyn
Moen-Moore-Pyatt

Markov-Spacek
Hamrlik-Bergeron
Gill-Gorges
Mcdonaugh-Subban

Halak
Price

We would have went toe to toe against The Blackhawks in the Stanley Cup final that year. There's too much potential with that team.
Click to expand...

Wow you're so right
 
googlymoogly

googlymoogly

Registered User
Oct 27, 2007
11,491
1,209
What if we picked Brule instead of Price.

What if we never traded Roy and the owner instead canned the whole front office.
 
Habsfan2731

Habsfan2731

Registered User
Jan 2, 2014
4,621
1
Toronto
Raimu said:
Than we have Rielly, which, honestly, I wouldn't mind too much. We'd need a center badly now tho!
Click to expand...

Galchenyuk>Rielly imo.

That's scary & sad to think about, Toronto needed a Big potential #1C as bad as us, thank God Galchenyuk dropped to us, still think he was the #1 overall pick if not for his injury.
 
VirginiaMtlExpat

VirginiaMtlExpat

Second most interesting man in the world.
Aug 20, 2003
5,002
2,386
Norfolk, VA
www.odu.edu
What if Scotty Bowman were 30 years younger and looking for a job, and MT were turfed out after it became obvious after an extended Price injury that his record was propped up by a stellar goalie? Would Bowman be considered for the job?
 
Harpo

Harpo

Lyle forever
Sep 20, 2007
1,656
299
Quebec City
As someone already mentioned, the big "what if" is if we don't do the Gomez trade and re-sign Koivu instead. I think we still get to draft Galchenyuk (McDonagh was still a 3/4 D at the time), but instead of nothing, we get McDonagh on the first pairing, and Higgins on the 2nd/3rd line, and we're champs of the East.

Instead we're still hoping for Beaulieu and Tinordi to replace the old/slow Markov, Gonchar, Weaver, Allen and Gilbert of this world.
 
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