Speculation: What should the Habs do this offseason?

[scrubadam]

We have some good young players with some good vets, just need to have one of our youngsters explode, like KK or Domi.

Difference between the habs and Boston is that they got Pasta one pick before us. Switch Scherbak and Pasta and which place are the habs and which place are the Bruins?

If you can land Panarian then go for it. Also look to move Drouin. I would take a shot at Dzingle as I think he would fit with this team.

 

[Runner77]

Everything didn't go perfectly this season. Price crapped the bed the first two months of the year, Weber missed a third of the games, we had a back up who couldn't stop a beach ball, Bryon missed what.....almost half the season, Armia missed a quarter of the season, we only got a fourth line in the tail end of the year.

I agree though we shouldn't stay pat. Simply getting a competent back up will improve this team. Adding a top four left defense man and a winger with size and speed will do wonders.

Everything you said except that LHD needs to be a top pairing, not just a top 4. Mete can be the top 4. They need to make an addition that will of enough quality to relegate Mete to a second pairing role.

 

[Runner77]

The success Columbus had will change how teams deal at trade deadline in future.

Going to see many more teams who are close go all in.

It could also just be a one-off. What teams have the quality organizational depth to be able to withstand the type of very short term investment CBJ made? And from those, how many of them will sway from what has been mostly conservative strategies premised on solid drafting and development? It would be highly surprising if someone attempted this again.

 

[Lshap]

We have some good young players with some good vets, just need to have one of our youngsters explode, like KK or Domi.

Difference between the habs and Boston is that they got Pasta one pick before us. Switch Scherbak and Pasta and which place are the habs and which place are the Bruins?

If you can land Panarian then go for it. Also look to move Drouin. I would take a shot at Dzingle as I think he would fit with this team.

Dzingel is exactly the type of Plan-B signing I can see Bergevin making. Coming off a bad experience with Columbus, sounds like the perfect fit here.

 

[sharks9]

It could also just be a one-off. What teams have the quality organizational depth to be able to withstand the type of very short term investment CBJ made? And from those, how many of them will sway from what has been mostly conservative strategies premised on solid drafting and development? It would be highly surprising if someone attempted this again.

I think it's a one-off because Columbus as a franchise had never won a playoff series. If they had won before, I think Kekalainen would've taken the conservative route and sold off his UFAs to try and do a quick retool.

It paid off for them in the playoffs, but Columbus could be in for a rough few years if all of Panarin, Bobrovsky, Duchene, Dzingel leave and that will scare other GMs from repeating what Kekalainen did.

 

[Lshap]

I think it's a one-off because Columbus as a franchise had never won a playoff series. If they had won before, I think Kekalainen would've taken the conservative route and sold off his UFAs to try and do a quick retool.

It paid off for them in the playoffs, but Columbus could be in for a rough few years if all of Panarin, Bobrovsky, Duchene, Dzingel leave and that will scare other GMs from repeating what Kekalainen did.

I'm guessing they all leave. Which is good news for us because it gives the Habs more high-end UFAs to target, plus having more UFAs out there means the bids are spread out. There might be less competition for individual players. A team that wants to sign Bobrovsky won't be able to also afford Panarin or Duchene.

 

[CapSpace]

Go hard at both Panarin and Duchene. Sell the city to Panarin like the Leafs did with Tavares. He wants that kind of attention. Duchene love the Habs as a kid. He played well with Panarin.

Hit those nails hard. All in. With these 2 guys and a LHD, we'd be a solid team without having to lose tons of prospects in trades.

 

[1909]

Go hard at both Panarin and Duchene. Sell the city to Panarin like the Leafs did with Tavares. He wants that kind of attention. Duchene love the Habs as a kid. He played well with Panarin.

Hit those nails hard. All in. With these 2 guys and a LHD, we'd be a solid team without having to lose tons of prospects in trades.

Tavares is born in TO. The sell was easy to do. Panarin has no interest to play in MTL. Sunshine state like Florida with minimal taxes is his destination.

 

[1909]

Tavares is born in TO. The sell was easy to do. Panarin has no interest to play in MTL. Sunshine state like Florida with minimal taxes is his destination.

We already have a 10,5 M $ player. I don't want two.

 

[Le Barron de HF]

In a semi-perfect world:

Trade:

Drouin for Kessel.
De Haan + 2nd (NYR) (650K retention) for Shaw + 2nd (MTL).

Sign Donskoi (3 years 10M) & Ryan Miller (1 year, 1.35M) :

Byron - Domi - Kessel
Tatar - Danault - Gallagher
Lehkonen (2.35M, 3 years) - Kotkaniemi - Donskoi
Weal - Poehling - Armia (2.2M, 2 years)
DLo - Thompson

Mete - Weber
De Haan - Petry
Kulak (1.9M, 3 years) - Folin
Alzner (or anybody really)

Price
Miller

77M total cap

 

[HabsWhiteKnightLOL]

In a semi-perfect world:

Trade:

Drouin for Kessel.
De Haan + 2nd (NYR) (650K retention) for Shaw + 2nd (MTL).

Sign Donskoi (3 years 10M) & Ryan Miller (1 year, 1.35M) :

Byron - Domi - Kessel
Tatar - Danault - Gallagher
Lehkonen (2.35M, 3 years) - Kotkaniemi - Donskoi
Weal - Poehling - Armia (2.2M, 2 years)
DLo - Thompson

Mete - Weber
De Haan - Petry
Kulak (1.9M, 3 years) - Folin
Alzner (or anybody really)

Price
Miller

Byron first line
Lekhonen third line
Poehling on the 4th instead of AHL
Mete still first pair
No juulsen

thats a bottom 5 lineup draft

 

[Le Barron de HF]

Byron first line
Lekhonen third line
Poehling on the 4th instead of AHL
Mete still first pair
No juulsen

thats a bottom 5 lineup draft

A) Juulsen needs to play in the AHL (he was sent down for a reason).
B) Byron on the first line is alright, ditto for Lehk on the third. Worst case, you switch him and Weal. Byron is a stop gap for now. Build his value up and he would fit well with Domi and Kessel's speed.
C) Given the way CJ was using Thompson, Poehling can get close to 14 minutes a night (PK & PP). There's a difference between centering with DLo & Peca and Weal & Armia.
D) Mete outplayed Weber down the stretch so I don't really get your point.

 

[HabsWhiteKnightLOL]

A) Juulsen needs to play in the AHL (he was sent down for a reason).
B) Byron on the first line is alright, ditto for Lehk on the third. Worst case, you switch him and Weal. Byron is a stop gap for now. Build his value up and he would fit well with Domi and Kessel's speed.
C) Given the way CJ was using Thompson, Poehling can get close to 14 minutes a night (PK & PP). There's a difference between centering with DLo & Peca and Weal & Armia.
D) Mete outplayed Weber down the stretch so I don't really get your point.

lol'd at all of this
ur gonna miss playoffs again with this weak ass line up

 

[Le Barron de HF]

lol'd at all of this
ur gonna miss playoffs again with this weak ass line up

I guess I'm expecting too much from someone who rarely ever contributes anything to the board. Kessel is superior to Drouin. Donskoi is better offensively than Armia. Our 4th line is better than anything we iced last year. De Haan is better than Kulak. Better back up.

But yes, enlighten me as to how this team would inevitably regress by 10 spots following those changes. You can't use the argument that this year we had so many players experience career highs when I'd be replacing arguably the biggest benefitor of that in Shaw and adding a guy like Kessel.

 

[HabsWhiteKnightLOL]

I guess I'm expecting too much from someone who rarely ever contributes anything to the board. Kessel is superior to Drouin. Donskoi is better offensively than Armia. Our 4th line is better than anything we iced last year. De Haan is better than Kulak. Better back up.

But yes, enlighten me as to how this team would inevitably regress by 10 spots following those changes. You can't use the argument that this year we had so many players experience career highs when I'd be replacing arguably the biggest benefitor of that in Shaw and adding a guy like Kessel.

Rarely contributes? What are you doing on this forum? Tell me what makes you so useful for everybody in this forum. Oh wait the same thing as me , ur just typing shit like anyone else.

Im glad ur extreme hockey sense detected that Kessel is a better played than Drouin and that Donskoi is better than a 4th liner Armia,.
Here ill tell you why ur line up is average and not better than this season line up.

For the goalies idc about the backup for next season , Lindgren Mzarek Miller or whoever it is , Price will be in every situation. So no problem with Miller for really cheap but id still give a chance to Lindgren.

Yes Kessel is a better scorer than Drouin , but why habs does this? This trade means we are going into a depth playoff push but this team overachieved this season and still missed playoffs.
If im not mistaken , 10 players had career high this season . Price played well since mid December and was godlike , We had bound to no injuries until the very of the season.

Our D-squad sucked hard most of the season and Weber was slowing so hard that made Mete looks good. Yes Mete was better at the end of the season so what , hes scoreless in 120 games.

Yet ur lineup has Byron and Danault on a top 6 which those 2 are bottom 6 players. Lekhonen is a 4th liner maybe weak 3rd liner at this point. Donskoi is not an upgrade from Shaw , which Shaw needs to be on a bottom 6 also. Im glad you did put Armia in his place on a 4th line where he belongs. But Poehling should be a 3rd liner of just go to Laval. Playing him on a 4th line would be useless. Keep the Bergevin's special on the 4th line for this incoming season which he will switch at the deadline like he does every seasons.

I saw ur trying to get older with Kessel and Donskoi and still not adress anything in our D squad.

Mete did not prove anything to be a top pair d-man , but right we dont have anything better which is sad. Idk why DeHaan should be on a top4. He could replace Kulak on a third line but still why we have Kulak already , whos 2m for him is overpaid , hes not that good. He played average hockey. Price does make this D squad look good.

Tldr ; If you trade Drouin try to get a good LHD instead and hit a UFA without getting older by trading aspect , and put people in the good chair.
Let's stop falling in love on average players , its literally the dream pipe of Bergevin's lover. We went on a retool for a reason , this team is not ready for long playoffs run.

 

[Le Barron de HF]

Rarely contributes? What are you doing on this forum? Tell me what makes you so useful for everybody in this forum. Oh wait the same thing as me , ur just typing **** like anyone else.

Im glad ur extreme hockey sense detected that Kessel is a better played than Drouin and that Donskoi is better than a 4th liner Armia,.
Here ill tell you why ur line up is average and not better than this season line up.

For the goalies idc about the backup for next season , Lindgren Mzarek Miller or whoever it is , Price will be in every situation. So no problem with Miller for really cheap but id still give a chance to Lindgren.

Yes Kessel is a better scorer than Drouin , but why habs does this? This trade means we are going into a depth playoff push but this team overachieved this season and still missed playoffs.
If im not mistaken , 10 players had career high this season . Price played well since mid December and was godlike , We had bound to no injuries until the very of the season.

Our D-squad sucked hard most of the season and Weber was slowing so hard that made Mete looks good. Yes Mete was better at the end of the season so what , hes scoreless in 120 games.

Yet ur lineup has Byron and Danault on a top 6 which those 2 are bottom 6 players. Lekhonen is a 4th liner maybe weak 3rd liner at this point. Donskoi is not an upgrade from Shaw , which Shaw needs to be on a bottom 6 also. Im glad you did put Armia in his place on a 4th line where he belongs. But Poehling should be a 3rd liner of just go to Laval. Playing him on a 4th line would be useless. Keep the Bergevin's special on the 4th line for this incoming season which he will switch at the deadline like he does every seasons.

I saw ur trying to get older with Kessel and Donskoi and still not adress anything in our D squad.

Mete did not prove anything to be a top pair d-man , but right we dont have anything better which is sad. Idk why DeHaan should be on a top4. He could replace Kulak on a third line but still why we have Kulak already , whos 2m for him is overpaid , hes not that good. He played average hockey. Price does make this D squad look good.

Tldr ; If you trade Drouin try to get a good LHD instead and hit a UFA without getting older by trading aspect , and put people in the good chair.
Let's stop falling in love on average players , its literally the dream pipe of Bergevin's lover. We went on a retool for a reason , this team is not ready for long playoffs run.

Wow, seemed like jab has made you develop some arguments rather than posting LOL. Great!
1) Concerning the defense, De Haan is a proven top four guy so we stop the musical chair of putting journeymen like Benn or Kulak in a spot above their abilities. Weber will have a full off-season to train and recover from his injury. In case of injuries, Montreal has better call-up options than last year (Fleury, Brook). Even if Mete doesn't progress, he was still playing like a top 4 guy this year following his call-up.
2) Kessel is vastly superior to Drouin, that's why the Habs do it. He helps our PP and he fits with our speed. In a world where our best players are 32 and 33 years old, that's why you do a move like this. None of this in between crap that has gotten us nowhere. We need to win now, not 4-5 years from now. When you can acquire a guy like Kessel without giving away Poehling, Kotk or Suzuki, it's a no brainer. I've been saying to trade the Scherbak and Juulsen's of this world for immediate help and it's gotten us nowhere, how about we stop that crap of staying patient, especially when the cost is hardly ground breaking here.
3) Like it or not, Danault is a top 6 center. He finished 31st in ES scoring among centers which is nothing to sneeze at. That bottoms six with an improved Kotkaniemi is better than last year, there's no point arguing that even if you want to get into semantics of how this player and this player are too high in the line-up.
4) How can you not care about the back-up when Niemi costs us so many games... Pretty ridiculous to me.

You said this team would finish bottom 5, own up to it. Don't change your statement because you realize how ridiculous it is. Domi is the only player (beside Shaw who's not in my line-up) who will most likely see a regression and if you put Kessel on his wing, I doubt he sees much of a regression compared to playing with Drouin and Shaw like he did this year.

 

[HabsWhiteKnightLOL]

Wow, seemed like jab has made you develop some arguments rather than posting LOL. Great!
1) Concerning the defense, De Haan is a proven top four guy so we stop the musical chair of putting journeymen like Benn or Kulak in a spot above their abilities. Weber will have a full off-season to train and recover from his injury. In case of injuries, Montreal has better call-up options than last year (Fleury, Brook). Even if Mete doesn't progress, he was still playing like a top 4 guy this year following his call-up.
2) Kessel is vastly superior to Drouin, that's why the Habs do it. He helps our PP and he fits with our speed. In a world where our best players are 32 and 33 years old, that's why you do a move like this. None of this in between crap that has gotten us nowhere. We need to win now, not 4-5 years from now. When you can acquire a guy like Kessel without giving away Poehling, Kotk or Suzuki, it's a no brainer. I've been saying to trade the Scherbak and Juulsen's of this world for immediate help and it's gotten us nowhere, how about we stop that crap of staying patient, especially when the cost is hardly ground breaking here.
3) Like it or not, Danault is a top 6 center. He finished 31st in ES scoring among centers which is nothing to sneeze at. That bottoms six with an improved Kotkaniemi is better than last year, there's no point arguing that even if you want to get into semantics of how this player and this player are too high in the line-up.
4) How can you not care about the back-up when Niemi costs us so many games... Pretty ridiculous to me.

You said this team would finish bottom 5, own up to it. Don't change your statement because you realize how ridiculous it is. Domi is the only player (beside Shaw who's not in my line-up) who will most likely see a regression and if you put Kessel on his wing, I doubt he sees much of a regression compared to playing with Drouin and Shaw like he did this year.

Im not changing anything if no trades for our needs or Big UFA are signing this summer and we roll almost the same team for next season , we are drafting top 5.

 

[26Mats]

Im not changing anything if no trades for our needs or Big UFA are signing this summer and we roll almost the same team for next season , we are drafting top 5.

How are we drafting top 5? Barring injury we should have rhe same team next year, except perhaps Poehling and Suzuki will be ready at some point, Weal and Thompson are better than Chaput and Agostino, and it will be nice to not have Schlemko on the lineup the whole year.

I don't see us being worse. If Poehlong and Suzuki are ready, and Weal gives us all year what he gave us last year, we have 13 top 9 forwards. We'll be able to with stand injuries with that.

 

[Le Barron de HF]

How are we drafting top 5? Barring injury we should have rhe same team next year, except perhaps Poehling and Suzuki will be ready at some point, Weal and Thompson are better than Chaput and Agostino, and it will be nice to not have Schlemko on the lineup the whole year.

I don't see us being worse. If Poehlong and Suzuki are ready, and Weal gives us all year what he gave us last year, we have 13 top 9 forwards. We'll be able to with stand injuries with that.

Get out of here with your logic! Plus in terms of bottom six guys getting hurt, we have Evans, Mac and Vejdemo as options if we don't want to play Suzuki on the 4th line.

 

[Le Barron de HF]

Im not changing anything if no trades for our needs or Big UFA are signing this summer and we roll almost the same team for next season , we are drafting top 5.

Whatever floats your boat then. Domi, Tatar, Danault, Gallagher won't turn into 35 pts forwards from one season to another. Our depth will still be there.

 

[26Mats]

Get out of here with your logic! Plus in terms of bottom six guys getting hurt, we have Evans, Mac and Vejdemo as options if we don't want to play Suzuki on the 4th line.

Huh???

How exactly are we drafting top 5 next year if we don't make any changes???

 

[Le Barron de HF]

Huh???

How exactly are we drafting top 5 next year if we don't make any changes???

I don't think you quoted the right person.

 

[HabsWhiteKnightLOL]

Whatever floats your boat then. Domi, Tatar, Danault, Gallagher won't turn into 35 pts forwards from one season to another. Our depth will still be there.

They wont but maybe none of the players will achieve like they did this season

goes in both way.

 

[Habs Icing]

Trade:

Drouin for Kessel.

I raged against the trade and I dislike Drouin as a hockey player but never, never would I consider making that trade. We get royally reamed. Kessel will be 32 when the season starts. How many more good years do you think he has in him? At most 2 years. Trade Drouin? Of course but for something that will help us.

 

[MSLs absurd thighs]

Obviously, this is all idealistic and maybe not even feasible, but if I were in Bergevin's shoes here's what I would TRY to do in the offseason, based on the latest rumours and whispers about us being willing to take a run at Duchene.

1. Buy out Karl Alzner.
2. Find a team that has a lot of trouble scoring goals and offer them Jonathan Drouin for a top-4 LD. The ideal targets seems to be the Minnesota Wild. I would offer them something based around Jonathan Drouin for Jonas Brodin. Brodin has been linked to the Canadiens before, is signed to a reasonable deal and can play between 19 and 22 minutes per game. His mobility would make him the ideal partner for Shea Weber.
3. Offer Matt Duchene a 6 years, $54,000,000 contract, worth $9,000,000 per season, with a huge signing bonus. Make him the #1 C.
4. Try and re-sign Jordie Benn for 2 to 3 years around 2.5M. If he asks for more, let him walk and find a replacement in free agency.
5. Sign Cam Talbot to a 2 years, show-me contract around 3M per season.

All of these moves are based on a reality where the salary cap is set at 82.5M. The lineup would probably look like this;

Domi - Duchene - Shaw
Tatar - Danault - Gallagher
Lehkonen/Byron - Kotkaniemi - Armia
Lehkonen/Byron - Thompson - Weal/Deslauriers

Brodin - Weber
Mete - Petry
Benn/Kulak - Juulsen/Folin

Price
Talbot
​

The goal is to have a Cup contender for the 2020-2021 season and let Suzuki/Poehling/Brook play in the AHL in the meantime. Our shot at the Cup would be with this lineup;

Domi - Duchene - Suzuki
Tatar - Kotkaniemi - Gallagher
Lehkonen/Byron - Danault/Poehling - Armia
Lehkonen/Byron - Danault/Poehling - UFA FILLER

Brodin - Weber
Mete - Petry
Benn/Kulak - Brook

Price
Talbot

If Kotkaniemi progresses steadily, that Suzuki, Poehling and Brook are legit, and that the rest of the team maintain their pace, it's a lineup that can compete for the Cup IMHO.

Ideally, at the 2021 trade deadline, we would acquire another top-4 LD to really put us over the top.