Your overall appreciation for the team?

[lamp9post]

The Semin and Kassian additions really add some skill and push some guys down in the depth chart. They may both be question marks to a certain degree, but adding them means that we should have an excellent 4th line with guys like Mitchell, DSP, DLR, and Weise that have to fight harder if they want top-9 minutes.

Regardless of how Semin/Kassian perform, Mitchell, DSP, DLR, Weise, Flynn should offer much better options for the 4th line than Malhotra, Prust, Thomas, and Bournival.

 

[Lebowski]

I still wish MB could pull a trade Eller+Emelin for a winger or something like that to give a chance to Tinordi and move Galchenyuk to center and DD to 3rd line with Weise and Kassian. But overall it's more positive than last year.

One of the things I like about the team is the center depth, and to me trading Eller would be a step in the wrong direction. I'm not even advocating he should be given more offensive duties, he simply fits his role on the third line like a glove. I'd hate going from a position of strength with Galchenyuk/Plekanec/Eller to a position of weakness with Galchenyuk/Plekanec/Desharnais. If we want to move Galchenyuk to center, he'll need some people down the line-up to shelter him defensively. Eller can do that. Desharnais cannot.

The beauty (or silver lining) of keeping Desharnais around as a winger on the 3rd line is that if any of our top 3 center goes down, he's someone that can jump in and keep the machine going. If you trade Eller and lose, say, Plekanec to injury, what are you left with? You have to either promote Hudon or mutate DLR to center, and in either case, it's not an ideal situation if the plan if to make some noise in the playoffs. I wouldn't want to go into next season without a safety net. Keeping all three of Plekanec/Eller/Desharnais is just that, a safety net.

To me, that's the best we can make out of our current roster on opening night:

Pacioretty - Galchenyuk - Gallagher
Semin - Plekanec - Kassian
Desharnais - Eller - Weise
De La Rose - Mitchell - Smith-Pelley

Galchenyuk/Plekanec and Gallagher/Kassian are interchangeable and depend on the chemistry that could develop between some of the players, but at the end of the day, I'm one of those that believes Eller isn't and expendable asset at this point in time, and likely not going forward either considering one of DD or Plekanec will probably be let go at the end of their current contracts, if not both, although I do wish we resign Plekanec.

 

[MaKi]

I still wish MB could pull a trade Eller+Emelin for a winger or something like that to give a chance to Tinordi and move Galchenyuk to center and DD to 3rd line with Weise and Kassian. But overall it's more positive than last year.

The way I see it, if DD is playing C at all, it's going to be on the top line. It's not really a good idea to throw him out there for defensive zone draws, so if he's C it only makes sense to give him more offensive zone starts, as we've been doing, to keep him away from defensive situations down low in our own zone. The thing is, you're not going to give him offensive zone starts when he's paired with Weise/Kassian while the first line of Pac/AG/Semin (or whatever it may be) start in the defensive zone, it makes no sense to use your best offensive wingers that way.

For that reason, I think trading away Eller to make room for AG would be a mistake.
I'm wondering what their plans are for Plekanec, because he's a UFA next summer I think. If they don't plan on resigning him it would be smart to get something for him instead of letting him walk for nothing as free agent.
It's possible the management is looking at Galchenyuk/Eller/DLR as the center depth for the foreseeable future.

 

[LaP]

The way I see it, if DD is playing C at all, it's going to be on the top line. It's not really a good idea to throw him out there for defensive zone draws, so if he's C it only makes sense to give him more offensive zone starts, as we've been doing, to keep him away from defensive situations down low in our own zone. The thing is, you're not going to give him offensive zone starts when he's paired with Weise/Kassian while the first line of Pac/AG/Semin (or whatever it may be) start in the defensive zone, it makes no sense to use your best offensive wingers that way.

For that reason, I think trading away Eller to make room for AG would be a mistake.
I'm wondering what their plans are for Plekanec, because he's a UFA next summer I think. If they don't plan on resigning him it would be smart to get something for him instead of letting him walk for nothing as free agent.
It's possible the management is looking at Galchenyuk/Eller/DLR as the center depth for the foreseeable future.

Could be but the return for Plekanec would need to be a very solid top 6 winger. Could be a good idea but i would prefer to keep Plekanec personally. If we can trade DD instead of Eller then that's okay but could be harder to pull.

 

[LaP]

The beauty (or silver lining) of keeping Desharnais around as a winger on the 3rd line is that if any of our top 3 center goes down, he's someone that can jump in and keep the machine going.

I would keep DD on the 3rd line wing too if that would be possible. I think he would be useful in that role. But MT gonna be MT so better be safe than sorry

 

[Hoople]

Regardless of players or coaches, I will always love the Habs.

Go Habs Go!!!!

 

[Capitaine Subban*]

Regardless of players or coaches, I will always love the Habs.

Go Habs Go!!!!

I pretty much feel the same
I even love the late 90s teams

 

[MaKi]

Could be but the return for Plekanec would need to be a very solid top 6 winger. Could be a good idea but i would prefer to keep Plekanec personally. If we can trade DD instead of Eller then that's okay but could be harder to pull.

Yeah, it's hard to guess what they will do without knowing what their plans are for certain players anyway.

Is Galchenyuk going to be a center?
What about McCarron? He played C last year and did very well from what I heard, but that's in Junior.
I think DLR needs to be at center, much like Eller, otherwise it's a waste of some of their best abilities.

If AG/Eller/DLR is what they have in mind for the future, they might not want to re-sign plek for too long. That doesn't mean that Plek won't want a long term contract though, so if that's going to be a major issue which leads him to test the market, we're probably better off getting something for him.

 

[CaptainBenn]

Subban makes me love the team even more, it would be so so boring without him

 

[KingTux]

I like it. The team is still raw, if guys like DSP and Kassian develop well and become some kind of pwf I will love this team

 

[Habs100]

One things for sure, we have a lot of depth on this team. I think guys like Bournival, Dumont, Thomas, and Ghetto can play a regular shift in the NHL and not only not hurt the team, but provide a spark.